Vichitravirya
Vichitravirya ( Sanskrit विचित्रवीर्य , vicitravīrya m.) Was a king in ancient India. In the Mahabharata he is the son of King Shantanu and Satyavati .
His life in the Mahabharata
Vichitravirya had an older brother named Chitrangada , whom his half-brother Bhishma appointed as heir to the throne after Shantanu's death. A mighty warrior who vanquished many enemies, he was defeated and killed in the course of a long battle by the king of the Gandharvas . Thereupon Bhishma appointed Vichitravirya, who was still a child, as his successor.
When he was grown, Bhishma married him to Ambika and Ambalika , two beautiful daughters of the King of Benares . After seven years of happy marriage, however, he became incurably wasted and died childless at a young age. Since his brother had also remained childless, Satyavati asked, in accordance with a custom of the time, the levirate marriage, to father her son Vyasa in place of Vichitravirya's children with his two wives, and so Dhritarashtra and Pandu were born. In addition, the wise Vidura, an incarnation of the god of justice, emerged from his union with a maid.
literature
- Vicitravirya in: MMS Shastri Chitrao, Bharatavarshiya Prachin Charitrakosha (Dictionary of Ancient Indian Biography, in Hindi), Pune 1964, p. 841
- JAB van Buitenen, Mahabharata , Volume 1, Chicago 1973