Week 6 Story: Ganga's daughter

She had been clear. She was not to be questioned. Ever. But he questioned her, and so she ran away with his eighth daughter, with the promise to return her in a time.
She raised her daughter as a goddess, despite her humanity.
She raised her daughter to be as she was.
Unflinching.
Unforgiving.
Unstoppable.
King Shantanu, of course, had wanted sons before, but now all he wanted was his dear daughter back. He wanted one of his offspring to survive. When Ganga returned with his daughter and said that her name was Devavrata and she was to be respected in the utmost and inherit his kingdom, he agreed. He would have agreed to anything. He was a desperate man.
As Devavrata grew, she was afforded every luxury. She excelled in everything. Then, her father fell in love with a fisherman's daughter, and he promised away her throne and her chance to bear children.
Devavrata had been raised by Ganga, and she remembered her upbringing. She wanted her throne. She disappeared, and her father thought perhaps in her sadness she had fled. He mourned publicly, but he embraced his new wife and bore heirs without a second thought. Those new heirs were sons. King Shantanu was content.

When the gates of the city trembled four years later, King Shantanu was bewildered. He sent a messenger to see who his assailant was. The messenger returned, saying that the name he was given was Inna: Coming from Water of Strength, Strong Water, Chaste. King Shantanu's heart trembled. He stumbled down to the front steps of his palace in time to see a woman on horseback, hair long and flowing, sword drawn. It was the daughter who used to be called Devavrata. She rode right up to him and pointed her sword at his chest. Her sword remained in place as she dismounted.
"Take me to your wife and children."
"I will not."
She pressed the tip through his skin slowly, blood spreading across his pristine white linen shirt.
"Very well."
He led her to the room where his wife tended to their children. When he paused in the doorway, Inna pushed her sword through him without another thought. She gazed upon his trembling wife with ire.
"Leave your children here and never return."
The woman nodded and stumbled away. The small children slumbered on.

Inna ruled well. Her people adored her, despite her bloody rise. In a few years, the tiny boys, now palace servants, forgot their past in the way that children do. Queen Inna favored them, and they served her with eager, innocent devotion. She ensured they would never think a single bad thought against her. She did the same with her people, taking great care of them. She urged her mother, the river Ganga, to change her route and run through the city so that Ganga could help her people, and her people could worship Inna's mother. Thus Inna ruled for thousands upon thousands of years, and her city was at peace.

Author's note: This story is based on Narayan's Mahabharata, but only the very beginning. In this version, the river Ganga bears daughters, and her last daughter, the one who survives, takes on her mother's strength and attitude, and takes the city that is rightfully hers.

Photo: Bull River by Keith Ewing

Source: Narayan, R. K., The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Version of the Indian Epic.