Reading Notes: Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata Part A

 King Shantanu

Shantanu and Matsyagandhi: Wikimedia Commons

  • King Shantanu lives in a palace in Hastinapura but had no queen. One day he went hunting and saw a woman down by the river and it was love at first sight. He asked her to marry him and she said yes, but he can never question her actions. He agreed and they married and a year later had a child together. On the day the baby was born, the Queen carried it down to the river and drowned him but the King did not question her actions.
  • The Story of Mahabhisha gives background to Shantanu's story. King Mahabhisha earned so much merit that he ascended to Indra's heaven. There, he had a tree that granted him every wish he could imagine. One day a breeze blew the goddess Ganga's garment aside and Mahabhisha couldn't resist and stared at her exposed breasts. He was banished back to earth and Ganga was told to take human birth and break his heart. Mahabhisha was then reborn on earth as Shantanu.
  • King Shantanu's Queen that he married in the first story drowned child after child they had together. It totaled to seven children and on the eighth Shantanu told her to stop and that he forbids her from killing this child too. She let the child live but said that meant she had to leave him now. She was Ganga and put on the earth to marry him, bear his children, and drown them as soon as they were born. Their children were the eight Vasus, gods of the eight elements and forced to be born as humans.




Bibliography: Laura Gibbs: Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata Part A 


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