#vishvamitra

[sambhavami]

Women in Mahabharata - Sankriti

She is one of the wives of Galava, and she mothered a few unidentified sons.

[arjuna-vallabha]

Vishvamitra and Menaka

[sambhavami]

Women in Mahabharata - Madhavi

She is given by her father Yayati to Galava so he could gather 800 special horses for his guru Vishvamitra from four Kings in exchange for allowing them to have their way with Madhavi.

Galava 'leases' her out to the Kings Haryashva, Divodasa and Ushinara of Ayodhya, Kashi and Bhoja respectively in exchange for 200 horses each time. In the end, when Galava is unable to find any more horses to fulfill his promise to Vishvamitra, the latter quite enthusiastically takes Madhavi with him, rebuking his student for not bringing her to him sooner.

Her sons from the three kings and Vishvamitra are Vasumanah, Pratardana, Shibi and Ashtaka. After their births, Galava returns her to Yayati who tries to get her married.

Tired of being paraded around like livestock, Madhavi rejects the swayamvara, retreating to the forest to spend her days in penance instead.

When Yayati is later cast down from heaven, he takes half the merit earned by his daughter to re-ascend to his previous state, while Madhavi is left playing catch up.

Personally, I believe that Yayati's rather cruel behaviour with Madhavi is the ultimate culmination of his relationship (or rather the lack of) with her mother Devayani.

It is repulsive how all the men in this story treat her: Galava clearly cares for nothing more than fulfilling his own agenda, and the kings are revoltingly eager to take advantage of this 'scheme' as they delve into uncomfortable details of Madhavi's body at every chance.

No wonder she did not wish to marry even when she is finally accorded a chance.

[sambhavami]

Women in Mahabharata - Menaka

She is one of the foremost apsaras, the title possibly having been handed down from the prima group of nymphs born during the churning of the milk ocean.

In Mahabharata we see among her consorts, the rishi Vishvamitra and the gandharva Vishvavasu.

Her daughters from them are Shakuntala and Pramadvara, both of whom go on to play significant roles in the epic as we know it: Shakuntala's son Bharata becomes one of the foremost kings, who is still remembered fondly as a just and democratic one, and Pramadvara's grandson grows to be Shaunaka, at whose yajna, Sauti Ugrasrava narrates this great epic in its current evolved form.

[sambhavami]

Women in Mahabharata - Haimavati

She is noted in Mahabharata as Vishvamitra's first and closest wife.

Assuming she is the same woman as the unnamed 'Vishvamitra's Wife' in Harivamsha, her story goes that, once Vishvamitra abandoned her and her children on the outskirts of Ayodhya and went to do his tapasya somewhere else.

Then, wracked by hunger and desperate to keep her other children alive, she took her middle-born son, tying a noose around his neck [gala; and so he grew up to be called Galava], to a slave market to sell him. There, the people paraded this child in the market.

By Galava and her luck, the exiled, philanderer prince named Satyavrata was also roaming around aimlessly in the same market. When he realises that the child is Vishvamitra's son, he pays Haimavati's asking price out of his remaining wealth and frees Galava. In addition, he also agreed to take care of Haimavati and all of her other children until Vishvamitra returned.

However, Haimavati refused to live in the same place, so they came to an agreement where Satyavrata would kill a bunch of animals and hang their flesh up on a tree in front of Vishvamitra's ashram for Haimavati to take home once he was out of sight.

Satyavrata always resented Vashishtha, their family priest, for inciting his father, Trayyaruna, to exile him after his misbehaviour. Hence, one day, finding his chance, he slaughtered Vashishtha's favourite cow Payasvina and fed the meat to Vishvamitra's sons and also consumed it himself.

After finding out, Vaishishtha condemned Satyavrata to eternal damnation and renamed him Trishanku [Tri-shanku: three sins; 1. kidnapping a married woman, 2. killing a cow, 3. consuming that cow]. However, upon returning from his tapasya, grateful to Satyavrata, Vishvamitra promised to take him to heaven instead.

This Trishanku is the father of the famous Harishchandra.

[arjuna-vallabha]

Vishvamitra and Menaka by Raja Ravi Varma

[writtenbybabu]

From Menaka's Mission to Shakuntala's Marriage

A task assigned by Indra eventually leads to the birth of Shakuntala. Raised by Rishi Kanva, she later meets King Dushyanta and agrees to a Gandharva marriage.

This article follows the entire sequence while examining the characters and the traditional classification of marriages.

Read here:

https://writtenbybabu.blogspot.com/2026/06/mahabharata-of-kashidas-0030-indras.html

[emptyblueprints-blog]

ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः । तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं । भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि । धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Vishvamitra विश्वामित्र, Gāyatrī Mantra "Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tát savitúr váreṇ(i)yaṃ bhárgo devásya dhīmahi dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt" O earth, atmosphere, heaven: May we attain that excellent glory of Savitr the God: So may he stimulate our prayers