The maiden wept bitterly, and she knelt before the monarch and said: “No man hath wronged me, O mighty rajah. Bhishma hath taken a terrible vow of celibacy which he cannot break. If thou wilt not have me for wife, I pray thee to take me as thy concubine, so that I may dwell safely in thy palace.”
But the rajah spurned the beautiful maiden, and his servants drove her from the palace and out of the city. So was she compelled to seek refuge in the lonely forest, and there she practised great austerities with purpose to secure power to slay Bhishma, who had wronged her. In the end she threw herself upon a pyre, so that she might attain her desire in the next life.[210]
Her two sisters, Amvika and Amvalika, became the wives of Vitchitra-virya, who loved them well; but his days were brief, and he wasted away with sickness until at length he died. No children were born to the king, and his two widows mourned for him.
The heart of Queen Satyavati was stricken with grief because that her two sons were dead, and there was left no heir to the throne of King Bharata.
Now it was the custom in those days that a kinsman should become the father of children to succeed the dead king.[211] So Queen Satyavati spake unto Bhishma, saying: “Take thou the widows of my son and raise up sons who will be as sons of the king.”
But Bhishma said: “That I cannot do, for have I not vowed never to be the sire of any children.”
In her despair Satyavati then thought of her son Vyasa, and he immediately appeared before her and consented to do as was her desire.[212]
Now Vyasa was a mighty sage, but, by reason of his austerities in his lonely jungle dwelling, he had grown gaunt and repulsive of aspect so that women shrank from before him; fearsome was he, indeed, to look upon.
Amvika closed her eyes with horror when she beheld the sage, and she had a son who was born blind: he was named Dhritarashtra. Amvalika turned pale with fear: she had a son who was named Pandu, “the pale one”.
Satyavati desired that Vyasa should be the father of a son who had no defect; but Amvika sent her handmaiden unto him, and she bore a son who was called Vidura. As it happened, Dharma, god of justice, was put under the spell of a Rishi at this time, to be born among men, and he chose Vidura to be his human incarnation.