Satyavatī

Satyavatī belongs to the Kuru line. She was the daughter of Daśarāja, the ferryman-king of the Yamunā. She is also called Matsyagandhā (she of fish-scent) and later Yojanagandha (she of fragrance that reaches a yojana, a long measure of distance). She was the mother of Veda Vyāsa. She became the wife of King Śantanu and the queen of Hastināpura, and so she is the ancestress of both the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas.

She is a different person from Satyavatī, the daughter of Gādhi. That Satyavatī was the wife of the ṛshi Ṛcīka and the mother of Jamadagni, in the Ṛcīka-caruvyatyāsa account of the Anuśāsana Parva. She has no link with the Satyavatī of the Kuru line.

Birth and the curse of Adrikā

Her birth begins with the apsaras Adrikā. Adrikā had received a śāpa (a curse) that turned her into a fish. She lived in the waters of the Yamunā. The gandharva king Uparicara Vasu discharged his seed onto a leaf, to send it to his queen. The leaf fell into the river, and the fish Adrikā swallowed the seed.

The fisherman Daśarāja later caught the fish. Twin children came out of it, a boy and a girl. The boy was given to King Uparicara Vasu and later became a ṛshi. Daśarāja kept the girl, Matsyagandhā, who is Satyavatī. He raised her as his own daughter among the fishing people (daśa). Because she came from a fish, her body at first carried the smell of fish.

The Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells this in Skanda 2, Chapter 1.

Union with Parāśara

Young Satyavatī ferried passengers across the Yamunā. One day the great ṛshi Parāśara met her. He was drawn by her beauty and goodness. By his yogic sight he knew that she was meant to bear a great son, and he made her a proposal.

Satyavatī hesitated. She feared for her good name. The kind ṛshi gave her two varas (boons):

1. Her virginity would be restored after their union.
2. The smell of fish on her body would change into a divine fragrance, yojanagandha, that would spread for a full yojana. This gave her the new name Yojanagandha.

Parāśara made a fog over the Yamunā to hide them. Their union took place on a dvīpa (an island) in the river. Veda Vyāsa, also called Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana, was born at once. He came out as a young man and not as a baby, and he had knowledge from the first moment.

The Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells this in Skanda 2, Chapters 1–2.

Marriage to Śantanu

King Śantanu came to the banks of the Yamunā. The divine fragrance overwhelmed him. He followed it to the beautiful Satyavatī and fell deeply in love with her. He went to Daśarāja and asked for her hand.

Daśarāja agreed on one condition. Any son born to Satyavatī must inherit the throne of Hastināpura, and not Devavrata (Bhīshma), who was already the heir. Śantanu could not give this promise without Devavrata’s consent. He went home in sorrow.

Devavrata learned that his father was grieving. He went to Daśarāja himself and took a terrible oath. He would never seek the kingdom, and he would stay celibate all his life. This oath gave him the name Bhīshma (he of the terrible vow). Satyavatī was then given in marriage to Śantanu.

The Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells this in Skanda 2, Chapter 3.

Her sons and the Kuru succession

Satyavatī bore Śantanu two sons, Citrāṅgada and Vicitravīrya. The elder son, Citrāṅgada, was killed in a battle that lasted three years. His enemy was the gandharva who had the same name. The younger son, Vicitravīrya, died without children from rājayakshma (tuberculosis). He had been married for nine years to Ambikā and Ambālikā.

The Kuru line was now in danger of ending. Satyavatī turned to Bhīshma, but he refused to break his vow. Then she remembered her son Veda Vyāsa. He appeared before her the very moment she thought of him.

By niyoga (a union within dharma, made to continue a family line), Vyāsa fathered three sons:

• Dhṛtarāshṭra, from Ambikā. She closed her eyes, and so the child was born blind.
• Pāṇḍu, from Ambālikā. She turned pale, and so the child had a pale colour.
• Vidura, from a maidservant.

The Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells this in Skanda 1, Chapters 19–20.

Her place in the Devī Bhāgavata

In the Devī Bhāgavata, Satyavatī links the great account of the universe with the history of the Kuru line. Vyāsa visits her after Śuka has gone to the higher worlds. There he learns that Śantanu has died, and that Citrāṅgada and Vicitravīrya have died too.

The niyoga that gave Dhṛtarāshṭra, Pāṇḍu and Vidura is told in Skanda 1 as part of Vyāsa’s own family history. This fits the frame of the whole Purāṇa, in which Janamejaya asks questions and Vyāsa answers.

Her character

Satyavatī was born poor, the daughter of a fisherman. She rose to be the queen of Hastināpura and the ancestress of the greatest warriors of the Mahābhārata age. The Purāṇa says she cared deeply for her daughters-in-law and grieved when the line was in danger. The Purāṇa presents her plan to continue the line through Vyāsa’s niyoga as a proper dharmic course in a time of need.

The niyoga in the Ādi Parva

The Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, tells the niyoga as follows. Vicitravīrya died without a son. Satyavatī faced the end of the line that she had secured through Bhīshma’s vow. She went to Bhīshma and begged him to father sons on the widows for the sake of the family. He refused, because his vow of brahmacarya (celibacy) was absolute. He gave examples of niyoga from the past. He said that a qualified ṛshi of the family could do what he himself could not.

Then Satyavatī told a secret she had kept through all her marriage to Śantanu. Before the marriage she had borne a son to the ṛshi Parāśara. He was born on an island in the Yamunā and was dark in colour. He grew to full age at once and left to begin his tapas (austerity). He promised to return whenever she called him. That son was Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana, Vyāsa.

She called Vyāsa. He came and agreed to the niyoga on one condition: the women must be made ready to receive him. The sons who were born, Dhṛtarāshṭra, Pāṇḍu and Vidura, shaped the whole Mahābhārata.

Sources

• Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 2, Chapters 1–5
• Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 1, Chapters 17–20
• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva, Chapters 99–108