Turīya·Sūtrathe thread to the fourth

← Back to the Banyan, at this story ← Yayāti · Aṇimāṇḍavya →

STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Ādi

Mahābhiṣa

Classical

Before there was a Bhishma, there was a king named Mahabhisha. He was of the Ikshvaku line, had earned heaven through a thousand horse sacrifices and a hundred Rajasuyas, and was among the royal sages and gods gathered to honour Brahma. The river goddess Ganga came to pay her respects. A gust of wind lifted her white garment, and the gods lowered their eyes. Mahabhisha alone stared.

Brahma cursed him for losing his composure. He would be born on earth, though he would eventually return to the heavenly worlds. Ganga was cursed too, to be born as a human woman and to cause him pain, and the curse on him would end when his anger was roused. Mahabhisha considered the kings and ascetics of the earth and chose to be born as the son of Pratipa, a powerful king. That is the first act in the making of Bhishma's father Shantanu, and eventually of Bhishma himself.

On her way to earth Ganga, still drawn to Mahabhisha, met the eight Vasus, the elemental gods, who were also heading down. The sage Vasishtha had cursed them. The cause, as Ganga later explains to Shantanu, was that Dyu's wife wanted Vasishtha's wish-granting cow Nandini for a friend, Jitavati, so that the friend would stay young and healthy. Dyu stole the cow with his brothers' help, and when Vasishtha, who is also called Apava, came back and saw it missing, he cursed all the Vasus to be born on earth. They begged for the curse to be lifted. He would not, but he said they would be freed within a year of their births, except for Dyu, who would stay on earth a long time, be virtuous, learned and obedient to his father, have no children, and avoid women.

The Vasus asked Ganga to become a woman and be their mother, and to drown each baby at birth so that their time among men would be short. They named Shantanu, Pratipa's future son, as their father. To keep her union with him from being altogether without fruit, they agreed that one son would live, and that each Vasu would give an eighth of his power to that son, who would be childless. Ganga agreed.

The story then moves to Pratipa. He was doing penance at the source of the Ganga when a beautiful woman, Ganga herself, sat on his right thigh and asked him to marry her. He refused because of his vow, but accepted her as a future daughter-in-law. She agreed, and asked that her husband never judge her actions. Pratipa's son Shantanu was born, and when he was grown his father told him to accept the woman if he ever met her and not ask where she came from. Shantanu, hunting, saw a dazzling girl on the Ganges bank and asked her to be his wife.

She accepted, with the condition that he must never question what she did. Year after year she drowned each child at birth, saying it was for his good. Shantanu, afraid she would leave, said nothing. When the eighth was born and she moved to throw him in the river, Shantanu cried out and called her a murderess of her sons. She said she would spare this child, but the agreement had ended. She told him she was Ganga, daughter of Jahnu, and explained everything about the Vasus, and that she had stayed with him only as long as her promise required. She took the boy, called him Gangadatta, and went. In the text he is later known as Gangeya and as Devavrata, the boy who will grow into the Bhishma of the epic, and Shantanu goes home to his capital in sorrow.

So Bhishma is a fallen Vasu raised by a river goddess, the son of a king who was once a god who stared too long.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Bhīṣma

Where this comes from

See it on the tree · All stories

← Yayāti · Aṇimāṇḍavya →