Kargil, King Mandhata And Pregnant Father Yuvanashva

We just celebrated the Kargil Vijay Diwas on 26th July and recalled the valour, sacrifice and heroics of our soldiers during the eventful days India spent pushing back Pakistani army intruders from the snow covered high peaks of the rugged, inhospitable, harsh terrain of Kargil in 1999. On a flat face of one of the surrounding mountains, Kargil hides a carving of a giant male with a penis and also a womb, complete with an upside-down baby in the foetus position. It unmistakably shows a pregnant male body. There are more than fifty of these gigantic carving in the newly defined UT of Ladakh, including some of them in the Gilgit-Baltistan area occupied by Pakistan. (Ref: British Traveller, Author, Alice Albinia. “Empires of the Indus” 2008, Pages 271, 273) Many years ago I wrote to ASI requesting for details, however there was no response. I needed the information as I am personally connected with the womb-transplant surgeon who possibly surgically assisted the King Yuvanashva to become pregnant and ultimately deliver the child, a future greatest among the kings, The King Mandhata. Coming from the Dallabh Gotra, I happen to come from the lineage of Rishi Dallabh, the surgeon, who possibly conducted that surgery. The importance and greatness of the mighty king Mandhata can be seen even now in the form of a tall mountain named after him, Mount Mandhata, lying near the south bank of the holy lake Manasarovar. If you consider its height as any indication, it is taller than any other mountain in its vicinity, such as Mount Kailash, near the north bank of the holy lake Manasarovar.(Mount Kailash height- 6638m, Mount Mandhata height- 7100m) The holy mountain Kailash, holy lake Manasarovar and the Ravana-fame Rakshasa lake could be easily reachable from Ladakh but for the current situation at LAC and the fact that China has occupied our Aksai Chin, we have no current access to those holy sites from Ladakh. The terrain there is harsh, typically a cold desert. A good motorable road, route G210, exists between the townships of Rutog and Darchen. Both are Chinese Military towns, one, Rutog, is near the border of Aksai Chin and the other, Darchen, is at the base of holy Mount Kailash. From the Aksai Chin-Tibet border, it takes just about 6 hours to cover the distance of about 600 kms between these towns. The stories we read in various available ancient texts tell us that Mandhata had a huge frame, inherited from the DNA of his dad, King Yuvanashva, who too was unusually huge. Yuvanashva’s wife, Queen Gauri, could not sustain the foetus taking massive shape in her womb and succumbed. She died during mid-pregnancy. The foetus however was recovered but needed a big sized recipient. Thus, the father, Yuvanashva became the only alternative and was transplanted in his large abdomen. Boy was subsequently delivered surgically from the abdomen. The story specifically states that the child was “removed from the side of the abdomen”. (The new scientific breakthrough suggests that this impossible looking surgery is done and can be done Ref: Rachael Rettner, livescience.com-health-not-hype, published November 07, 2017, Can Men Get Pregnant? Ectopic-pregnancy healthline.com By KC Clements on July 12, 2023) Another version of the story tells us that the Giant King Yuvanashva, during a deer-hunting trip, became thirsty and entered a cottage, looking for water. He found water in a pot but there was no one to whom he could ask. Being very thirsty, nevertheless he drank that water. He had no inkling that it was specially consecrated water to bless someone else, a childless woman, to become pregnant, resulting in him becoming pregnant. Also there are various stories of Rishi Dallabh curing the childlessness of a holy Sati, Savitri of the Satyavan-Savitry fame. Then there are stories of Dallabh Rishi saving underage Kshatriya Princes and some worthy Kshatriya Kings from the axe of Bhagavan Parshuram by convincing Him using logical arguments. Thus, although this and other versions of stories are variously mentioned, there seems to be only scanty information available which can be called “History” in the modern sense. Under the circumstances, definitive conclusions from these stories being impossible, we can only hypothesise, interpret and speculate based on the latest available tools and knowledge. (Note: Majority of ancient Indian texts are lost. Yuvanashva is estimated to be from an era of 6000 bc. During that long history of thousands of years, natural calamities, foreign invasions, temples/libraries burning, lootings, have happened resulting in loss of many ancient texts. Even from the currently available about 40 million manuscripts, the “National Mission for Manuscripts (NAMAMI), set up in 2003, has listed just 3.5 million manuscripts out of the estimated 40 million in India. “The two-third of these are in Sanskrit and 95 per cent are yet to be translated and are not yet read”- Bibek Debroy Chairman Niti Aayog speech on 27 Dec 2018 at Rashtrapati Nivas, Shimla). The intriguing story of Mandhata and the pregnancy of his fathet, the king Yuvanashva is so facinating that a famous author Devdutta Pattanaik also has written a ‘fiction’ book titled “The Pregnant King”, published in 2008. Festival of “Sindhu Darshan” and Ladakh Tourism circuits must include visits to the Giant carving of Yuvanashva on the rock face with appropriate narrative of “Vocal for Local” and Glory of Ancient India narrative celebrating great kings and our medical prowesses since ancient times.(Shri L K Advani introduced the festival of “Sindhu Darshan” and began celebrating in Ladakh on the bank of River Sindhu since the year 2000)