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Savitri's
Triumph
LT was the hermitage of the Salwa king, Dyumatsena, now in exile. Blind and decrepit, he had been disgraced and deposed by an unchivalrous foe. Secure in the fastness of the forest, he and his wife spent their time in meditation, while Satyavan, their only son, attended on them. They had no rancour against the usurper. They even invoked divine mercy on him. They also prayed for perpetual peace and plenty in their kingdom. Their penance had no other purpose, and the sun, the moon, the stars—everything in God's creation—seemed to be at their service. For eternal spring reigned at the ashram.
Satyavan, still in his early teens, was the envy of the gods. In beauty, he challenged Manmatha, in wisdom, the Devaguru Brihaspati (the gods' Preceptor), in radiance, the sun and in forbearance, the earth. When he was not serving his parents or studying the sastras, he could be seen absorbed in clay-modelling. There was magic in his thin, sensitive fingers.
One morning as he was filling his pitcher with water from
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