His Mother's Call

Satyavatī later married Śantanu, king of the Kurus, and had two sons by him. Both died young; the younger, Vicitravīrya, left two widows, Ambikā and Ambālikā, and no son. Śantanu's eldest son Bhīṣma had vowed never to marry or to rule, and the line of Bharata, the ancient king from whom the Kurus came, was about to end. Bhīṣma told Satyavatī that a virtuous brahmin might be invited to give children to Vicitravīrya's wives.

Then Satyavatī, hesitating, smiling a little in her shyness, told Bhīṣma about her first son. He is truthful, she said, given to peace and austerity, his sins burned away. He told me, Think of me when there is something to be done. I will think of him now, if you wish it. Bhīṣma folded his hands and agreed.

So Satyavatī thought of Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana, and he knew his mother's thought, and in a moment he appeared before her, reciting the Vedas. She embraced him and bathed him in the milk of her breasts and wept to see her son after so long. He sprinkled water on his grieving mother, bowed to her, and said, I have come to do what you wish. Tell me what I can do for you.

She asked him to give sons to his brother's widows, for the sake of his brother and of the family, and out of compassion for all beings. He said, You know dharma, mother. At your bidding I will do as you wish. I will give my brother sons like the gods Mitra and Varuṇa. But the two queens must keep a vow for a year, and then they will be pure. No woman who has not kept a vow may come to me. Satyavatī said, Let the queen conceive at once. A kingdom without a king has no rain and no gods. Bhīṣma will bring the child up. Vyāsa said, If I must give a son at once, out of season, then let her bear my ugliness; that will be her vow. If she can bear my smell, my form, my dress and my body, she will conceive a fine child today. And he vanished.

That night, when the lamps were burning, the sage came to Ambikā. She saw the dark sage, his tawny matted hair, his blazing eyes and his brown beard, and she shut her eyes. When he came out, his mother asked him, Will she have a good son? He will be as strong as ten thousand elephants, Vyāsa said, a learned and great royal sage, and he will have a hundred sons. But because of his mother's fault he will be blind. Satyavatī said, A blind man is no fit king for the Kurus. Give the family a second king. So he came to Ambālikā, and she turned pale with fear at the sight of him. Since you turned pale, pāṇḍu, at the sight of my ugliness, he said, your son will be pale, and his name will be Pāṇḍu. Ambikā bore the blind Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and Ambālikā bore Pāṇḍu, the father of the five Pāṇḍavas.

Satyavatī asked for one son more. But when Ambikā's season came again, she remembered the sage's form and smell and was afraid, and she dressed one of her serving women in her own ornaments and sent her instead. The woman rose to meet the sage, bowed to him, and served him with honour, and he was pleased with her. In the morning he told her, You will no longer be a servant. The child in your womb will be a great soul, devoted to dharma, the wisest of the wise. He was Vidura. Then Vyāsa told his mother what had happened, and vanished.