Apasmāra

Four years after Ganga left her child Devavrata with King Shantanu, ruler of Hasthinapur, when Shantanu while travelling near the banks of Yamuna , he perceived a sweet fragrance. When he went in pursuit of this scent, he found that the fragrance was emanating from a young woman of exquisite beauty.  Santanu went to her and asked her who she was. She said that her name was Satyavati,  the daughter of the Chief of the  fisherme. Upon seeing her, Shantanu fell in love with her and desired to her. He immediately asked her to be his wife. Satyavati would not return an immediate answer, but asked the king to address this question to her father. When the chief of fishermen, Dhusharaj  returned shortly, the king requested his permission to pay his addresses to Satyavati. The fisherman thought for a while and said, "O King! I am very much honored that you have expressed a wish to marry my daughter. Indeed, it is impossible to think of a more worthy groom for her. Howe...

Since Uparicara (vasu), king of Chedi, gave the female child back to the fisherman Dusharaj (also a ferryman) on the banks of the river Yamuna. As she was born from a fish, she had an odor of fish, naming her Matsya-gandha ("She who smells like fish"). The fisherman raised the girl as his daughter and named her Kali ("the dark one") because of her complexion. Over the course of time, Kali earned the name Satyavathi ("truthful"). The fisherman was also a ferryman, ferrying people across the river in his boat. Satyavathi helped her father, the fisherman, in his job and grew up into a beautiful maiden. One day the great sage Parasara, who was the grandson of sage Vasishtha (Manasa Putra of Lord Brahma), was travelling and in the course of his travels came wanted to cross the river and availed himself of her services to ferry across the river. While she was rowing the boat the sage asked from where the fishy smell was coming and Satyavathi confessed th...