Satyavati: Fraternal & Free

Carried in a crystal car King Uparichara of Chidi, soared high,

A gift given by most “generous” Indra, God of both heaven and sky,

A mere mortal made airborne by this material bribe.

During the dawn of the spring season of new blooms and beginnings,

Little could this chaste man conceive that chance would double his blessings,

For through a biological wonder would be born two fraternal siblings.

In the river Yamuna so named for twin goddess Yami of life and light,

Would a man’s sperm meet a fish's eggs and two souls ignite!

Formed in the same womb from different seeds,

One without the other would they seem to be incomplete.

However fate would have it that the pair lead separate lives,

And the story of Satyavati, the girl, is the only one that survives.

Adopted by a fisherman father the girl grew up ferrying on the river of her birth,

And the fortune of her anonymous brother can only be inferred.

Perhaps they experienced a shared hollowness of their “other half’s” absence,

Or instead were inclined to feel their individual journeys brought balance?

Like Yama and Yami who signify the cosmic duality of a complete earth so often split,

Yama’s realm of death and darkness and Yami’s of birth and brightness (though opposing, fit.)

Like Yama and Yami, the yin and yang of ancient Indian tradition,

Perhaps to part and lead distinct lives was the Creator’s intention?

A universe governed by contradictory and complementary wholes,

Suggests conflicting forces play vital and valuable roles.

The existence of one is meant to exaggerate the other by means of juxtaposition,

But isn’t each significant and sufficiently expressive in spite of this association?

Love without hate is still love, and truth without lie is still a lie-

So too does this framework for Satyavati apply.

What we know of her life without her brother is written in the Mahabharata,

And may not have been had fate not arranged she have her son, Vyasa.

Credited as the compiler and creator of the famed mythological tale, he chronicled his mother’s story,

And upon close inspection the impact of her twinhood on her identity implies only positives in this allegory.

Her sense of self was centered less around her being a sister than a mother,

And whose unconditional support for her son was greater than any other.

Satyavati took strife in stride and made the most of her circumstances:

Rather than internalizing the injustices laid upon her, she saw them as chances.

It was on the waves of the river Yamuna which is said to wash away sin,

That the rishi Parashara pursued, persuaded, and impregnated the young maiden.

In exchange that she yield to his embrace she was guaranteed virginity,

And he would rid the girl of her fragrant fishy odor indefinitely.

Thus the celestial beauty with incandescent black eyes was cured,

And thanks to her island-born son Vyasa was her life ensured.

“Think of me, and I will come to thy aid,” said her son loyal and true,

Because for his beloved mother would he always come through.

Though it’s unknown how the account of her character and life would have weighed against her twin’s,

Through the words of her son in the Mahabharata Satyavati herself shines from within.

Like the Goddess Yami, in the midst of her ill luck she focused on the silver lining,

In terms of Satyavati’s identity, her forgotten twinhood was not defining.

Author’s Note:

With this poem that I based on Satyavati and her unnamed fraternal twin brother, my goal was to explore how their identities were impacted as twins forcibly separated at birth. I alluded to the twin deities from ancient Indian tradition, Yama and Yami (gods of death/darkness and life/light respectively) for the purpose of using the pair as a mirror for Satyavati and her brother. I was inspired to do this when I discovered that the Yamuna river, the one in which she was conceived and subsequently grew up ferrying along with her adoptive fisherman father, is named after Yami. This transpired into me including allusions to the pair from ancient tradition to think about Satyavati and her brother, and by extension what either of these twins represent as far as the phenomenon of duality that can be observed in our universe in other places whether abstractly or concretely. For example, the concepts that color human experience of good/evil or virtuous/depraved is similarly dichotomous. In aiming to illuminate the complementary and cyclical wholes that are commonly associated with twins of this sort, I wanted to make sense of what this would mean for fraternal twins like Satyavati and her anonymous brother who had to embark on paths entirely removed from each other. Following their supernatural conception between King Upirichara and a female fish who carried them in her womb until Satyavati's adoptive fisherman father found them and cut them out,a ll that is said of the the boy was that he was sent to the Matsya kingdom. The myth never mentions whether she knew her history or of her brother's existence, so I tried to keep an air of speculation of Satyavati's point of view about the situation in a way that would serve my thought experiment about what her thoughts on twinhood would be.`Yama and Yami, considering they reside over opposite realms, helped to frame my thoughts on what a fraternal pair of twins who lead such lives apart would consider about their circumstances. I was hoping to emphasize, too, that although the nature of contrasting entities are understood to enhance the characteristics of the opposed, they can still stand alone successfully. Satyavati, for example, is never mentioned to have been hampered emotionally or otherwise whatsoever by the lack of her twin sibling in the stories of the Mahabharata where she is included. As an identical twin myself, I couldn’t help but let my own experience with forging an independent identity as a “multiple” come through in this poem that is intended to celebrate Satyavati as an individual whose journey and identity is significant even if it was on her own. I hope that through my poem on this less significant character as compared to her children (particularly Vyasa who was said to have penned the Mahabharata) reminds you that though small, she played an important role that deserves recognition. This poem is for the fraternal and identical twins out there who feel confined as either the clone or the antithesis of their sibling rather than simply existing as the individual that they are.

Bibliography: Various Authors | Mahabharata, PDE Version, Web | Image Source: (Satyavati) Wikimedia Commons, (River) Pixabay