I laid the usual sparse fare of fruits and honey before Pandu. The breakfast was a silent affair. After coming to the forest, it was the first time I ever found Pandu in a sulky mood. I couldn’t take it any longer.

“My lord, I understand you’re upset. I just cannot imagine myself in somebody’s arms. Take me in your embrace and give me your child. That’s all I want,” I pleaded.

Then I remembered the Sage’s curse. A similar fear of curse had made me yield to Surya. Yet I couldn’t help feeling the fear was more in the mind and could be overcome. That’s what I should have done – refuse – when Surya threatened me with a curse.

Many stories came to my mind.

I reminded him the story of King Vyushitaswa and his chaste wife Bhadra whom he loved dearly. The king, however, died of phthisis caused by sexual excess. Bhadra’s devotion to her husband was such that her husband granted her seven children by directing her to sleep with his corpse. If Vyushitaswa was capable of this feat, Pandu could do much better, I thought; and why not, he had already become a Brahma-rishi!

Pandu wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. For his part, he recounted how women in the past enjoyed freely, without inviting scorn and condemnation. The Northern Kurus practised it too; but the practice fell into disrepute because it was condemned by Sages like Swetaketu who was once enraged when a Brahmana seized his mother’s hands in the presence of his father Uddalaka, demanding gratification. Uddalaka himself had no problems with whatever his wife did.

More stories folowed — Madayanti’s encounter with Vasishtha, with the subsequent birth of Asmaka; and Ambika’s and Ambalika’s liaison with Vyasa that brought forth Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Without a son, no salvation for the languishing ancestors; without a son to rule, anarchy in the kingdom: those were Pandu’s unshakable beliefs. And a chaste wife had to do her husband’s bidding. It was drummed into me again and again.

I had to relent.

Pandu advised me to choose some high caste Brahmana of immense ascetic merit. I told him of Durvaasa’s mantra, and he didn’t even blink. I felt he knew about my earlier encounter already. At a later time, he was to tell me it was best to keep it under wraps.