page_title: Satyavati
hierarchical_section_title: Satyavati
caption_attribution_description: English: King Shantanu falling in love with Matsyagandhi (Satyavati) മലയാളം: ശന്തനു മത്സ്യഗന്ധിയും
context_page_description: Satyavati was the queen of the Kuru king, Shantanu of Hastinapur and the great-grandmother of the Pandava and Kaurava princes. She is also the mother of the seer Vyasa, author of the epic. Her story appears in the Mahabharata, the Harivamsa and the Devi Bhagavata Purana.
  Daughter of the Chedi king, Vasu and a cursed apsara who was turned into a fish called Adrika, Satyavati was brought up as a commoner. She is the adopted daughter of a tribal chieftain, Dashraj on the banks of the river Yamuna. Due to the smell emanating from her body, she was known as Matsyagandha, and helped her father in his job as a ferryman.
  As a young woman, Satyavati met the wandering rishi Parashara, who fathered her son Vyasa out of wedlock. The sage also gave her a musky fragrance, which earned her names like Yojanagandha and Gandhavati.
  Later King Shantanu, captivated by her fragrance and beauty, fell in love with Satyavati. Satyavati's father Dasharaj agreed to marry off his daughter with Shantanu only if her children become successors of Shantanu, denying the birthright of Shantanu's eldest son Bhishma. Satyavati bore Shantanu two children, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya.
context_section_description: Satyavati   (Sanskrit: सत्यवती, IAST: Satyavatī; also spelled Satyawati) was the queen of the Kuru king, Shantanu of Hastinapur and the great-grandmother of the Pandava and Kaurava princes (principal characters of the Hindu epic Mahabharata). She is also the mother of the seer Vyasa, author of the epic. Her story appears in the Mahabharata, the Harivamsa and the Devi Bhagavata Purana.
  Daughter of the Chedi king, Vasu (also known as Uparichara Vasu) and a cursed apsara (celestial nymph) who was turned into a fish called Adrika, Satyavati was brought up as a commoner. She is the adopted daughter of a tribal chieftain, Dashraj (also a ferryman) on the banks of the river Yamuna. Due to the smell emanating from her body, she was known as Matsyagandha ("She who smells like fish"), and helped her father in his job as a ferryman.
  As a young woman, Satyavati met the wandering rishi (sage) Parashara, who fathered her son Vyasa out of wedlock. The sage also gave her a musky fragrance, which earned her names like Yojanagandha ("She whose fragrance is spread as far as a yojana") and Gandhavati ("fragrant one").
  Later King Shantanu, captivated by her fragrance and beauty, fell in love with Satyavati. Satyavati's father Dasharaj agreed to marry off his daughter with Shantanu only if her children become successors of Shantanu, denying the birthright of Shantanu's eldest son (and crown prince) Bhishma. Satyavati bore Shantanu two children, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. After Shantanu's death, she and her prince sons with the help of Bhishma ruled the kingdom. Although both her sons died childless, she arranged for her first son, Vyasa, to father the children of the two widows of Vichitravirya through niyoga. The children, (Dhritarashtra and Pandu) became the fathers of the Kauravas and Pandavas respectively. After Pandu's death, Satyavati went to the forest for penance with her daughters in law, Ambika, the mother of Dhritarashtra and Ambalika the mother of Pandu and died before the Kurukshetra War (Raj mata shall not leave especially when she knows that the ruler is blind and do not see the Dharma due to his blind love for his son)
  Satyavati's presence of mind, far-sightedness and mastery of realpolitik is praised.
caption: Satyavati, the fisherwoman (Painting by Raja Ravi Varma)
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2010:03:08 01:44:07", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7070", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "489", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "721"}