Week 7 Story: The Love Story of King Shantanu and Satyavati

The beauteous Satyavati rowing the ferryboat. Source: Wikipedia.

Note: The current version can be found on my portfolio here.

There was a mighty powerful king named Uparichara, who ruled over the Chedi Kingdom. During a time Uparichara was away from his beloved wife, Girka, he had lascivious dreams about her, resulting in a nocturnal emission. Using the luxurious flying car, gifted to him from Indra, Uparichara wished to send his semen to Girka. However, en route, heavy gusts of wind flipped the crystal car in all directions. At one point, the car was upside-down, causing a drop of semen to fall into the Yamuna river. 

A female fish swallowed Uparichari’s semen. Ten months later, this fish gave birth to a beautiful girl with a glowing, golden complexion and large, luminous eyes. The Yamuna river fisherman named her Satyavati, after the fishy smell dispersing from her body. As Satyavati grew up, she became increasingly self-conscious about this permanent body odor because men who seemed enticed by her exquisiteness always refused to marry her.

One day, Satyavati came across a small, yet delightful, garden of champa flowers. She used petals from these flowers hoping to mask her body from the fishy smell. On this same day, the lonely King Shantanu strolled along the riverbanks when the sweet, perfumed aroma filled the air. He followed this until he met the beauteous Satyavati. He gazed at her with incredible infatuation as he realized she was the source of the delightful scent. Satyavati responded with much amusement when he approached her in a charming manner.

The day quickly passed as they rowed across the Yamuna river in a ferryboat. King Shantanu and Satyavati were smitten after spending a mere day together. He passionately asked for Satyavati’s hand in marriage, to which Satyavati accepted, gleaming with excitement. However, Satyavati knew she had to be honest about her fishy smell. How could she hide an aspect so permanent from him?

Satyavati suddenly jumped into the river, washing away the flower essence. She revealed her biggest insecurity to King Shantanu, who responded with disgust, scolding her horribly. He demanded their love was invalid and left at once.

Many days passed and during those days, despite his efforts to forget Satyavati, King Shantanu was unsuccessful. Overwhelmed with regret and shame, he realized Satyavati’s fishy smell should not matter because she was everything he ever dreamed of. If anything, the distinctive smell would remind him of the Yamuna river, where the two of them fell madly in love with each other. 

King Shantanu returned to the Yamuna river, where a wedding ceremony was held for him and his beloved bride. The two lived happily ever after and welcomed their son, Vyasa.

Author’s Note
Vyasa and Ganesha
Source #1: Vyasa and Ganesha: The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie. Source #2: King Shantanu and Satyavati from Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie.

The plot of my story is similar to the original but with a few twists. First, I thought the original story about King Uparichara’s semen falling into the river was a little random and lacking details. I retold how this part went about based on Satyavati’s birth from a book I found: Mahabharata Retold by Himanshu Agarwal. Next, I imagined how Satyavati's fish smell would have affected her life had she not met the rishi, Parashara. Because I did not include him in my retelling of the story, I made King Shantanu the father of Vyasa. I wanted to incorporate Satyavati's fishy smell in the love story because in the real world these days, people can be superficial about the little details that should not matter.