Suśobhanā

Suśobhanā is the daughter of Āyus, the Maṇḍūka-rāja (the frog-king). She appears in the Maṇḍūkopākhyāna of the Mahābhārata’s Vana Parva (chapter 192). She was given in marriage to King Parīkshit of Ayodhyā in a gāndharva vivāha (a marriage by mutual consent, without rites). The condition was that Parīkshit must never bring water near her. During a royal water-sport Parīkshit broke this condition, and Suśobhanā went away with her retinue of water beings.

Who she was

Suśobhanā was a woman of great beauty and virtue. Her father Āyus was the Maṇḍūka-rāja, a king in the realm of water beings. The Maṇḍūkopākhyāna tells of him in the account of King Parīkshit of the Ikshvāku family of Ayodhyā. Her name means one who is very beautiful or of auspicious look. She did not belong to a human family, and the terms of her marriage show this.

The marriage to Parīkshit

The Maṇḍūkopākhyāna tells how Parīkshit, king of the Ikshvāku line, took Suśobhanā as his wife. It was a gāndharva vivāha, a union of mutual desire and not of formal rites. The Maṇḍūka-rāja agreed to give his daughter on one condition: Parīkshit must never bring water near her. Water was the element of her own kind, and for her husband it became a forbidden thing.

Parīkshit accepted the condition, and for a time the marriage went well. Suśobhanā bore Parīkshit three sons: Śala, Dala and Bala.

The broken condition and her departure

During royal pastimes, in jala-krīḍā (water-sport), Parīkshit broke the condition. Water was brought near Suśobhanā. The terms of the marriage were broken, and she left the human world. She went back to the realm of her birth with her retinue. The text describes her leaving as sudden and complete, and it records no angry words from her.

Her sons

Śala, Dala and Bala stayed in the human world and carried on the line of Parīkshit. The rest of the Maṇḍūkopākhyāna tells of them.

• Śala, the eldest, took the vāmya horses of Vāmadeva Maharshi by force. He and his retinue were killed by rākshasas while travelling through a forest with the horses.
• Dala kept up a hostile bond with the family of Vāmadeva. This had further results for his own line: his son Śyenajit was killed by an arrow.
• Bala is named as the third son.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, chapter 192 (Maṇḍūkopākhyāna)