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Suta ji bowed to that supreme primordial Adya Shakti, fulfiller of every desire, she by the mere utterance of whose seed-syllable of speech one attains everlasting perfection, and then he began this story. In the land of Chedi there ruled a truthful and righteous king named Uparichara Vasu. Indra, pleased with him, had granted him a divine crystal chariot, and mounted on it the king always roamed above the earth and never touched the ground, which is why he was called Uparichara, the one who travels aloft. His beautiful wife was named Girika, and he had five sons of great valor, each of whom he had made the king of a separate land.
One day, purified by her ritual bath at her fertile season, Girika came to the king desiring a son. At that very moment the ancestors gave a command: go and bring back the meat of a deer. Holding the word of the ancestors to be the higher duty, the king set out for the forest to hunt, carrying the memory of Girika in his mind. There, as he dwelt on the image of his lovely wife, his seed spilled. Thinking that his virile essence was potent and must not be wasted, he placed it in the leaf of a banyan tree and called to a hawk perched nearby. Great one, he said, take this and fly at once to my house and give it to Girika, for today is her fertile time. The hawk gripped the leaf in its beak and rose, but high in the sky a second hawk, mistaking it for a scrap of flesh, attacked. In the struggle between the two the leaf slipped free and fell into the waters of the Yamuna.
The apsara cursed into a fish
In that same Yamuna an apsara named Adrika was at play in the water. Once, submerged, this apsara had seized the foot of a brahmin who was absorbed in his evening prayers. The brahmin, in the middle of his pranayama, grew angry and cursed her: you have broken my meditation, therefore become a fish. Yet moved by the weeping apsara’s pleading, the merciful brahmin relented and said, gentle one, do not grieve; when you have given birth from your own womb to a pair of human children, you will be released from this curse. And so, roaming the Yamuna as a fish, that same Adrika swiftly swallowed the seed that had fallen from the hawk’s talons.
When ten months had passed, a fisherman caught that handsome fish in his net. He cut open its belly, and out came twins of human form, a beautiful boy and a girl with a lovely face. The astonished fisherman handed both to King Uparichara. The king kept the boy, who in time became a king named Matsya, righteous and mighty like his father. The girl he gave to the fisherman himself; because of the smell of fish about her she was called Matsyagandha, and she was also known by the names Kali and Matsyodari. As for Adrika, having given birth to the two children, she was freed from her curse, and she shed the body of the fish, took on her divine form, and went away to heaven.
Parashara and the boat on the Yamuna
Raised in the fisherman’s house like a daughter, the girl grew slowly to womanhood, and in her youth her beauty deepened further. She helped her father in his work and rowed the ferry on the Yamuna. One day, traveling on pilgrimage, the radiant sage Parashara came to the bank of the Kalindi and spoke to the fisherman who was eating there: carry me across the Yamuna in your boat. The fisherman told his young daughter Matsyagandha, seat this righteous, austere sage in the boat and take him to the far shore. The girl settled the sage aboard and began to row.
As the boat moved over the water of the Yamuna, by the turn of fate Parashara looked upon the girl of the lovely eyes and was seized by desire, and with his right hand he touched her hand. But she only smiled and said, does this act befit your lineage, your austerity, your knowledge of the Vedas? You are a descendant of Vasishtha, a brahmin of the highest order in family and in character, and yet, tormented by the god of desire, what is it you mean to do? She begged him, great one, hold your patience, I will carry you across at once. Hearing her words spoken for his own good, Parashara held back and reached the far shore. But there, taken by desire again, the trembling girl said, sage, I carry a foul smell about me, and a union is pleasant only between those who are alike. Then Parashara, by the power of his austerity, in a single moment made her sweet-faced and lovely, her fragrance carrying a full yojana in every direction, as though she had bloomed with the scent of musk.
The girl spoke again, best of sages, on the bank my father and all the people are watching us; the joining of desire is ordained for the night and forbidden by day. Hearing this reasonable word, the generous-minded Parashara at once, by the power of his merit, called up a mist, and the bank was covered over in darkness. Then the young woman said, best of the twice-born, I am still a maiden; your seed is unfailing, and if I should conceive, what answer will I give my father? Parashara replied, dear one, even after giving me joy today you will remain a maiden still; ask whatever boon you wish. Satyavati asked that her mother and father never learn of it, that her vow of maidenhood not be broken, that the son born to her be matchless and radiant like Parashara himself, that this fragrance of hers last forever, and that her youth stay ever fresh. Parashara said, lovely one, your son will be born of a portion of Lord Vishnu, renowned throughout the three worlds, the composer of the Puranas and the one who will divide the Vedas.
The coming forth of Vyasa
So saying, Parashara joined with her, bathed in the Yamuna, and quickly went on his way, and Satyavati at once conceived. At the proper time, on an island in the Yamuna, she gave birth to a beautiful son who shone like a second Kamadeva, the god of love. The moment he was born the radiant child said to his mother, mother, I entered the womb with my mind already fixed on austerity; now go wherever you wish, and I am leaving for my penance. Whenever some worthy task arises and you remember me, I will come to you at once. Having said this, the child left for his austerities, and Satyavati returned to her father. Because he was born on an island of the Yamuna, that child was called Dvaipayana.
Because he was a partial incarnation of Vishnu, the child grew quickly the moment he was born, and bathing at many holy fords he took up a great austerity. Knowing that the age of Kali had come, he divided the Vedas into many branches; because he expanded and arranged the Vedas his name became Vyasa. It was he who composed the many Purana collections and the great Mahabharata, and, having divided the Vedas, he taught them to his disciples Sumantu, Jaimini, Paila, Vaishampayana, Asita, and Devala, and to his own son Shukadeva. Suta ji says that it was for a particular reason that Satyavati was born from the belly of a fish, that she came together with Parashara, and that Vyasa then came forth; from the lives of great souls one should take only their virtues, and a person who hears this story of a wondrous birth is set free from sins.
Source: Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)