Satyavati

In Hindu mythology, the mother of the
sage Vyasa. Satyavati is born in an
unusual way. Her mother, a celestial
nymph who lives as a fish in the
Ganges as the result of a curse, one
day swallows some semen that has
fallen into the Ganges, becomes pregnant, and delivers a son and a daughter. Satyavati grows into a beautiful
young woman, but because of her origins she always smells of fish, and
because of this is also called
Matsyagandhi (“fish-scent”). She
works ferrying passengers across the
Ganges and one day ferries the sage
Parashara, who is struck by her
charms. Parashara creates an artificial
fog to give the two of them privacy, has
sexual relations with her, and grants
that from that day onward Satyavati
will smell of musk instead of fish. The
son born of this union is Vyasa.
Satyavati continues to ply her trade,
and one day ferries King Shantanu, who
is also struck by her beauty. Before she
will marry him she demands that her sons
will rule Shantanu’s kingdom. Shantanu
agrees; and to give her absolute certainty,
his son Bhishma takes a vow that he will
never marry, so that his line will never
compete with hers. Satyavati has two
sons: Chitrangada dies in childhood, and
Vichitravirya dies after he marries the
princesses Ambika and Ambalika but
before having any children. In desperation, Satyavati thinks of her first son
Vyasa, who conceives a son with each of
the wives: Pandu from Ambalika, and
Dhrtarashtra from Ambika. The descendants of these two sons are the warring
families in the Sanskrit epic
Mahabharata, of which Vyasa is famed as
the narrator.