hitopadesha

This happened a very long time ago much before the active incidents of Mahabharata began its course. There was a king by name Shantanu who was the ruler of Hastinapura. One day he was taking time off in the forest when he came upon a very beautiful lady. Shantanu instantly fell in love with her and asked her hand in marriage. She agreed but put forth a condition that she would leave him the moment he questioned as to who she was or if he questioned any of her actions. Enamoured by her quick acceptance, he readily agreed to her condition and promised her that he would never question any of her actions as long as she agrees to be with him.

There was a royal marriage and Shantanu was leading a happy life with his new wife. Soon she became pregnant and bore him a son. Shantanu was very happy but soon to his dismay and shock, she took the son and drowned him in the Ganges river. Shantanu was very disappointed but he could not question her actions for the fear of losing her and also because of the promise he made her. But tragedy did not seem to leave him that easily. This behaviour of his wife continued for another six more of their children and all of them were drowned in the Ganges river. All the time, Shantanu kept telling himself that this was just a freak behaviour and soon things would be alright. But having lost seven sons to the river and to his wife’s eccentricities, he was no longer himself. But at the same time he did not want to lose her and never questioned her actions for the fear of losing her as he was so madly in love with her.

Soon they had their eight child and this time Shantanu could not contain himself by the fear that he is going to lose another son to the river Ganges. So he confronted his wife and asked her who she really was and why was she killing all thier children as only a heartless mother could do such an act. But alas, he has broken his promise and his wife told him who she really was. She was the river Ganges and it was an earlier curse that had to be fulfilled and hence she had to drown the first seven children (I will write the story of the curse in another post). And that the eighth child was supposed to be theirs and if only Shantanu had not broken his promise they could have lived happily for the rest of their lives. But it is not supposed to be so and she had to leave him and she also said that she was going to take the eighth son with her and he will be returned to the king at the appropriate time. Shantanu was devastated hearing this but he could do nothing to stop her and Ganges left him along with their son.

Many years passed and Shantanu slowly recovered from that incident. One day he went hunting to the forest and was lost and tired when he came up to the river to drink some water. On the opposite side he saw a young lad with all the virtues to be a prince and demonstrated exceptional archery skill. The king was quite impressed with the lad and asked him who he was. Just then Ganga appeared and told Shantanu that he was none other than the eighth son and that it was appropriate time for her to return the son to the king. Unfortunately Ganges would never come back to him as the king did not keep up his word but gladly handed over his son to him. They named him Devavrata and he grew up to be an intelligent and worthy prince. He later became Bhishma who is one of the central character of Mahabharata. But more about the story of how he became Bhishma in another post.

I hope you enjoyed one of the earliest stories of Mahabharata which sets a platform for an important character of this epic and also for numerous more stories yet to come.

Until next time,

peace,
aditya.