Reading Notes Week 6: Amba

Drawing of Amba
Source: Wikipedia

Notes:

• This story is about Amba. Amba is the daughter of the king of Benares. Amba was captured by Bhishma along with her two sisters to become wives of Bhishma's half brother Vichitravirya. Before Amba was captured, she was already secretly betrothed to king of the Shalwas. On the wedding day, when the three sisters were supposed to we King Vichitravirya, Amba wanted to speak to Bhishma. She told him how she was betrothed to another and that it wouldn't be fair for her to not love his brother. She asked for permission to leave Hastinapura  and go to the capital of the King of Shalwas. When she arrived, she went before the king and told him she was there, but she was rejected by the king for unknown reasons, perhaps from his defeat. Before she was captured, Amba had prepared the King to win her, but things didn't go as planned. The King rejected Amba and when she decided there was no changing his mind, she was filled with grief and anger. Amba feeling rejected was too prideful to return to Hastinapura and too ashamed to return home, she decided to take refuge in the great-forest hermitages.As time went on and her mind began to settle, Amba shifted her anger toward Bhishma for capturing her. She began fasting and undergoing penances. She let her appearance go and would often stand in stillness, as if she was stone for hours. Eventually the God Shiva appeared, drawn by Amba's prayers and penances. Amba rejoiced saying, The defeat of Bhishma. Amba was then concerned about  how she would do it since she was a woman. Shiva told her that if she died, she would be reincarnated into a man, but not only a man, but a fierce warrior. Amba then proceeded into the woods and made her own funeral pyre, set it on fire and entered it. The whole time she said, "I do this for the destruction of Bhishma! To obtain a new body for the destruction of Bhishma do I enter this fire!"
• For this, I want to put the story directly in Amba's perspective or in the King of Shalwas. I  could make the King be deploying an act, claiming he didn't want to be shamed since he didn't win her fair and square. He could have secretly been watching Amba for all this time, and when she went into the funeral pyre, he could have either saved her or also killed himself out of grief. This could be sort of a Romeo and Juliet types story. The King could have held his word that he could not take her, or maybe in the time Amba was gone he could have taken another wife since Amba was unattainable. If I put this in Amba's perspective, I think it will just allow for more insight on her feelings.
• Bibliography: "Amba" from Myths of Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita.