Savitri and Satyavan

The young man lay with his head in Savitri's lap, under the trees, and his breathing grew slow and quiet.

She did not cry out. She had known, for a whole year, that this afternoon would come. And now, in the fading light of the forest, she looked up and saw a tall figure standing before her, dressed in red, with a noose in his hand.

It was Yama, the lord of death.

The princess who chose

Long before that day, King Ashwapati of Madra had no children. For many years he prayed, and at last a daughter was born to him. He named her Savitri.

She grew up so bright and so dignified that the princes of other kingdoms were shy of her. Nobody came to ask for her hand. So her father did something unusual for his time. He told her to travel, to look for herself, and to choose her own husband.

Savitri went out with the king's old ministers, visiting hermitages and forests. When she came home, she told her father what she had decided.

In a forest hermitage, she said, lived a king named Dyumatsena. He had gone blind, and enemies had taken his kingdom, so now he lived in the woods with his wife and his son. The son was called Satyavan. He was honest, gentle and kind. She had chosen him.

The sage's warning

The sage Narada happened to be sitting with the king. When he heard the name, his face fell.

Satyavan had every good quality, Narada said. But there was one terrible fact. Exactly one year from that day, Satyavan would die.

The king begged his daughter to choose again.

Savitri was quiet for a moment. Then she said that a person chooses only once. She had given her heart, and she would not take it back, whether her husband's life was long or short.

Narada saw that she would not be moved, and he blessed the marriage.

A year in the forest

So Savitri married Satyavan and went to live in the hermitage. She put away her jewels and her fine clothes and dressed simply, like the people of the forest. She cared for her blind father-in-law and her mother-in-law, and she was loved by everyone.

But she never forgot Narada's words. Quietly, she counted the days.

When only three days were left, she began a hard fast, standing day and night, eating nothing. Her in-laws were worried, but she would not stop.

On the last morning, Satyavan picked up his axe to go and cut wood. Savitri asked to go with him. She had never asked before. He agreed, and they walked together into the deep forest.

As he worked, Satyavan suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. He felt weak, and he lay down. Savitri sat on the ground and rested his head in her lap.

That was when Yama came.

Walking with death

Yama told her, kindly, that Satyavan's time had come. He drew out Satyavan's life, a tiny form no bigger than a thumb, and turned to walk south, towards his own kingdom.

Savitri stood up and followed him.

Yama told her to go back. She had done all a wife could do. But Savitri kept walking, and as she walked, she spoke. She spoke about friendship, and about how the good keep the world steady, and how even a few steps walked together make two people friends.

Yama was pleased with her words. He offered her a wish, anything except her husband's life.

She asked for her father-in-law's sight to be restored. Yama granted it. And still she walked.

He offered a second wish. She asked for her father-in-law's lost kingdom to be given back. Yama granted that too. And still she walked.

He offered a third. She asked for her own father, who had only one child, to be blessed with many sons. Granted.

Her words grew wiser with every step, and Yama was moved. He offered a fourth wish. Savitri asked for many children of her own, children of Satyavan's.

Yama granted it without thinking.

The last wish

Then Savitri said, gently, that a wish like that could never come true without her husband. And so she asked for the one thing she had wanted from the start: Satyavan's life.

The lord of death was not angry. He was full of admiration. He set Satyavan free, and blessed them both with a long life together.

Savitri walked back alone to the place under the trees. She sat down and took Satyavan's head in her lap again. And he woke, as if from a long sleep, and asked why she had let him rest so late.

They walked home through the dark forest, hand in hand. At the hermitage, they found that Dyumatsena could see again. Soon, messengers came to say that his kingdom was waiting for him.

About this story

This story comes from the Vana Parva, the Book of the Forest, of the Mahabharata, where the sage Markandeya tells it to the exiled Yudhishthira. In later tradition, married women in many parts of India keep the Vat Savitri fast in her memory, praying beside banyan trees. This version is a shortened, simplified retelling.