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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Ādi

The eight Vasus, Vasishtha's cow, and Bhishma's birth

Classical

Bhishma's long life is a punishment, not a gift.

The birth of Bhishma starts a long way from the Kuru court, on the slopes of Mount Meru, and it starts with a cow.

In Vasishtha's hermitage lives Nandini, a wish-granting cow born of Surabhi and Kashyapa. The sage keeps her for his sacrifices. One day the Vasus, a group of eight gods, wander through the woods with their wives. The wife of one of them, Dyu, sees Nandini and wants her. She wants the cow for a friend, Jitavati, daughter of the royal sage Usinara, so that Jitavati would never get sick or grow old. Dyu, helped by his brothers, steals the cow. The text says he did it to please his wife and never thought of the sin.

When Vasishtha comes back in the evening, the cow and her calf are gone. With his ascetic's sight, he sees that the Vasus have taken her, and in anger he curses them to be born on earth. They ask forgiveness, but he will not take back the curse. He sets terms: the Vasus will be freed within a year of their births among men, but Dyu, the leader of the theft, will live a long time on earth, without children. He will be virtuous, learned, a good son, and will stay away from women.

(Different sources name the Vasus differently. Another version of the story, which I read in the Ibiblio edition of Ganguli, says Vasishtha cursed the Vasus because they passed him unseen while he was at his evening prayers. Some retellings name the leader Prabhasa, but that name does not appear in the Ganguli passage I read, where the thief is Dyu.)

The Vasus then go looking for a mother. They meet the river Ganga, as she is passing by, and find her willing to listen. They ask her to become a human woman and bear them. She agrees. She also asks that at least one son be allowed to live, so her marriage is not wholly fruitless. The Vasus agree to give an eighth part of their energy to him, and he will live, though he will have no children on earth. They name as father Santanu, a son of King Pratipa.

Pratipa is doing austerities at the source of the Ganga when a beautiful woman rises from the water and sits on his right thigh. He refuses her, since the right thigh is where a daughter or daughter-in-law sits, and offers to marry her to his son. She agrees, and says his son will not be able to judge her actions. Santanu grows up, becomes king, and one day, hunting on the bank, he meets a radiant woman and asks her to be his wife.

Ganga agrees on one condition: Santanu must never interfere with what she does or speak unkindly to her, or she will leave. He agrees. Eight sons are born, and after each birth Ganga throws the baby into the river, saying it is for his good. Santanu is horrified but keeps silent, afraid she will go. At the eighth, he cannot stand it and begs her to spare the child.

Ganga says the time is up. She tells him who she is, Ganga, daughter of Jahnu, and tells him about the Vasus' curse and her promise to free them. She leaves, taking the child with her. When Santanu returns to his capital, sad, the child, named Gangeya and Devavrata, grows up and surpasses his father in all skills. He will become Bhishma.

Who: Bhishma, Ganga, Shantanu, Vasishtha, Prabhasa

Bound to

Shantanu was King Mahabhisha, cursed for staring at Ganga mirror

Bhishma's bed of arrows: why? (karma explanations) past-life-explains

Devavrata's terrible vow: how he became Bhīṣma birth

Bhīṣma's conditions: the rathas and atirathas assessed origin

Day nine: Bhīṣma's fury, Kṛṣṇa charges again, and how Bhīṣma can be defeated origin

Day ten: Śikhaṇḍin and Arjuna fell Bhīṣma; the bed of arrows, the pillow and the water curse

Bhīṣma Leaves His Body at the Turning of the Sun curse

Where this comes from

See it on the tree · All stories

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