And as the young girl was playing near the Yamuna river, her grandmother was heard to be scolding her, 'Be sure to keep your mouth closed, child! You never know what will jump inside and get to your tummy and start growing!"
The little girl groaned, rolled her eyes at the old woman, and continued dragging her stick on the bank of the river while she lifted her skirts with her other hand and carefully moved each ankle through the mud and waters.
Just up ahead was her father, Vyasa, son of her Grandmother, Satyavati. He was perched on a rock a quarter distance between the bank of the river and the center of the river, legs crossed, with his body angled just so, as to conceal the tip of the rock altogether, giving the illusion of hovering above the moving river. The girl grinned, knowing that her father was fond of illusions and creating mystical moments out of nothing. To any passerby, surely it would look like he was levitating, but she knew this trick of her father's and grinned at the secret shared between them.
As she approached her father, he squinted one eye closed tighter so that the other eye might pop open to see her. "Tell me, what does your Grandmother warn you from this time?" he asked his beloved daughter.
"Oh," sighed the girl, "Nothing out of the ordinary, except that today she keeps telling me the River will make something grow in my belly. Is this true, father? I know only girls grow things in their bellies, but did the river ever make you grow anything in your belly?"
"No," laughed Vyasa, "Not in my belly, no, but take heed of your Grandmother's advice, for she knows what she is talking about." The little girl lifted an eyebrow at her father, inviting him to entertain her for a few moments with one of his stories. He was always telling her stories, and she could lose entire afternoons completely immersed in the adventures of his characters.
Just as he was about to begin, a large, blue rainbow fish swam past the ankles of the girl, catching her and her father's eye with its metallic and shiny scales.
"See," said Vyasa, "There are many beautiful things in this river that would love to lead a charming little daughter of mine away from me," he began. "But how can a fish take me away?" Asked the little girl, satisfying her father by asking the leading question he was looking for.
"Because the fish's blood is in your blood, sweet girl! It is your ancestry! Has your Grandmother never told you that she was born out of the belly of a fish? It is true, and a twin was found in the belly of her mother with her!" The little girl squinted at her father, not sure if this was a true story, or another one that he was making up.
"Now, how does a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, no less, get inside the belly of a fish?" he asked. This time, the little girl remained silent, waiting for the answer. "According to your Grandmother, a seed was spilled over the River, and the girl fish was playing in the water one bright afternoon, when just as she was splashing about, laughing happily, in plopped a seed, which went straight to her tummy and began to grow!" exclaimed Vyasa.
"Remember how your Grandmother is always warning you to never eat the seed of a watermelon, for fear that you'll grow a watermelon in your belly? That is exactly what happened to her mother! And out popped your grandmother, Satyavati, and her brother. Well, the seed of a different sort, but the point remains the same," he admitted.
"Now, my little daughter, do you want to carry around a big, giant belly the size of a watermelon? Or, as big as two happy babies? You know how the bellies of the wives swell just before they add a child to their family."
The little girl squinted at her father. It was true, she had seen only a few women with swollen bellies just before they acquired a son or a daughter for their family. She'd never seen how big a belly got when it carried two babies, though, and that thought scared her. And a watermelon! How big they are! How would one ever fit inside of her belly? And how would it get out?! No, she thought, she didn't want to carry around a big belly, and then have a watermelon come out, although it would be tasty. She certainly didn't want two babies coming out, for although sometimes they were cute and fun to play with, mostly they just cried and slept a lot. All the babies she'd ever gotten to play with wouldn't leave their mothers, and she didn't want to have to worry about what to do with babies when she was trying to go out playing in the River.
She clamped her jaw shut while she contemplated if her father was telling the truth, this time, or not.
He cocked his head and simply watched her.
She gave a quick, small, nervous grin, to convince her father that she knew he was just spinning stories again. But as she walked on in the Yamuna River's waters, from that day forward, she made sure to keep her mouth tightly clamped shut.
~~
Author's Note: I took a small character from the Mahabharata, Satyavati, and retold her birth story. She was in fact born from the belly of a fish when a king dropped his semen into the river below (there are differing accounts as to whether he was flying above or he sent an eagle with his semen meant for his wife who was flying above the river and dropped it). It fell into the mouth of a fish, and she bore twins, a boy and a girl, the girl being Satyavati. I wanted to use it in combination with our own western stories of warning to children, that one should not swallow seeds, for fear that they will grow that fruit in their belly. Vyasa, mentioned in my story, is in fact the son of Satyavati, and he is the iconic storyteller of the Mahabharata, so has a very important, real-life role as an epic storyteller that I also wanted to include as factual in my version as well.
- I took inspiration for this story from Page 6 of R.K. Narayan's Mahabharata (2013 edition), and filled in the missing details using Satyavati's Wikipedia Page.
Below is a little more backstory on Satyavati, which sets up the characters for the Mahabharata.
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Santanu woos Satyavati by the River
painting by Raja Ravi Varma |
Satyavati was the second wife of King Santanu, who together had two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. Chitrangada dies, and Vichitravirya is to be King, but he is too young to take the throne just yet. King Santanu's son from his first wife, Bhishma, acts as Regent to his little brother, Vichitravirya, and he finds three wives for his brother. Vichitravirya dies, leaving no heirs to the throne, and Satyavati begs Bhishma to continue the lineage by having children with his brother's wives. Bhishma has vowed to a life of celibacy, and so cannot, so Satyavati proposes another option: that her unknown-until-now first born son, of questionable origins, Vyasa, take the act upon himself to continue the lineage. He does, begetting sons, of whose sons will then war against each other, setting up the character premise of disputing cousins in the Mahabharata.
