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Love Stories from The Mahabharata  
Parikshit and Sushobhana

The sky blazed copper-red that summer noon. Not a bird chirped anywhere. Limpid as fire-molten crystal, the waters of the lake were undisturbed by darting fish. Heated by the blazing sun-rays, a moss-green stone structure stood at the edge of the lake like a fire-licked emerald stupa, thirsting for a pleasantly cool touch—the palace of Ayu, the Manduka-king.

At the other end of the lake, surrendering the pleasant ease of her freshly bathed body to a bed of tender flowers in the secret recesses of a creeper-covered hut, sat Ayu’s daughter, Sushobhana. Before her was a blue, dense forest, as though a turquoise pile had fled the unbearable canopy of the burning skies to seek shelter on earth.

Manduka-king Ayu is despondent. His mind is not at peace. The Manduka-king cannot wipe out the sorrow of his daughter having rebelled against feminine nature. Hoping to marry her to a suitable person, how often had the king wanted to hold a bridegroom-choice ceremony! But Sushobhana has objected, obstructed and ultimately flared up like a serpent spurned. “Do not build a new cage, father, for the pet bird caged in your love. I won’t be able to bear it.”

King Ayu has not tried to hold any more assemblies for choosing a bridegroom. Afraid, he remains silent.

Afraid—the fear of scandal. Manduka-king Ayu is anxious regarding public calumny. Surely, the secret foolishness of his whimsical daughter will not remain hidden forever from society. Even in the midst of such anxiety, King Ayu cannot but be surprised at how, even today, this story of infamy has remained unknown to people and how he has still remained secure from the onslaught of public scandal.

That mystery is known only to the maidservant Subinita. Nothing of all the wiles and stratagems and encounters of the whimsical princess is unknown to her.

Sushobhana has spun a profoundly cunning stratagem for protecting herself from scandal. She does not reveal her identity to any aspiring lover. No one knows who is this much-desired woman; whence she comes and where she disappears for ever. Is she truly the daughter of any mortal father? Is she actually a woman brought up in this earthly world? Has she been churned out of the fragrance of all the flowers of some forest?  Or is she a companion of a goddess of the eight directions, visiting this dusty earth for picking up a few pearls? Or is she a dream of this blooming lotus, or the thirst of those constellations?

Who is this radiant-bodied unknown one who, like moon-rays showered from the sky, flooding the hearts of lovers with the moonlight of infatuation, again slides behind some dark cloud? Unable to bear the separation from that shy, unknown beloved, one king has been driven mad; another, leaving his kingdom to ministers, has taken to the forest. The lives of all have become joyless. All the pain and sufferings of those kings estranged from their beloved are known to Sushobhana and also to Subinita. But, because of that, there is no remorse, no regret in the mind of princess Sushobhana, while the maid Subinita protests constantly.

– Continued

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