Indra and Shachi

INDRA AND SHACHI

The lord of heaven and his devoted wife


The Indra of the Vedas is a very powerful king, the ruler of the heavens. But as we come to the epics, we find he becomes more and more human. He faces a number of problems, the type that mortal kings face on earth. He has many enemies who seek to usurp his kingdom.

His wife is the beautiful Shachi. She is counted as one of the great women like Anasuya, Savitri, Arundhati and Sita, to whom the husband was the sole lord. By their love and devotion to their husbands, they have merited a place as ideals of Indian womanhood. In the story of Indra and Shachi retold from the Mahabharata. We trace the fluctuating fortunes of Indra in his battle with the evil forces seeking to oust him. We see how the devotion of his wife leaves him unscathed through his tribulations. Shachi is a figure many women admire and strive to emulate. This story is adapted from the Mahabharata. It is narrated to Yudhishthira before the Mahabharata war.