Tidbits from MB ( Mahabharata )

Granddaddy of MB - Bhisma                                                                               .

Bhisma- A picture grab from the Tamil movie Karnan

Bhisma a key fella in Mahabharatha, like a godfather to both Pandavas (Good guys) and Gouravas (Bad guys). Officially he is with the Gourava, but his heart was with Pandavas. Let us see how he got into this strange official-heart web.

Oh wait.. he's my heir..!- Painting by Raja Ravi Varma

Santhanu, a king (Bhisma father later) went for hunting (This is how every story starts), he saw a girl and fell in love with her (obvious). She put some conditions, if they want to get married. One condition was “she will do whatever she want and he shouldn't interfere with her” (Almost every women who is getting married thinks like this). They took the condition extremely serious and followed it religiously, how far, she gave birth to seven babies, after every new-born she will throw them in the Ganga river (WTF!, it is a homicide !). Since there was a catch, Santhanu didn't object to these homicides.

She gave birth to 8th child (These people are non-stop), Santhanu asked not to kill the baby as he was worrying about the descendants for him (Someone has to rule after him). The catch was broken, she revealed herself as Goddess Ganga devi (River Ganga, what?). She came into conclusion that since he started loving\caring for the baby there won’t be much love left for her from him and so she took the child with her and drowned in the river. (Insane, correct, don’t worry there is another catch to break this jinx).

Here is your son, I cant pay for his college anymore- Painting by BP Banerjee

Dejected Santhanu went back to his kingdom, after few years he saw a young man practicing archery ( I think he should be fishing in the river, but this is how the story goes ) in the banks of Ganga. This was his son, Bhisma. Gangadevi (The first girl, remember) appeared and handed over him to Santhanu. (Why she left Santhanu in the first place). After a while, again same sequence for Santhanu (Repeat'u)- hunting, girl, only difference now it’s a different girl, Sathyavati from fishfolk.

Sathyavathi’ father had a catch for their marriage (I told there is more catch), the child (yet to be born) from Sathyavathi-Santhanu should rule the kingdom and not Bhisma. On hearing this, Bhisma took the vow of celibacy and paved the way to Santhanu in marrying Sathyavati. (Two marriages for father and no marriage for son, on top of this he lost his kingdom to his half-brother). More strange things happen later in his half-brother Vichitraveriya marriage. Still to come.

Satyavathi and Santhanu- Don't think she is in scantly clad dress, this is how they used to dress ( without tops\jacket ) before Brits came to India. Painting by - Raja Ravi Varma. I did some PS work on it.

So one can’t say “Like Father, life son” any more.

Characters to remember

Santhanu, the king | Ganga Devi | Bhisma aka Devavartha | Sathyavati | Nameless Sathyavathi’ father, who set the great epic Mahabharatha to swing

Note: This is not a process to rewrite Mahabharatha, I cant even remotely think of doing it. Just tidbits of it.