Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part A Review

King Shantanu asked the river goddess Ganga to marry him and she said yes as long as he never questioned her or became angry with her. The king agreed. When their first child was born Ganga drowned him and the king said nothing. This happened 6 more times. When their 8th child was born, Ganga was going to drown him but the king couldn't take it anymore and questioned her. She said she had agreed to free 8 celestial beings who were cursed to live mortal lives and these were those beings. The goddess left the king with the 8th child.

Later the king found a man who was so talented with his bow that he halted the Ganga river. He was impressed and Ganga appeared telling him that this was his son. The king later fell in love with a fisherman's daughter named Satyavati. He asked her to marry him but she said no because her father believed that her children would never be able to be king due to the kings current children. There was nothing the king could do so he left heartbroken and let his duty slip. Devavrat, the kings son, swore in front of all the gods that he would never marry to ensure to the fisherman that his daughters children would get the throne if she married the king. He did this for his fathers happiness and became known as Bishma. This caused great unrest within the king as he felt his son had made a mistake. He granted his son the power to chose when and how he would die, and death would not be able to touch him unless he granted it.

One of Bishma's half brothers died and the other inherited the throne but was not in good health. Bishma captured three princesses to try and find a wife for his half brother. Amba was one of these princesses and tried to return to her love to marry him but he said no. She blamed Bishma for ruining her life and set out to find someone to exact her revenge. She found the sage Parshuram who said he would get Bishma to marry her but failed and fought Bishma. The fight lasted 23 days and they were evenly matched but eventually Bishma prevailed.

The king died and there was no heir to the throne. Satyavati told Bishma to have a son but he refused. She then told him of the son she had before she met the king with a sage called Parashar. The son was named Vyas and she had sent him away but he would return when summoned. He returned but the two princesses were scared of him and did not want to have their children. Due to these fears, the child that was to be born would be blind and the next would be pale with bad health. A servant girl was sent to embrace Vyas and she had no fear. The 3 children were born as told but grew to be great in their own ways but now there were too many contenders for the throne.

The blind prince married Gandhari who always knew her husband would be blind and she gave up her sight as well. Her brother viewed this as an injustice and vowed to get revenge.

Source: Epified, Mahabharata Part A

Mahabharata