The Seduction of Shiva: Tales of Life and Love by Haskar, A.N.D. Read Free Book Online

and freed of his ailment.
    From
Kathāsaritsāgara
, 6.2.156–184

Man or Woman?
    Here is a tale from the final conversations between the Pandava king Yudhishthira and the great family patriarch Bhishma 1 while the latter was on his deathbed after the Bharata war.
    ‘In intercourse between a woman and a man,’ asked Yudhishthira, ‘who has the greater sensation? This is a matter of doubt, sir. Would you please explain it as it actually is?’
    ‘Ancient history gives an example of this,’ replied Bhishma. ‘It is drawn from the antagonism which occurred in times bygone between Bhangasvana and Indra, the king of the gods.’
    ‘Bhangasvana was a noble king,’ Bhishma continued. ‘Extremely virtuous, he was averitable royal sage. He had no son, and to obtain one, he performed a fire sacrifice.
    ‘The sacrifice this royal sage arranged is called the
agnishtupa.
It is done to repent some fault or to acquire a son. But it is disliked by Indra. On hearing about it, the god looked for some weakness in the king in order to thwart him. However, despite much effort, he could not find any vulnerability in Bhangasvana.
    ‘After much time had passed, the king once went out on a hunt. Indra took this as an opportunity for himself, and cast a spell upon the monarch and his horse who then got lost in the wilderness. They wandered here and there, tired out by effort, suffering the pangs of hunger and thirst.
    ‘Eventually the king saw a pleasant lake full of fine water. Getting off his horse, he watered the animal and, tying it to a tree, went into the lake himself. But as he bathed in its water, his gender changed to the feminine. The king was shocked, embarrassed and deeply worried to seethat he had become a woman.
    ‘The woman’s mind and senses were also filled with agitation. “How will I mount the horse?” she wondered. “How will I get to the city? I obtained a hundred mighty sons from the agnishtupa sacrifice. What will I say to them, to my own wives, to my people?
    ‘“The sages who know the essence of dharma describe tenderness, delicacy and timidity as feminine qualities,” the woman told herself. “Hardness in effort and prowess are masculine. For some reason manliness has disappeared in me and womanliness appeared instead. How can I dare to mount this horse?”
    ‘With great effort,’ said Bhishma, ‘the king mounted his horse and returned to his capital, but as a woman. His wives and sons, servants and subjects were astonished and wanted to know what had happened. “I had gone out for a hunt,” the now feminine royal sage told them. “I was surrounded by soldiers but, as luck would have it, I got lost and wandered into a terriblewilderness. Suffering from thirst, I was almost out of my mind when I beheld a beautiful lake full of birds. While I was bathing in it, fate turned me into a woman.” Then calling out the names and titles of his wives and ministers, that excellent monarch told the princes, “Rule and enjoy this kingdom lovingly, my sons. I will now retire to some forest.”
    ‘Having spoken thus to his hundred sons, the ruler then proceeded to a wood where she began to live in the cave of a forest hermit. From him she had another hundred sons. She took them to the older hundred and told them, “I had you when I was a man. These hundred I have borne as a woman. Live together as brothers, and enjoy the kingdom.”
    ‘The brothers,’ Bhishma continued, ‘thereafter lived together, ruling that best of kingdoms fraternally. Seeing them thus, the king of the gods was overwhelmed with rage. “I have actually helped that royal sage,” he told himself, “I have not caused him harm.” Then he went tothe capital city disguised as a priestly brahman and sowed dissension in the hearts of the princes. “The sons of even one father do not necessarily share fraternal feelings,” he said to them. “Look at the gods and the demons. Both are the progeny of the divine sage Kashyapa, but even though