01Mahabhisha in Brahma’s court
In an earlier life he was King Mahabhisha, who had won svarga by a thousand Ashvamedhas. One day in Brahma’s court the wind lifted Ganga’s garment; the devas lowered their eyes, and Mahabhisha did not. Brahma sent him to be born among men, and he chose King Pratipa of the Kurus for his father. Ganga, on her way down, met the eight Vasus, cursed by Vasishtha to be born on earth, and promised to be their mother. Later Pratipa was at tapas by the river when Ganga sat on his right thigh. That thigh is for daughters and daughters-in-law, he told her, and so she became his son’s wife.
02Ganga’s condition
Shantanu met her on the bank of the Ganga and asked her to be his queen. She agreed on one condition: he must never stop her or speak harshly to her, whatever she did. Seven sons were born, and seven times she carried the newborn to the river and drowned it, and the king kept silent. When she took the eighth he could bear it no longer. She told him who she was, that the seven were Vasus now freed, and left with the child. Years later, finding the river shallow, Shantanu saw a young man holding back the Ganga with a dam of arrows. Ganga came and gave him his son, Devavrata.
03The fisher-chief’s daughter
Hunting by the Yamuna, Shantanu smelled a fragrance on the wind and found Satyavati, the fisher-chief’s daughter. Her father would give her only if her son became king. Shantanu would not disinherit Devavrata and went home sick with longing, until his son learned why and made his vow. Out of the vow came Shantanu’s boon to his son, and from his marriage two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. It was also Shantanu who, out hunting, found twin infants lying in a clump of reeds beside a bow and arrows, and raised them out of compassion as Kripa and Kripi.