Itihāsa / Mahābhārata chronicle / Ādi · 4 of 50
4. Ambā
Ādi (आदि)
Before Satyavatī's sons, Bhīṣma had gone to find them wives. He won three princesses of Kāśi by force of arms: Ambā, Ambikā, Ambālikā. Ambikā and Ambālikā become the mothers of the blind king and the pale king. Ambā stops the wedding. She tells Bhīṣma she had already chosen a king, Śālva. Bhīṣma sends her to him. Śālva will not take a woman another man carried off. She comes back. Bhīṣma will not marry her, because of the vow.
She is left between two refusals. The poem does not tidy this. Ambā treats it as a destruction, and she gives her life to the undoing of Bhīṣma. Austerity, a god's boon, a next birth: the tellings gather toward one result. She will return as Śikhaṇḍin, and on the tenth day of the war Bhīṣma will not raise his bow against that body. The vow that looked like perfect duty has a person under it whom the duty crushed.
Remember her when the war seems to be only armies. One of its hinges is a woman who was won as a bride and then belonged to nobody.
नेपालीमा
भीष्मले काशीका तीन राजकुमारी बाहुबलले जिते: अम्बा, अम्बिका र अम्बालिका। अम्बिका र अम्बालिका अन्धा र फिक्का राजाका आमा भइन्। अम्बाले विवाह रोकिन् र भीष्मलाई भनिन्, उनको मन पहिले नै राजा शाल्वमा थियो। भीष्मले उनलाई शाल्वकहाँ पठाए, तर शाल्वले अर्कैले उठाएर लगेकी स्त्रीलाई स्वीकारेनन्। उनी फर्किइन्। भीष्मले प्रतिज्ञाका कारण उनीसँग विवाह गरेनन्। उनी दुई अस्वीकारको बीचमा परिन्। कविताले यसलाई सफा गर्दैन। अम्बाले यसलाई विनाश ठानिन् र भीष्मको पतन गराउन आफ्नो जीवन लगाइन्। तप, देवताको वरदान र अर्को जन्मपछि उनले शिखण्डी भएर फेरि जन्म लिइन्। युद्धको दशौँ दिन भीष्मले त्यो शरीरमाथि धनु उठाएनन्। पूर्ण कर्तव्यजस्तो देखिएको प्रतिज्ञाको मुनि कर्तव्यले कुचेकी एउटी स्त्री थिइन्। युद्ध सेनाको मात्र कुरा जस्तो लाग्दा उनलाई सम्झनुहोस्।