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Bhishma's bed of arrows: why? (karma explanations)

Popular

Hook: 'Bhishma's bed of arrows' - find the past-life telling (gap).

Wikipedia's Bhishma page gives no past-life explanation for his arrow bed, only the conduct explanation that he obeyed Dhritarashtra's mostly adharmic orders and kept silent, and 'paid with the bed of arrows'. Popular karma tellings (the Krishna-and-Bhishma lore about a prior deed) were not located in a source I could read.

Who: Bhishma, Krishna

Bound to

The eight Vasus, Vasishtha's cow, and Bhishma's birth past-life-explains

Devavrata's terrible vow: how he became Bhīṣma mirror

Day ten: Śikhaṇḍin and Arjuna fell Bhīṣma; the bed of arrows, the pillow and the water curse

Yudhiṣṭhira's Grief and Coronation origin

Bhīṣma Leaves His Body at the Turning of the Sun origin

Places: Kurukshetra

Where this comes from

• commentary · Wikipedia: Bhishma

See it on the tree · All stories

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