Even great people commit heinous mistakes. So did Bhishma. And the result was Shikandi.
In his previous birth, Shikandi was the eldest of the three daughters of King of Kashi. In that birth his name was Amba. How Amba became Shikandi is a sad story which we will discuss now.
The King of Kashi had three daughters – Amba, Ambika and Ambalika. All were of marriageable age and so the King had arranged a Swayamvara for them.
Swayamvara was a custom in royal families in ancient India where a girl would choose her would be husband from among the princes gathered for that purpose.
Sometimes, the princes would be subjected to some test or made to fight among themselves to facilitate the decision of the princess. In any case, the princess was free to choose whoever she liked, without any compulsion from anyone. That is why it was called ‘Swayam Vara’ – self choice husband.
But when Bhishma reached his palace and asked the three princesses to marry his step brother, the first of the three princesses, namely Amba, expressed her inability to comply with his request since she was already in love with someone else.
Amba was in love with the prince of Salva Kingdom. Since that prince was also invited to the Swayamvara, Amba was hoping to choose him. But Bhishma’s act had completely toppled her plans.
Bhishma was a just man. So, he agreed to let her free and he sent her to Salva to be married to the Salva prince. But the Salva prince refused to accept her since he had lost her to Bhishma in the fight, and also that Amba had gone with Bhishma without protest.
Now, Amba was in real trouble. On one hand, she could not forget her lover, on the other hand she was not prepared to return to her parents.
When she came back to Bhishma, even he rejected her since he now did not feel her suitable for his brother since she had someone else in her heart.
Greatly humiliated and frustrated, Amba left, threatening Bhishma of revenge. Bhishma sent spies after her, to keep an eye on her future course of action.
Amba went to every king seeking justice. But no one dared to confront Bhishma. She went to great sages asking for their help. But none could help her.
But Amba did not give up.
Amba was hell bent on revenge. So, she ended her life by jumping into fire to facilitate her rebirth.
In the next birth, Amba was born in the house of King Drupada. Drupada was the King of Panchal, who did not have issues till that time, and was craving for an heir to his throne.
Amba was reborn as Drupada’s daughter Shikandini. Since a female child cannot be heir to the throne, Shikandini’s mother kept her gender secret, even from her own husband, and raised the child as a boy renaming her as Shikandi – the one with long plaited hair!
Drupada was initially totally unaware of this sad side of Shikandi. He brought her up as a boy, taught him all the warfare techniques and made him ready truly as a warrior who would succeed him.
Since Shikandi had memories of her past birth as Amba and about her oath to take revenge on Bhishma, she was very much happy to be a male warrior, fully prepared to take on Bhishma.
But unfortunately, not everything went as expected by Shikandi. When Shikandi reached marriageable age, Drupada married her to a princess from a well-known royal family, hoping that somehow things would become alright.
But no. The newly married princess found that her husband was not really man, and so she went back to her father complaining to him about how she was deceived by Drupada. Obviously, her father was furious and prepared to launch an attack on Drupada.
Shikandi did not want her parents to suffer because of her. So, she quietly left the palace and started roaming around in dense forest and she even tried to commit suicide.
A kind Yaksha who took pity on Shikandi promised to help her. This Yaksha who was a demigod, apparently exchanged his gender with that of Shikandi. And so, finally, Shikandini truly became Shikandi – a fully male warrior.
Shikandi returned to his parents. Now that he was really a man, his parents had no problem. Even Shikandi was all the more happy since he was now fully equipped to take on Bhishma.
Bhishma was aware of whatever happened to Amba and how she got converted to Shikandi and how she was waiting for her revenge. But Bhishma was not prepared to accept Shikandi as a male. He still considered him as Shikandini – a female daughter born to Drupada, a vengeful Amba reborn in her new Avatar!
Whether Bhishma feared that Shikandi would kill him, as she was promised by the God in her previous birth, is not clear. But he tried to avoid her, giving the reason that he would never confront women – the weaker sex.
Did Amba or Shikandi succeed in taking the revenge? Let us see that in the next episode.
That was Mahabharata episode 08
Based on the 5000 year old Indian Epic namely Mahabharata. © Dr.King 2019.
Have begun to feel that the kauravas were also wronged because the kingdom was rightfully theirs.why are they always made to look bad?
ReplyDeleteI am happy that I have succeeded in making people question things.
DeleteFor the answer to your question, wait till the end of the series when I break from my role as author and talk as a listener ;-)
Shikhandi s is indeed a very sad and unfair story.everybody seems to be a victim of their bad times!
ReplyDelete