Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part D

In this reading, Krishna sends Arjuna to go fight and slay Bhishma, however, he refuses because he does not want to fight that who he loved as a child. Arjuna is convinced to fight Bhishma anyways and they have an intense battle. Bhishma overpowers Arjuna and is about to kill him when he is unable to for he cannot kill someone who was born a woman. There was much sorrow for the death of Bhishma and Arjuna wept. While Bhishma spoke from the dead in an attempt to rekindle broken relationships, the result of this battle just led to more hatred.

Arjuna v Bhishma

Source: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part C

In this reading the Pandavas are living in the woods and have many season of tithing and violent storms. They are visited by Krishna who tells them that as they express their sorrows things will begin to get better; however, they remain angry with the Duryodhana. Arjuna goes on a journey to the Himalayas alone to fast and pray. While on this journey he is visited by god in a vision. He is given celestial weapons.

Arjuna and His Bow

Source: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie 

Week 6 Story: Mahabharata

There was once a god who’s favorite pastime was to watch over the human mortals who lived their simple lives down below. He would often play games with the mortals without them knowing and use his powers to influence events down below simply for his own entertainment. Today he was watching over a fisherman and quickly became bored with the simple and slow day of the simple fisherman. The god decided to spice things up in this fisherman’s life and sent down his spawn into a fish below. The fish produced 2 human children much to the fisherman’s surprise. The fisherman scooped up the children in his net finding one boy and one girl. He carefully dried them off before placing them in a basket with some towels to keep them warm. He quickly went to the king of his land and told him what he had seen and then presented the children to him. Amazed with the tale, the king and his advisors were enamored with the children and knew that they were a gift from a god up above. The king took the boy as his own; however, he gifted the fisherman with the girl as gratitude for bringing such amazing spectacles to him. 

The fisherman had no wife and no other family. He now had his only daughter, the girl born from the fish and he named her Satyavati. She quickly became the most important thing in his life and as she grew she became one of the most beautiful women of the land. This should have brought her many suitors but there was a problem. Satyavati was born with a fishy smell that repelled almost everyone except for her father the fisherman who loved her dearly and had become used to the smell of fish due to his profession. This caused Satyavati to live a lonely life as she almost always stayed at home and helped her father with the fishing. 

                  One day while she was traveling the river, Satyavati saw a being on the side of the river and she was compelled to bring the boat up to the bank and speak to him. This being was the rishi Parashara. The rishi was amazed with the girls beauty and was immediately attracted to her. He asked the girl to join him in embrace but the girl quickly declined as she believed him to be a random being on the side of the river. Satyavati was about to get back into her boat and leave when the rishi offered her a deal. If she embraced him, she would still keep her innocence and remain a virgin and she would also lose her fishy smell. Satyavati believed that this would change her life at no cost to her so she quickly accepted. After this event, Satyavati no longer had the fishy smell. She instead gave off the most amazing fragrance in the land and could be smelled for 7 miles. A child was also born on this island after their embrace. Because he was born on an island he was called Dwaipayana or island-born.

Shantanu and Satyavati

Authors Note: This story was inspired by the tale of how Vyasa was born from the Mahabharata. Vyasa was the author of the Mahabharata and was born from the woman who was born from a fish. I was intrigued by this story due to its very unique births and characters. The fishy smelling woman was slightly funny to me and the god from above who caused these two children to be born from the fish was interesting. The original story that I read was very short so for my story I decided to expand on it and add much more detail and events to give the reader a way to go more in depth with this story. I enjoyed giving the girl more difficulties with the fish smell and adding more about the fisherman allowing him to be a loving and dedicated father. In the original story the fisherman had a wife but I wanted to make him more of a lone wolf so that this gift of a daughter would have even more of an impact on his previously simple and lonely life. I also liked giving the god more of a purposeful impact in this story instead of accidental insemination from the original.