Storytelling Week 12: Story of Rishyashringa

My name is Rishyashringa and I am going to tell you a little story about me. In my story, there are two significant events that happened to me. I am going to tell you a story about my birth and how I met my lovely wife. I hope you enjoy.

Birth story:
When my parents first told me my birth story, I was a little disturbed because it is quite unusual. To start off, I am a little different from others because I am half deer and half human. My birth story sounds embarrassing, but here it goes. One day, my dad, Vibhandaka, was taking a walk around his house. He told me it was part of his daily routine. While he was walking around, he said he saw someone at the lake. Because there were so many bushes around the lake, he could not see who it was, so he decided to get close up. When he got close to the lake, he saw a beautiful woman taking a bath. The beautiful women was an apsara named Urvashi. He told me that she was so beautiful that he immediately ejaculated and the sperm went into the lake. Vibhandaka was so embarrassed about what had just happened. As he was leaving the lake, he saw a deer drinking the water. My dad did not know that this event would result in a birth of son. Through this dramatic story, I was born.

Because my mom is a deer, I have some unique looks. I have an antler on my head and some spots on my body, but luckily, all the rest is human. The unique mixture of DNA also resulted in some superpower because I was able to control the weather.



How I met my wife:
It was just a normal day. I was just outside of my house enjoying the weather. Some lady came to my house looking for me. It was weird meeting another human because the only human I've interacted with was my father. This lady's name was Shanta and I just fell in love at first sight. All of sudden, she hugged me and kissed me. I was surprised by her action, but I liked it. Since I did not have any human friends, it was nice interacting with another human. She stayed over that night and we had a great time.

After I put Shanta to bed, Dad asked me to come speak to him. I thought my dad would be happy for me, but he told me to stay away from Shanta. He said she was evil. I could not listen to him because I was already in love with Shanta. I told him that there was nothing he could do because I was already in love with her.

She stayed for the rest of the week. Shanta told me that she was princess of Anga and that she needed to go back soon. I asked her if I could go with her and she happily said yes!

The next day, Shanta and I packed up and went to Anga. When we arrived there, it started to rain and Shanta seemed so happy. I asked her why and she told me that Anga has been waiting for my power because they were going through a drought. Although I felt used a little bit, it did not matter because I loved Shanta.

Rishyasringa and Shanta

Author's Note

I decided to write a story about Rishyashringa. He had an interesting birth story and I thought he was a good character to write about. I was quite shocked when I read his original story because the content was pretty sexual. I wrote the story in first person so that the story came from Rishyashringa's point of view and made it sound like he was telling a story to some other person. I kept the original story for the most part, but added little details so that it would not be the same as the original. I made Rishyashringa have spots on his body and described each event more in-depth. Other than that, I wanted to keep the story original. I found the perfect picture of Shanta and Rishyasringa so I thought it was suited for my story. In the picture, it displays the antlers on  his head which shows that he wan't a full human. The one thing I learned from this story was that no matter how we look or where we are from, we deserve to be loved and to love. Although Rishyashringa had a different look, Shanta fell in love with him. I hope we all can love like Rishyashringa and Shanta.

Bibliography:

• Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata.