Satyavati - Literary Sources and Names

Literary Sources and Names

Little is said about Satyavati in the Mahabharata; however, later texts - the Harivamsa and the Devi Bhagavata Purana – elaborate her legend.

Satyavati is known by numerous names in the Mahabharata, among them Daseyi, Gandhakali, Gandhavati, Kali, Matysyagandha, Satya, Vasavi and Yojanagandha. The name "Daseyi" – a term often used by her stepson Bhishma used to address her – means one of the Dasas (slaves), or a Dasa aboriginal princess. Vasavi means "daughter of king Vasu". Her birth name, Kali (the dark one), indicates her dark complexion. Her other birth name, Satyavati, means "truthful"; satya means "veracity". As noted above, she was also known as Matsyagandha or Matsyagandhi in her earlier life – and Gandhakali ("fragrant dark one"), Gandhavati and Yojanagandha in later life.

Read more about this topic:  Satyavati

Famous quotes containing the words literary, sources and/or names:

    “In literary circles, the men of trust and consideration, bookmakers, editors, university deans and professors, bishops, too, were by no means men of the largest literary talent, but usually of a low and ordinary intellectuality, with a sort of mercantile activity and working talent. Indifferent hacks and mediocrities tower, by pushing their forces to a lucrative point, or by working power, over multitudes of superior men, in Old as in New England.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “My profession brought me in contact with various minds. Earnest, serious discussion on the condition of woman enlivened my business room; failures of banks, no dividends from railroads, defalcations of all kinds, public and private, widows and orphans and unmarried women beggared by the dishonesty, or the mismanagement of men, were fruitful sources of conversation; confidence in man as a protector was evidently losing ground, and women were beginning to see that they must protect themselves.”
    —Harriot K. Hunt (1805–1875)

    “And even my sense of identity was wrapped in a namelessness often hard to penetrate, as we have just seen I think. And so on for all the other things which made merry with my senses. Yes, even then, when already all was fading, waves and particles, there could be no things but nameless things, no names but thingless names. I say that now, but after all what do I know now about then, now when the icy words hail down upon me, the icy meanings, and the world dies too, foully named.”
    —Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)