King Drupada (He is king of the land of Southern Panchala. His father's name was Prishata) asks Shiva (also known as Mahadeva ("Great God"). He is the supreme God. One of the three most influential denominations in contemporary Hinduism and is also known as"the Destroyer" or "the Transformer") for a son to help defeat Drona ( master of advanced military arts, including the divine weapons or Divya Astras).
Shiva grants his prayer. However, his first child will be a girl, and then a boy.
The queen magically gets pregnant and conceives a girl, she changes the gender roles by raising the girl to be like a boy.
The queen names her daughter Shikhandini, but uses the boy version of the name instead: Shikhandin.
Drupada arranges for Shikhandin to marry a princess, but when the princess's father finds out Shikhandin is really Shikhdanini, he is outraged and threatens to wage war on Drupada. (this kind of blew my mind)
Shikhandini runs away into the forest.
She seeks refuge in an abandoned house where a yaksha ( is the name of a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are caretakers of the natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots) named Sthuna.
Shikhandini asks the yaksha to make her into a man.
The Yaksha agreed to the gender change temporarily, provided that Shikhandini come back when King Drupada has made peace with his enemy.
Sthuna becomes a female yaksha. Shikhandini becomes Shikhandin.
Kubera (is the Lord of Wealth and the god-king of the semi-divine) goes to visit Sthuna and promises that the change will be permanent:
Sthuna will remain a female yaksha until Shikhhandin dies.
In addition, Bhishma learns that this Shikhandin is the reincarnation of Amba (a woman who vowed to bring about his destruction).
No comments:
Post a Comment