Acchodā and Satyavatī

This episode is told in the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 10 and 11. Acchodā was an apsarā (celestial dancer) born from the holy lake Acchodā. She was a daughter of the Barhishad pitṛs (the ancestors). One day she fell in love with the ṛshi Amāvasu and lost her place among the apsarās. She was born in the human world as Satyavatī, who became the wife of the ṛshi Ṛcīka and the grandmother of Bhagavān Paraśurāma.

The lake Acchodā and the Barhishad pitṛs

The lake Acchodā (also written Acchoda) is a holy lake linked with the world of the Barhishad pitṛs. The pitṛs are grouped in gaṇas (hosts). The Barhishads live on a plane above the ordinary pitṛ-lokas, and they keep the living in good health by their blessings. They are named after the barhis (sacred grass) that they bear. They are among the most honoured of the seven pitṛ-gaṇas, and they are honoured in the Śrāddha (the rite for the ancestors) with special respect.

The apsarā Acchodā was born from this holy lake. She lived close to the Barhishad pitṛs and shared their celestial life, as their celestial daughter.

Acchodā’s fall

Acchodā lived in her fair celestial form among the Barhishad pitṛs. One day she met the ṛshi Amāvasu, a ṛshi of great beauty, tapas (austerity) and refinement. In a moment of strong distraction of the mind she fell in love with him. Celestial beings must keep their minds fixed, and this was a rare slip.

The apsarās of the pitṛ world are bound to a service that is free of attachment. Her love went against this rule of her place. The pitṛs knew of her fall and spoke the result: she would go down to the human world and be born as a woman.

Birth as Satyavatī

Acchodā came down and was born in the human world as Satyavatī. She was the daughter of a fisherman-king (dāśarāja) on the banks of the Yamunā. She grew up as a fisherman’s daughter and ferried people across the river. She had the natural smell of fish about her, a strange mark of her strange birth.

The Mahābhārata tells of a Satyavatī who is the mother of Vyāsa, through the ṛshi Parāśara, and later the queen of Śantanu. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa speaks of an earlier Satyavatī, the daughter of this fisherman, who became the wife of the ṛshi Ṛcīka of the Bhṛgu line.

Satyavatī as the wife of Ṛcīka

This earlier Satyavatī, who had been the apsarā Acchodā, married the ṛshi Ṛcīka. He was the son of Aurva and a great descendant of Bhṛgu. From their union came the famous ṛshi Jamadagni, who became the father of Bhagavān Paraśurāma.

So one of the best-known avatāras of Bhagavān Vishṇu traces part of his line back to a celestial being of the pitṛ world. The chain was this: an apsarā’s moment of love, her coming down to the human world, and her marriage into the Bhṛgu line.

Pīvarī

Chapter 11 of the Madhyama Bhāga brings in Pīvarī, another important figure in the pitṛ accounts. She is linked with the pitṛ lines taught in the Pitṛkalpa section. The Madhyama Bhāga often joins the pitṛ world, the ṛshi lines and the human world in this way, and the account of Pīvarī is one more example.

Sources

• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 10 and 11