Women in Mahabharata - Sushobhana
She is the daughter of Aayu, a Mandooka (frog-motif tribe) king. She is presented as a sort of a siren-like figure in almost a fairy-tale within Mahabharata.
When Parikshita, a king of the Ikshvaku dynasty of Ayodhya, once loses his way in the middle of a hunt and enters something called the 'Blue Forest'. There, he hears a woman singing, and immediately proposes to her.
The woman insists that she would only marry Parikshita if he promises to never show her water. Parikshita agrees and takes her all the way back to Ayodhya, and they spend some time together.
Eventually, the king disregards his royal duties and spends all his time with this woman. The prime minister, sick of extra duties without pay, constructs a garden with a pond in it, and sends the king and his wife there.
Seeing the pond, Parikshita, forgetting about his promise, insists that the woman should enter. She does, and disappears into the water. Angered by this, and after a lot of searching, the King returns.
On his way back, however, Parikshita sees a frog and thinks that singular frog has devoured his wife (??!). Furious he orders that all frogs in his kingdom must be killed, and that he would hear no assistance request unless a dead frog was gifted to him first (why is their first instinct always genocide?).
Then, the King of all Frogs, visits the king in disguise and tries to dissuade him from this endeavour by invoking the belief that killing frogs causes the loss of wealth.
When that does not work, the King of Frogs reveals his true identity, and further explains that Parikshita's ex-wife is in fact his daughter- Sushobhana. He further insists that this is somewhat of a 'hobby' for his daughter- to marry kings and then leave them when they start losing focus (forgetting the vow about water), and that she has done this with many kings.
Parikshita still chooses to reconcile with Sushobhana, having fallen deeply in love already. Hence, Aayu calls up his daughter and orders her to remain with Parikshita for the rest of their lives.
Additionally, Aayu also curses his daughter that her sons would not obey Brahmins (doesn't seem like much of a curse but you do you Papa-Frog). Sushobhana's sons are Shala, Dala and Bala.









