Satyavati - Assessment

Assessment

Dhanalakshmi Ayyer, author of Satyavati: Blind Ambition, introduces Satyavati as "the embodiment of the driving force of womanhood, with motherly ambition blinding her vision at every turn" and further says that "n a way, Satyavati exemplifies what Rudyard Kipling succinctly put":

The Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same,
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.

For Satyavati the end matters, not the means. Satyavati's life goal and ambition was to ensure the succession of Santanu's lineage and inheritance of his fortune by her sons but ironically (Ayyer comments), Bhishma - whose right to the throne Satyavati snatches - outlives her children in life and in fame. Her actions (and decisions) create a generation encompassed by a greed which ultimately leads to its annihilation. Ayyer concludes that "Satyavati's story teaches the new generation women that determination and commitment are different from avarice and calculation. One should know where greed takes over from ambition."

Pradip Bhattacharya, author of Of Kunti and Satyawati: Sexually Assertive Women of the Mahabharata, praises Satyavati's handling of her encounter with the sage Parashara. He notes that although young, she tackles the persistent sage with great maturity and presence of mind. Bhattacharya remarks, "With a maturity and frankness that astonishes us even in the twenty-first century, she points out that coitus ought to be mutually enjoyable." She is not deluded by the belief that the sage will marry her, and asks for virginity to ensure her future status in society. Bhattacharya further comments on the sequence of her requests: the bodily fragrance to make the sexual act pleasant for both, the veil of mist to keep the act a secret, virginal status for her future and fame for her child - securing his fame and, after practical aspects are sorted out, "eternally feminine" boons of lifelong youth and fragrance. Bhattacharya says: "Modern-day women could well wish that they were half as confident, clear-headed and assertive of their desires and goals as Satyavati." He further praises her "characteristic far-sightedness", when she ensures the future of her children with Santanu by disposing of the crown prince Bhishma. She brings her illegitimate son, Vyasa, onto the scene to father sons with her dead son's widows – turning the renowned "lunar dynasty, into the lineage of a dasa (slave) maiden".