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This story starts in the age, when the Kings of Kurus dynasty, descendent of the race of the moon, ruled the kingdom of Hastinpura. Shantanu, the son of Praterpa was a great king.He had married Ganga. Ganga had imposed a condition before agreeing to marry him. Shantanu would never question Ganga for whatever she did. The king had promised to observe this condition.
Ganga was a very beautiful. In short she was an ideal queen, Shantanu and Ganga were very much in love with each other. Time passed very quickly.
Days and months passed. Ganga was blessed with a son and the king joy knew no bounds. When the king visited the chamber of the queen, the servants informed him that the queen had gone to the banks of the river Ganga with the newborn child. When he reached the riverbank, he was horrified to see that the child had been thrown in Ganga by the queen. Bound by his promise, he could not question Ganga, why had she acted in such a ghastly manner. Grief stricken, he returned to his palace with the queen and the life began as usual.
During the years to come,Ganga bore six more sons and threw them all in the river Ganga. The king became much aggrieved and lost his peace of mind. Ganga became pregnant again, with the eighth child and the kings desire to get a successor became too powerful. He kept a close watch on the queen. When the child was born, the queen again left for the riverbank. The king caught her and begged her to spare the child.
Ganga reminded the king of his promise to her that he would never question her actions. But this time the grief stricken king could not restrain himself and he had stopped Ganga while she was going to throw the eighth child in the river Ganga. Ganga said that she could no longer live with the king. To all the entreaties of the king, the queen said, " My lord, I am Ganga, the river. Now the time has come for me to go, the heavens and the gods ordain so. I must go." The king overwhelmed with grief made one more appeal to her and vended her of all the love that they bore for each other. He once again asked her to stay back. Then Ganga with tears in her eyes narrated her strange story.
She said, "I am Ganga and I belong to the heavens. In your previous birth you were a great king named Mahabhisakh. Once in the court of Indra you saw and fell in love with me. I also desired you to be my husband. The gods were angry and they cursed me to be born on earth and become your wife.The sons born to me are Vasus. They also were cursed, to be born on earth. They begged me to be their mother here and requested that I should kill them at their birth so that they could be free of their earthly life at the earliest. Seven of our sons were killed and became free of their curse. But the eighth Vasu would have to spend a long time on earth according to the curse. Therefore, he has been allowed to live. Do not grieve my Lord, The gods ordain cannot be undone."
She said again, " My Lord allow me to take this son, I shall take all possible care of him and at the appropriate time I shall return him to you. He shall become a worthy successor to the great throne of the Pauravas. He shall be the greatest among all the Pauravas who have adorned the throne of the kings of the lunar race. Saying this Ganga left the king and went away with the child. King Shantanu was left lonely, sad, deject and heart-broken."/
AFTER SIXTEEN YEARS:
Sixteen years passed. King Shantanu, was very fond of going to the forest for hunting,Once, there he saw an awesome sight.A Youth had made a dam of his arrows and the flow of Ganga had been stemmed. While the king was marveling at the extra ordinary skill of the youth, Ganga emerged from the waters and spoke to the king, "My Lord, this youth is our son. He has received the best possible education and is now a worthy prince to the successor of the throne of Hastinapura. He has learnt Political science from Brhiaspati, the guru of the gods, Vedas and Vedangas from Sage Vasistha, Bhargava (also called Parashurama) taught him archery." Then she told the young man to touch the feet of his father, Shantanu. The king happily returned to his palace and proclaimed the good news to all his people. He declared that his son, whose name was Devavrata would be the crown prince.
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Devavrata proved himself to be an ideal son and a model prince. He won the hearts of all. The king was a doting father. For four years, they lived in perfect bliss.
One day, again king went hunting in a forest on the banks of the river Yamuna. Their divine fragrance assailed his senses. Following the ascent he reached on the riverbank and saw an extremely beautiful woman who was tying up her boat. The king became smitten by love at first sight. After inquiring about her name and her father's name, he approached her father, a head of the fishermen. The woman's name was Satyavati. The king asked her hand in marriage from her father. The fisherman replied that his daughter could marry the king only if he agreed that the son born of her daughter would inherit the throne. The king could not agree to this condition. He was unable to do such a great injustice to his son Devavrata. He quietly came to the palace. He became very dejected and sullen and lost all interest in the administration of the kingdom.
The change in the behaviour of the king was noticed by all and Devavrata became very concerned. He came to know from the king charioteer, what had happened. He went to the fisherman and asked him to agree to his daughter's marriage to his father. The fisherman repeated his condition,he at once said that he would ensure that the son born of Satyavati became the king after his father. The fisherman was not yet convinced. He said, "I have full faith in you and in what you say. But I cannot be so sure of your sons, who may stake their claim to the throne." Devavrata made a terrible vow, that he would never marry so that such a situation would never arise. The earth and the heavens resounded with this terrible vow and the sound of "Bhishma". "Bhishma" echoed through out the heavens and the earth. After this Devavrata became famous as "Bhishma".
The fisherman agreed for the marriage proposal. Bhishma, along with his new mother Satyavati returned to the palace and narrated these things to his father. Shantanu became over whelmed with joy and also became terribly sad, realising the extent of Bhishma sacrifice. With trembling voice and eyes full of tears he gave Bhishma a boon that he would die only when he wished. The death shall have to wait on him. The king used up all his accumulated penance to grant this boon to his son.
The marriage between Satyavati and Shantanu was a happy one and two son, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya were born to them. In the course of years, the king grew old and passed away and the sons too grew up. Prince Chitrangada was too young to run the administration of the kingdom. So, Bhishma acted as a regent to him. A few years passed thus, uneventfully, then the tragedy struck. There was a Ghandharva king bearing the same name as Prince Chitrangada. He resented it very much that mere mortal should bear his name. So he challenged the prince for a fight and the Gandharva killed Chitrangada in it. Now Vichitravirya was crowned as the king and Bhishma acting as the regent. People were very happy in Hastinpura under the rule of Bhishma.
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