Mahabharata – 78

by 

Sankar Mukherjee

&

Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                                            AadivamsavataranaParva

A lovely river which was loved by everybody known as Suktimati used to flow by the capital of the Chedi kingdom  ruled by Uparichara.The mountain Kolahala or Noise  stood on the way of Suktimati.The mountain had a lust for physically enjoying the river Sukti.When king Uparichara learnt it, he became terribly angry.He kicked the mountain. And lo!  a narrow passage was forged through the mountain at the point where the king’s foot had hurt the mountain. But the mountain procreated two children with the help of the river.The river was very grateful to the king because he had set the river free from the clutches of the mountain. So the river gifted the  two children born to her by the mountain to the king.They were a boy &  a girl.The boy became the chief of the army of the king.The king married the daughter of the river.Her name was Girika. Girika became ripe for getting a child.The dead fathers of the king showed up.They asked the king to kill a deer. The flesh of the deer should be given as oblation to the fathers. Consequently the king set out for hunting.His head was full of the lust for Girika his wife. While ahunting the king reached  an exceedingly beautiful garden that likened the elfin forest ruled & maintained by Kubera the god of wealth.Trees like Ashoka,Champaka,Mango, Sandalwood,karnikara,Bakula,Coconut,Arjuna,Parula & Jack fruit tree abounded in the forest.Smell of the sweet fruits & the fragrance of variegated flowers drowned the forest scape.It was loud with the songs of the birds & hum of the bees.Needless to say, it was spring time.The king’s desire for Girika, his wife, reached its climax.The king sat in the shade of an  Ashoka tree with dense foliage & branches  gay with flowers.His head was full of Girika & the seed or the desire for Girika was presently released from his body. The king thought that the seed of his desire for Girika should not to be wasted. He saved it in a cup made of leaves.There was a hawk nearby. The king went to the hawk & said “Oh amiable one! Please carry the seed to my wife Girika.She craves for it.”The hawk, swift of speed, took the cup  made of leaf & rapidly travelled through the air.Another hawk saw the cup in the beak of the first hawk.The other hawk thought that the first hawk was carrying meat in his beak. So the other hawk fell upon the first hawk to get possession of the cup made of leaf. In course of the fight between the two hawks in the air the cup made of leaf fell into the river Jamuna. And a fish swallowed it. When fishermen caught the fish with their net Lo! A boy & a girl leaped forth from the stomach of the fish. The fishermen were astonished. They at once took the human babies born in the stomach of the fish to the king Uparichara.It was the king Uparichara who adopted the children.The boy later became a religious & truthful king named Matsya or Fish in times to come.

The fish who was instrumental in bringing forth two human babies to be born was actually a celestial woman. A Brahmin cursed her. She became the fish of our story. When two babies were retrieved from the body of the fish, the fish was liberated from the spell of the curse of the Brahmin. She resurrected as the celestial woman that she was earlier.