King Shantanu who ruled over Hastinapur fell in love with the river goddess, Ganga. He promised that he'd never question her. Queen Ganga drowned baby after baby and Shantanu didn't question her. Eventually, he did question her after the eighth child. Ganga told Shantanu explained the truth and left with the one remaining child.
Shantanu met his long lost son Devavrat while he was shooting arrows at the river. Shantanu brought back Devavrat as the prince. Shantanu tried to marry Satyavati but her fisherman father said no. Devavrat went to talk with the fisherman about letting Shantanu marry his daughter. Devavrat vowed to never marry and became known as Bhishma (he with the terrible curse). Shantanu recognized the sacrifice and gave Bhishma a boon to be able to choose his own death.
Vitchitraveerya, Bhishma's half brother, became king of Hastinapur but he was not in good health. Bhishma then went to another kingdom (Kashi) and stole their three princesses to marry Vitchitraveerya so that he would have an heir. The princesses were named Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika.
The eldest princess pleaded to go back to the man she loved. Bhishma reluctantly agreed but then sent the princess to go beg to marry with Bhishma. Bhishma said no though because he promised his father that he would not marry. Amba was very upset. No one would marry Amba because no one wanted to challenge Bhishma for her. Amba wanted to be the reason for Bhishma's death.
Vichitraveerya soon died and had no king or prince despite having two queens. Queen Satyavati ordered Bhishma to have kids. Bhishma would not comply. Soon, Satyavati told Bhishma of another son that she never told him about named Vyasa. Vyasa came when Satyavati asked for him to come. However, Vyasa was not attractive and the two queens were not happy.
Because Vyasa was not attractive, his son with Ambika was doomed to be blind. The other son with Ambalika was doomed to be pale. But the next time a servant was sent that loved Vyasa and they had a son too. Ambika's son was Dhritarashtra who was blind. Ambalika gave birth to Pandu who was pale and weak but a great archer. The servant gave birth to Vidura who grew to be wise. Bhishma was the teacher for each of the children. There was always rivalry between Dhritarashtra and Pandu.
Dhritarashtra became King of Hastinapur. Pandu became director of the army. Vidura helped Pandu and Pandu was seen as king. Dhritarashtra became married to Gandhari who blinded herself so that she could match Dhritarashtra. Pandu married Kunti and Madri.
 |
| Image of Bhishma taking the oath. Image from Wikimedia |
"Epified: Mahabharata, Part A". Epified. YouTube. Found online here
No comments:
Post a Comment