Bhaṅgāsvana Upākhyāna

In the Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata, Yudhishṭhira asks Bhīshma a plain question: when a man and a woman come together, which of them feels the greater delight? Bhīshma answers with an old itihāsa (account of past events) about Indra and a king named Bhaṅgāsvana. The king is turned into a woman and lives out a whole life as one. This account follows the Śrī-Rukmiṇī Saṃvāda, which touches the same subject.

The question (Chapter 12)

In the chapter before this one, Śrī said that growth of kāma-sukha (the joy of love) also lives with those in whom Lakshmī lives. Yudhishṭhira now asks Bhīshma directly. In the union (saṃyoga) of man and woman, to whom does the greater vishaya-sukha (delight of the senses) belong? He asks Bhīshma to state the truth of the matter.

Bhīshma’s answer: the itihāsa of Bhaṅgāsvana

Bhīshma tells of the old enmity (vaira) between Indra and King Bhaṅgāsvana. Bhaṅgāsvana was a rājarshi (royal seer) and followed dharma fully, but he had no sons. He did the Agnishṭoma yajña (fire ritual) to gain sons. In this rite the offerings praise Agni alone as the giver of sons, so Indra had no share. The king had done no wrong, but the omission left a lasting anger in Indra. From then on Indra watched for any fault in the king that he could use against him. However hard he looked, he found none.

Long afterward Bhaṅgāsvana went hunting. Indra clouded his mind with māyā and made him wander lost. At last, worn out with thirst, the king bathed in an enchanted lake. He came out of it as a woman.

The king did not give way to shame. She accepted her new form. She placed her hundred sons, born of the Agnishṭoma while she was a man, on the throne as rulers. She went to an āśrama in the forest and took a tapasvin (one who does tapas) as her husband. There she bore a second hundred sons. Then she brought the two groups of sons together under one roof. She urged them to look on each other with true brotherly love (bhrātṛ-bhāva) and to enjoy the kingdom together. (Chapter 12)

Indra’s second act of anger

Indra saw that the change had done no real harm. The king now had twice the number of sons, and the kingdom did well under two united groups of brothers. Indra was troubled that his revenge had in effect become a kindness.

He took the form of a brāhmaṇa and went among the two sets of sons to sow discord. He said that even sons of one father seldom love each other deeply. As proof he said that the devas and the Dānavas (asuras) are both born of Kaśyapa Prajāpati, yet they have fought forever over rule. He told the brothers sharply that the kingdom was their father’s inheritance, yet it was being enjoyed by “the tapasvin’s sons”. These words drove the two hundred brothers into a war against each other, and every one of them died. (Chapter 12)

The mother’s choice

The grieving mother, wife of the tapasvin, heard of the killing and wept bitterly. Indra, still in his brāhmaṇa form, questioned her. Then he showed who he was and said he was the cause of the whole chain of events: his old vaira over the Agnishṭoma had at last been paid back.

Bhaṅgāsvana fell at Indra’s feet and begged him. She explained that the yajña had been done only from a wish for sons, with no intent to slight him. Indra was pleased and offered a vara (a boon). Should the sons she bore as a man be brought back to life, or the sons she bore as a woman?

She chose, without a pause, the sons of her womanhood. She said that a mother’s love (prīti) for her children is always greater than a father’s. Indra found this true. As his reward he brought back all two hundred sons together. (Chapter 12)

The last question

Indra then offered Bhaṅgāsvana the choice to become a man again or to stay a woman. She chose to stay a woman. Indra asked why she would give up manhood (purushatva). She answered that in the union of man and woman the woman feels the greater delight. She herself had known far greater rati-sukha (the pleasure of union) as a woman than she ever had as a man.

Indra was satisfied with her honest answer. He let her stay as she wished and went back to svarga.

Bhīshma ends the itihāsa with its settled conclusion: in the union of man and woman, rati-sukha belongs in greater measure to the woman. (Chapter 12)

What Bhīshma teaches

Bhīshma states two teachings in this itihāsa as established truths (Chapter 12):

1. The rati-sukha of women is greater than that of men. This answers Yudhishṭhira’s question and continues the line begun in the Śrī-Rukmiṇī Saṃvāda about kāma-sukha and Lakshmī.
2. A mother’s love for her children is greater than a father’s. Bhaṅgāsvana showed this by choosing, as a woman, the sons born in her womanhood over the sons of her time as a man.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 12 (the Bhaṅgāsvana Upākhyāna)
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 11 (the Śrī-Rukmiṇī Saṃvāda, which comes just before it)