- Shantanu and Ganga
- Shantanu is the ruler of Hastinapura
- Meets a mysterious woman by the river and falls in love with her
- She agrees to marry him, but he is never allowed to question her actions
- So, she drowns their babies in a river as they're born
- He can't take anymore by the 8th child and protests, so she explains she's the river Ganga reincarnated as a woman to give birth to eight gods, the Vasus, who are now trapped as humans as punishment for stealing a cow, but by drowning them she is returning them to heaven
- Shantanu Part 2: Satyavati
- She's a fisherman's daughter
- Shantanu wants to marry her of course, but her father protests because S already has an heir (Bhishma).
- Bhishma, being a very good son, renounces his claim to the throne AND the possibility of having children
- S and S have two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya
- V ends up ruling and marries Ambika and Ambalika
- But he fathers no sons
- Heirs
- Stayavati begs Bhishma to father sons with the widows, but he won't because of his vow of celibacy
- She had another son from a wild story with a rishi named Parashara, named Vyasa (...who looks weird)
- Ambika closes her eyes because he looks gross, so their son Dhritarashtra is born blind
- Ambalika blanches from fear so their son Pandu is very pale
- Then Ambalika has her maid sleep with Vyasa instead, and because she liked him and reacted to him positively, their child was born normal
- Pandu's curse
- He has two wives, Kunti and Madri
- He was out hunting and shot a deer as it was having sex
- It was actually a celestial being in disguise, so it curses Pandu so that he will also die during sex
- Kunti has a mantra to summon the gods and have children by them, so they have 5 sons, called the Pandavas
- But, Pandu thought with his little head and could no longer resist Madri, so he dies during sex with her. She climbs onto his funeral pyre with him, so Kunti is alone to raise their 5 children
- Narayan's Mahabharata Reading Guide, by Laura Gibbs (link)
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| Satyavati and Shantanu (Ravi Varma, link) |
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