The sage Viswamitra had a disciple named Galava who had served him well. When his time with the sage was over, Galava asked his teacher many times what he might give him as a fee. Finally, Vishwamitra said that he wanted eight hundred flawless horses, each as white as the moon, with only one black ear. Realising that this was beyond him, Galava wandered the earth in despair. Garuda told him to go to Yayati, a king rich beyond compare and as generous as he was rich. But Yayati did not have the horses that Galava needed. Nor could he procure them for the young brahmin. Instead, he offered Galava his virtuous and beautiful daughter who had a boon by which she would give birth only to sons and whose virginity would be constantly restored. Yayati suggested that Galava marry her off to various kings in exchange for the horses that he required to pay off his debt to his teacher.
Galava set off with Madhavi and took her first to the king of Ayodhya, who was childless. Sadly, that king had only two hundred white horses with one black ear. But he was overcome by Madhavi’s beauty and her ability to produce male offspring. He begged Galava to let Madhavi bear him a son after he which he would give him the horses as well as return Madhavi so that she could be bartered again in the same away.
Using Madhavi’s special gifts, Galava got her married three times and acquired six hundred horses. Each time, Madhavi abandoned the child she had birthed and followed Galava on his mission. Finally, when it was clear that there were no more white horses with one black ear in the world, Galava offered Madhavi to his teacher, Viswamitra, so that she could bear him a son in lieu of the shortfall in horses. And when he was finally freed of his obligations, Galava gave Madhavi back to her father, who arranged a swayamvara for her. Madhavi rejected the ceremony and decided to live in the forest like a deer, eating only newly sprouted grass and drinking the cool, clear water of streams.
Willing participant
The story, as it appears in the Mahabharata, would have us believe that Madhavi was a willing participant in all that happened to her, so much so that it was she who shared her secrets of eternal virginity and conceiving only sons with Galava.
If we read the story as it is presented, Madhavi’s virtue lies in her unquestioning submission to a brahmin’s need to pay off his debt. Yet again, a seemingly acquiescent woman is held up as paradigmatic. But we need to look at the end of the story for how it might critique its overtly patriarchal intent.
As with Sita, when Madhavi has produced the royal heirs required of her, she renounces the world of men which sees this as her only value. She becomes an ascetic, celibate and according to the terms of her boon, as immaculate as ever.
The writer works with myth, epic and the story traditions of the sub-continent
