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The Great Epics
Nobody in the story does anything they would consider wrong, and a woman’s entire life is destroyed between them.
Amba was carried off from her own swayamvara, by a man who did not want her for himself.
And every door she tried afterwards was shut by a rule.
Bhishma had sworn never to marry and never to take the throne. He had a half-brother, Vichitravirya, who was king and needed wives.
So Bhishma went to the swayamvara of the three princesses of Kashi. Amba, Ambika and Ambalika.
He defeated the assembled kings. And he carried all three off to Hastinapura, for his brother.
Amba told him, on arrival, that she was already promised.
She had given her heart to Salva, king of Saubha. And she had expected to garland him.
The rest of this story, read aloud, and a new one every day.