End Of Shantanu

King Shantanu of Hastinapur

 .... One day he fell in love with the disguised Ganga and proposed marriage to her. After agreeing to the terms of the marriage, the king saw that when a son was born, his wife floated them in the river Ganges. After enduring this ordeal seven times in a row, the king protested for the eighth time. Then Ganga Devi disappeared with her identity as per the conditions.

Promising to return the son when he grows up, he took his son along with him. When one of their wives fell in love with Munir's cow Nandini, she requested her husband Prabhas to steal the cow. Prabhas with the help of others stole the cow and gave it as a gift to his wife.

Gradually Basishta Muni came to know about the incident and cursed everyone to be born in mortal world. But at the request of Astabasud, all except Prabhas had to take human birth for a few moments and some punishment was eased as Prabhas would be famous in the mortal world. According to him, Debabrata was the only Basu who lived a human life on earth.

While living with his mother, Bhishma Dev Guru learned political science from Jupiter, Veda and Bedang from Vasishta Muni and archery from Parshuram Muni and became an ideal statesman. He even won against Guru Parashuram. That war lasted for 23 days. Bhishma's great promise.

Bhishma's great promise

Prince Debabrata was awarded the title of Bhishma for taking a solemn promise and fulfilling it wholeheartedly. King Shantanu Dhivar (fisherman) fell in love with Princess Satyavati and proposed marriage to her. Dhivar Raj says that since Debabrata is the first son of Shantanu, Satyavati's son will never get a chance to become king.

So he rejected this offer of King Shantanu. Then Prince Debabrata vowed that he would never be king. The far-sighted fisherman Raj later said that the marriage was not possible even if the successors of Debabrata demanded the throne. Then Debabrata further vowed that he would never marry. His name is Bhishma for this great promise.

The fisherman agreed to these two conditions and gave the girl to King Shantanu. King Shantanu was pleased and gave Bhishma the gift of voluntary death. At this time, the real secret of this promise of Bhishma was spread in the heavens and the earth. Many began to say that the king did not have the power to remove the real inheritance of the throne, as promised by King Shantanu Debabrata.

Then Bhishma himself explained everything and said that he had promised according to his own will. But Kulguru questioned what would happen if the next prince was disqualified from the throne. Then Bhishma vowed again that no matter who the king was, he would always act as the chief adviser to the king and would not allow any insult to King Shantanu's dynasty.

Bhishma kidnaps three princesses Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika from Swayambhar Sabha Bhisma brought three princesses, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika, from a swayambhara sabha organized by Kashi Raja to marry his half-brother Bichitravirya. Among them, the eldest daughter Amba was the lover of King Shalva of Saubal. When Amba reached Hastinapur and told Bhishma about it, Bhishma arranged to send Amba to Shalwar.

But Shalb then said that since Amba had spent a lot of time with another man, it was disgraceful for him to marry Amba. In fact, Shalva also came to the Swayambhara meeting and felt very humiliated after being badly defeated by Bhishma. In this situation Amba tells Bhishma that since he is the one who has won Amba from Swayambhara Sabha, Bhishma should take Amba as his wife.

Promising Bhishma, remembering his promise, Amber rejected the offer. Absolutely humiliated, Nirupai Amba then became insane, determined to destroy Bhishma. After many attempts, Amba finally gets a boon from Shiva that in the next life he will be the cause of Bhishma's death. This Ambai was born as Shikhandi in the next generation, whom Bhishma saw and laid down his arms in Kurukshetra.

Because he could recognize Shikhandi by looking at him and it was against his policy to take up arms against any woman. When Amba became almost mad for Bhishma's destruction, Amba also went to Bhishma's guru Parashuram Muni. Parshuram Muni ordered his disciple Bhishma to marry Amba.

Bhishma refuses to obey Gurudev's order by raising the issue of promise. He said that he was ready to give his life for Gurudev if necessary, but he could not break his promise. As usual, Gurudev declared war on the disciples at the premises of Kurukshetra. On the battlefield, Bhishma came down with a chariot and saw that Parashuram had not taken any vehicle.

Seeing Gurudev in this condition, Bhishma thought that he was going to enjoy unfair advantage in the war. So he asked Gurudev to come armed and bring the chariot. Parshuram then gave the disciple divine vision and asked him to look again. Then Bhishma saw that the earth was the chariot of his guru, the four Vedas the four horses of that chariot, the Upanishads his bolga, the wind his charioteer, and the Vedic goddesses Gayatri, Savitri, Saraswati his armor.

Bhishma got down from the chariot, bowed to the Guru and asked Gurudev for blessings to conquer the religion and asked permission to fight. Parshuram was very happy and said that if Bhishma did not do this, he would have cursed, because, as a maharathi, it is his duty to fight against the gurus, at the same time it is very unjust to give all respect and dignity to the gurus.

Parasurama blessed the disciple to practice his Brahmacharya religion. At the same time, he himself said that he would fight for the observance of the oath given to Amba. This battle lasted for 23 days where Parshuram was immortal and Bhishma was the bridegroom of euthanasia. However, there are two theories about the unresolved consequences of this war.

According to one opinion, on the 22nd day, Bhishma started praying to his ancestors for help in winning the battle. The ancestors gave him a weapon called Pashupastra. By using this weapon he could put Parshuram to sleep. And, according to the Vedas, there was a rule that if he fell asleep on the battlefield, he would be considered dead. But Bhishma knew the use of this weapon in his ancestry.

He forgot that in this birth. On the other hand, the gods also forbade him to use this weapon. Because, attacking this weapon against Gurudev is a big insult to Gurudev. Parashuram was very proud of his disciple for not throwing animal weapons in the air.

But he said, either he will die or Bhishma will have to die in this war. Finally, on the 23rd day, Bhishma left the battlefield and said that he was never in favor of taking up arms against his guru. He was only forced to fight in obedience to the guru's orders.

Meanwhile, Amba failed and started praying to Shiva. Mahadev was pleased and gave him a gift so that in the next birth Amba would be able to remember his previous birth and that would be the cause of Bhishma's death.

Advent of Srikhand

 In the previous birth, Shikhandi was Amba, the eldest daughter of Kashi Raja. In order to marry Bichitravirya, the king of Hastinapur, Bhishma along with his two sisters conquered him from Swayambara Sabha. But Bichitravirya did not marry him knowing that he loved Raj Shalabh of Subal. She blames Bhishma for her plight as Shalva also refuses to marry her because of the shame of defeat

born as a girl.

 Shikhandi participated in the battle of Kurukshetra as a male warrior. During the battle with Bhishma, Bhishma, knowing him to be the daughter of Drupada, disarmed him, fell down on his bed and died. On the eighteenth day of the battle, Shikhandi was defeated in a battle with Ashvatthama and died.

In some places it has been said that Shikhandi is seen only on the 10th day of the battle of Kurukshetra. , Whose maharathi was Prince Dushasana, Mahavira Ashvatthama, and Gandhara's Raj Shakuni.

Disarming Shikhandi was not an easy task. And they could not stand in front of him. In the last phase of the joint attack, Shikhandi was seriously injured and fainted. They thought Shikhandi was dead and left. But there was still life left in Shikhandi's body which was probably to disarm or defeat Mahavira Bhismadeva, in the end he kept his promise and Bhismadeva lay down on the bed.

Many say that Shikhandi died soon after. Because after the 10th day he was never seen on the battlefield. 

 (Collected) Finished.