How could Śāntanu marry a river?
Bhīṣma was the oldest member of the Kuru Dynasty, the son of King Śāntanu and Gangā. How could Śāntanu marry a river, and where does this story lead?
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Once, Śāntanu met Gaṅgādevī, the personification of the river Ganges, while walking on the banks of the river. Without knowing who she was, Śāntanu immediately courted the beautiful maiden, who agreed to marry him under the condition that he would never question anything she did, whether good or bad. If he ever questioned her, she would leave immediately.
Some question how Śāntanu could have married a river, but in this case it’s not about the river but the demigoddess that presides over it. It is just like the sun and Vivasvān, the solar deity. Both can be called “sun,” but there is a great difference between the solar globe and the demigod that presides over it, just as there is between a king and his kingdom.
Śāntanu accepted, and soon they conceived a son. However, as soon as the child was born, she took him to the river and drowned him. Bound by his promise, however, Śāntanu couldn’t do anything. The same scene repeated for each of their next children, and each time Śāntanu was terrified but did not say anything. When she took their eighth child, he was unable to contain himself and finally questioned her on who she was and how she could kill their children so mercilessly.
At that moment, Gangā finally revealed her true identity and explained the reason for her actions. The eight children were the eight Vasus, who had been cursed to take birth on earth after stealing the cow of the great sage Vasiṣṭha, a kāmadhenu who could satisfy all desires. Gangā had agreed to come to earth to become their mother and thus liberate them quickly from the curse.
She had chosen Śāntanu to become their father, knowing that he would break the condition for their marriage after they were born, allowing her to return to her celestial position. Seven of the vasus could return immediately to their celestial positions, but the chief among them, the one who had taken the cow, had to live a human life. This eighth vasu, known as Devavrata, was taken by her for education and later delivered to Śāntanu as his son.
Later, Śāntanu met Satyavatī, the daughter of a local fisherman, who had been blessed by the great sage Parāśara Muni to have a divine bodily fragrance. Śāntanu immediately wanted to marry her, but when he approached her father, he demanded that her sons would inherit the throne instead of Devavrata, the eldest son. Śāntanu couldn’t agree with this proposal, but when his son heard of it, he made a vow of lifelong celibacy. With this, he removed himself from the royal succession and opened the path for his father’s second marriage. For this vow, he became known as Bhīṣma, “One who has taken a terrible vow”, and received the blessing that he would die only at the time of his choosing.
During the battle of Kurukṣetra, Bhīṣma was pierced by numerous arrows shot by Arjuna, which formed a kind of bed, preventing his body from touching the ground when he fell. Still, because of the blessing, he didn’t die. He remained on his bed of arrows on the battlefield for several months, and left his body only months later at a particularly auspicious moment, in the presence of Kṛṣṇa. His glorious passing away is narrated in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Bhīṣma was so powerful that he once fought Paraśurāma to a standstill. Paraśurāma had previously exterminated the kṣatriyas of the world twenty-one times, but still, he couldn’t defeat Bhīṣma in battle. The story is that at a certain point, Bhīṣma kidnapped Amba to marry her to his half-brother, Vicitravīrya. However, because she was already in love with Śālva, Vicitravīrya refused to marry her. Śālva, in turn, also refused because she had been kidnapped by another man. Put in such a situation, she demanded Bhīṣma marry her since he was the one who created the situation by kidnapping her in the first place, but he refused because of his vow of brahmacārya. She then took shelter of Paraśurāma, who, being the martial guru of Bhīṣmadeva, promised to help her. When Bhīṣma refused to marry Amba, Paraśurāma fought with him, but after Bhīṣma held his own for twenty-three days, he had to admit that he would not be able to defeat him. Amba then practiced severe austerities with the goal of killing Bhīṣma and eventually was reborn as Śikhaṇḍī, who joined the Pāṇḍava army and was instrumental in defeating Bhīṣmadeva.
Even though he had two wives, Ambikā and Ambālikā, Vicitravīrya died without a son, creating a succession crisis that is central to the plot of the Mahābhārata. With the bloodline of Śāntanu broken, Satyavatī revealed to Bhīṣma that she had a child with Parāśara Muni before her marriage with King Śāntanu. It happened that when she was young, she was helping her father as a boatwoman, ferrying people across the river. Once, Parāśara needed to cross the river and asked for her help. During the trip, however, he became attracted to her and promised to bless her and keep her virginity intact if she would unite with him. That’s how she got the blessing of possessing a divine bodily fragrance. Being Parāśara a great sage, this union was not considered irreligious, and because of his blessing, it also didn’t prevent Satyavatī from marrying Śāntanu later, just in the case of Kuntī begetting a child with the sun-god. Their union produced a divine son, Vyāsadeva, who was born instantly and quickly grew into an adult, just like a demigod. Vyāsa left shortly after his birth, but he promised his mother to come whenever she needed him.
Remembering that, she invoked Vyāsa to perform niyoga, the ancient practice where a qualified sage would be invoked to beget a child on a widow to preserve a family line. Such unions would not be performed out of lust but as a sacred duty and would be in accordance with the path of dharma. Vyāsa accepted but warned her that he had been performing austerities for a long time, and for that reason, his appearance was frightening.
Satyavatī and the two queens accepted, but when Vyāsa approached Ambikā, she became afraid and closed her eyes. This led to the birth of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who was blind from birth. Ambālikā became pale, and this led to the birth of Pāṇḍu, who was of weak health. Satyavatī pressed for one more son, but this time Ambikā hid and sent a maidservant in her place, leading to the birth of Vidura. With this, Pāṇḍu inherited the throne, but with his early demise, his five sons were left fatherless and had to survive all the intrigues of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and his sons, leading to the battle of Kurukṣetra.
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