An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s1.249

c5.s1.249

[Ambopākhyānaparvan] ("the section containing the episode of Ambā," the 66th of the minor parvans of Mhbhr. *Cf.* Ambopākhyāoa). § 573. Questioned by Duryodhana why he would not slay Çikhaṇḍin, Bhīṣma said: After Çāntanu's death and Citrāṅgada's demise, obedient to the counsels of Satyavatī I installed, according to the ordinance, Vicitravīrya as king. I repaired on a single car to the svayaṃvara of the daughters of the king of Kāçi: Ambā (the eldest), Ambikā (the second), and Ambālikā (the youngest), who were *vīryaçulkāḥ*. Challenging all the kings, I took the three maidens upon my car, and repeatedly told my name to the kings, and vanquished them all. Then I came back to Hāstinapura and made over those maidens, including them for Vicitravīrya, to Satyavatī (V, 173). [The eldest maiden] became very glad. When the nuptials approached, she said that she had before mentally chosen the Çālva king (Saubha, v. 6075, etc.) as her lord, and that he, with my knowledge, had privately proposed to me. I then laid the matter before Satyavatī and the preceptors, rtvijs, and purohitas, and permitted her to go to the city of the Çālva king, accompanied by Brahmans, and she went to have her as his wife, but he rejected her. It was of no avail that she told him she had been taken by force, weeping and lamenting, and invoking the power of Bhīṣma. She had not