I'd like to start doing research upon a character from the
Mahabharatha named Amba/Sakandi.  Amba is a princess kidnapped by
Bhishma to be his brother's wife, but is set free to mary King Salwa. 
I'm interested in the parts of the epic that discuss her story - the
kidnapping, the rejection from Salwa, her rejection from Bhishma
afterwards, her transformation into Sakandi, her confrontation with
Bhishma in battle, and where the epic leaves her.

Could you please identify the books of the epic that portray these
events?

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Clarification of Question by shackman66-ga on 31 Oct 2005 02:38 PST

(If there are any sources that deal directly with Amba/Sakandi's
story, I'd appreciate any and leads . . .)

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 31 Oct 2005 03:35 PST

Is this the sort of text that you have in mind? 
http://www.warriormonks.com/kurukshetra/udyoga-parva/up-6.html
(In this story, the spelling is "Shikhandi.")

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Clarification of Question by shackman66-ga on 31 Oct 2005 06:24 PST

Yes, simply knowing the book and chapter will suffice, but summaries
are also helpful.  I'm simply trying to outline what parts I plan to
read in translation.  As far as resources are considered, I'd prefer
actual translations to summaries, but am open to commentaries as well.
 (Also, there always seem to be many different spellings when sanskrit
is translated to english, and so knowing any other variant spellings
of their names would be helpful).

the name is indeed "shikhandi" and not sakandi. a brief summary is as under.

the story goes like that after rejection from salwa and from bhishma,
who cannot marry her as he has taken a vow of bachelorhood for life,
amba holds bhishma totally responsible for her plight; as it was
bhishma who had kidnapped her in the first place.

distraught and in rage she goes to the woods and does great penance
... then Shiva appeared before her and she asked him to give her a
boon that jst as bhishma was the cause of her plight she wanted to be
the cause of his death.

Shiva granted her saying in her next birht she would be a man and
would be the cause of bhishma's death. Then she, unable to wait, makes
a pyre and kills herself. In her next birth she is born as the warrior
shikhandi.

During the battle of kurukshetra, when Arjun and Bhishma are fighting
each other, Krishna knew that there is no way that arjun can defeat
Bhishma. Krishna however also knew about Shikhandi being Amba and her
boon from Shiva. He also knew that Bhishma would never shoot at a
woman. So he asks Shikhandi to stand before Arjun as a shield while
Arjun shot arrows at Bhishma ... and made him a bed of arrows.