Bhishma Recounts Stories of Kshatriya Resurgence
Bhishma tells Satyavati three stories from the past. He speaks of a warrior who wiped out a whole caste, a curse spoken to an unborn child, and a blind sage who fathered kings. His point is clear: lineages can be restored in unexpected ways.
Bhishma spoke to Satyavati, whom he addressed as mother. He had been asked for counsel, for a precedent regarding lineage and progeny. His answer was not a single story but a sequence of them, each illustrating how the threads of a bloodline, once severed, could be woven back together by necessity and dharma.
He began with the warrior. Jamadagni’s son, Parashurama, was filled with rage when his father was killed. In that anger, the immensely illustrious one killed the king of the Haihayas, slicing off the king’s thousand arms. Then he took up his bow to conquer the world. Using his wonderful weapons, the great-souled descendant of Bhargava used his arrows to exterminate Kshatriyas — the warrior caste — from the earth not once, but twenty-one times over.
After this cataclysm, Kshatriya women everywhere had offspring through Brahmanas who were self-controlled. The Vedas, Bhishma noted, clearly say that a son so born belongs to the one who accepted the woman’s hand in marriage. With dharma in their minds, the women united with the Brahmanas. The world thus witnessed the resurgence of the Kshatriyas.
Then Bhishma turned to an older, more intimate story of origins. There was a famous and wise rishi named Utathya, whose wife was Mamata. Utathya’s younger brother was Brihaspati, the immensely energetic priest of the gods. Brihaspati desired Mamata and sought to unite with her.
Mamata told her eloquent brother-in-law, “I am pregnant through your older brother. Therefore, desist. Utathya’s son is in my womb and has studied the Vedas and the Vedangas there. Your semen is infallible, and therefore, this is not possible. Do not desire me today.”
Despite these words, Brihaspati could not suppress his desire. He united with her, though she did not desire him in return. When he spilt his semen, the embryo inside the womb spoke: “O father! There is no room inside for two of us. I was here first and you have unnecessarily wasted your semen.”
At this, the illustrious rishi Brihaspati was angry and cursed Utathya’s son within the womb. “You have spoken at a time that all beings crave for. Therefore, you will enter a long period of darkness.” From this curse was born the rishi Dirghatamas — his name meaning “long darkness.” He was Brihaspati’s equal in great deeds and energy. To extend Utathya’s lineage, Dirghatamas later had sons like Goutama, all immensely famous.
But those sons, Goutama and the others, were overcome by greed and delusion. They decided their father was blind and old, and a burden. “Why should we support him?” Thinking this, the cruel ones tied him to a raft of wood and threw him into the waters of the Ganga.
The rishi floated along the river, blindly passing many kingdoms. One day, a king named Bali, who was learned in all aspects of dharma, came to the water and saw him. The righteous Bali, whose strength was in truth, recognized him. He grasped the raft so that he might obtain sons. “O illustrious one! Honour me,” Bali said. “I have to obtain sons through my wife. Therefore, father sons who are knowledgeable in dharma and artha (statecraft and prosperity).”
The energetic rishi agreed. The king sent his wife Sudeshna to him. But knowing he was old and blind, the queen demeaned him and sent her ignorant Shudra nurse instead. The righteous rishi fathered eleven sons on the Shudra woman, the first of whom was named Kakshivat.
When Bali saw Kakshivat and all the other sons studying, the valorous king was delighted and told the rishi, “These are mine.”
“No,” said the maharshi. “I have fathered Kakshivat and the others on a Shudra woman. Your queen Sudeshna discovered that I was blind and old. In her folly, she insulted me and sent her Shudra nurse to me.”
Bali then pacified that supreme of rishis and again sent his wife Sudeshna to him. Dirghatamas felt the queen’s limbs and told her, “You will have a powerful son who will be devoted to the truth.” Thus the rajarshi Anga was born from Sudeshna.
Bhishma concluded, his point now fully illustrated. “In this way, many Kshatriyas who were great archers were born from Brahmanas. They were supremely learned in dharma, valorous and had great strength.” He looked at Satyavati. “O mother! Having heard this, you should do as you desire.”