Chapter 2 - The marriage of King Shantanu

Afteer Hastee, the kingdom of Hastinapur passed from one

son to another in the next generation.

One of the kings was King Kuru. The lineage after Kuru came
to be known from his name.
[It is also believed that Kuru was actually an ascetic. He was
chosen by the people to lead them as their king. By this move
the democratic power to the people was restored to them. This
was something that King Bharatha the first king had believed
in and was probably what made King Kuru an important man
in history and the reason why the people born after Kuru were
called as Kuru Kings]

The story of the Mahabharatha starts with the Kuru King
Shantanu. Shantanu was the son of King Prateep of
Hastinapur. Shantanu ruled his people wisely and well. His
people loved him. Shantanu spent most of his time
administering the kingdom.

The only pass-time that the king ever indulged in was
hunting....

King Shantanu was riding his horse swiftly through the forest
aiming for the deer.

Looking at the deer and keeping his arrow ready, he watched
the deer silently. Shantanu could hear everything...the rustle
of the leaves, the slight wind blowing, the sound of the
flowing water from the nearby river....everything. However
Shantanu's sole concentration was focused only on the deer.

Shantanu saw the deer relax and stand in the middle of the
forest without making any move. Shantanu waited for the deer
to relax some more...Quietly he pulled the bow back its string
tensed.... The deer twitched and turned...Shantanu stopped.

Finding nothing unusual, the deer resumed eating. Shantanu
waited for a few more seconds, his heart thumping in his
chest. Just when he felt the time was right, he let the arrow
fly....

But this time Shantanu had met his match, the deer swiftly
moved at the last time and the arrow missed it all together
landing harmlessly in the tree near it. Shantanu narrowed his
eyes and studied the movement of the deer leaping through
the forest and once again spurred his horses deeper inside the
forest towards the deer.

Shantanu listened to the galloping of his horses and continued
the chase. He felt glad for the hundredth time that he had
come alone for the hunt. Shantanu always came alone for the
hunt. For him hunting was a passion...something that helped
him come back to the wild and become one with nature. If he
had brought his courtiers and ministers with him, the noise
that they would have made would have scared away the prey
and broken his oneness with nature more easier than anything
else....

Shantanu had always been a quiet man...that was the reason
he was named 'Shantanu'. He had always been a calm and
peaceful man...or so Shantanu thought...

Shantanu chased the deer, but today the deer had proved faster
than him. Shantanu had chased the deer all the way till the end
of the forest, but today was the day of the deer.

Shantanu saw the end of the forest and from between the
clearing of the forests saw the river Ganga flowing beautifully
and majestically. Shantanu always felt an awe looking at the
majestic Ganga which flowed like she was the Queen of the
World with nothing to stop her...

Shantanu looked at the crystal clear water and got down from
his horse. His robe rustling, he went towards the water. He
gathered the fresh cool water in his hands and threw it on his
face. He felt refreshed and ready to tackle the deer again. He
turned as was about to get back to his horse, when he
stopped....

Shantanu blinked....Standing before him was the most
beautiful woman in the world. Looking at her, Shantanu felt
like a man woken up from a dream...a man who felt the world
suddenly inviting him with open arms. Shantanu looked at the
woman's pure white dress with a slight bluish tinge....He
stared at her like he had never seen a woman before in his
life....

The woman looked exactly like the river behind him...calm
passionate, majestic and powerful....It was as if the river
goddess herself had come alive...

Shantanu hurried forward and almost stumbled on himself as
he went near the woman. The woman paid no attention to him
and studied the river as if it was talking to it...

'Wh...who are you?' Shantanu finally managed to ask the
woman.

The woman looked at Shantanu with a peculiar expression.
Shantanu could not define the expression....was it amusement
or was it an expression of 'it has started...' Shantanu was not
sure....But then Shantanu was not clear about many things...A
whirr of images passed through his head and he felt joy...joy
like he had never felt before...Like as if he had found
something he had lost a long time ago...Shantanu shook his
head...Looking at the woman somehow made his head
jumbled and unclear.

The woman looked at him majestically and walked away
without replying to him. Shantanu ran after her,
'Please...Please tell me who you are?' Shantanu almost begged
her. 'I am Shantanu, the King of Hastinapur....' Talk something
please...Shantanu was looking desperately at her.

The woman laughed looking at the nervous eyes of the king,
'Why do you want to know my name, king Shantanu?'

Shantanu blinked...it took him some time to realize that the
woman had asked him a question and was waiting for an
answer. 'Because...because...' Shantanu felt a little silly and
little nervous, '..I want to marry you...'

The woman gave a tinkling laugh again and looked at the king
straight in the eye, 'Well King Shantanu, I will marry you...'
She said it so simply that Shantanu took a full minute to
understand that the woman had actually said yes. He was
about to hug the woman in joy when the woman held up her
hands interrupting him with serious eyes. 'King Shantanu, I
know you asked me a question when you met me first...you
wanted to know my name and who I was....'

Shantanu nodded looking at the woman wondering what she
was going to say. The woman said, 'That is what I will ask
from you, before I marry you...A promise...You will never ask
me who I am, or question anything I do...'

Shantanu looked at her in confusion as the woman said,
'Remember king, everything I do...I do it for a reason....you
may not know it, but there is a reason for it...' The King
looked at her and wondered why the woman would impose
such a strange condition as the woman continued speaking,
'The minute you question me, I will leave you forever...never
to return...'

Looking at the woman, King Shantanu found his thoughts
getting confused again...Such an intelligent lady...Nothing that
this woman can do would possibly be bad...She is so
majestic...Shantanu believed that the woman was his soul
mate and believed her implicitly. He nodded and spoke
quietly, 'I promise you lady! I will never ask who you are or
question anything you do...'

The woman smiled. Shantanu looked at the woman and
looked at the river and smiled, 'My Lady! I cannot call you
Lady, my whole life. I need to call you something.' The
woman met Shantanu's amused eyes as they both started
laughing.

'...Because I found you near the banks of the river Ganga...I
will call you Ganga...' Shantanu looked at the woman. The
woman was not smiling. It was as if Shantanu had spoke the
truth...Had Shantanu said something wrong?Shantanu
wondered...but of course he received no answer and he knew
that he would not receive an answer...

Shantanu took Ganga back to the kingdom of Hastinapur.
There he announced to his people, about their queen. The
people rejoiced. The king married Ganga, on an auspicious
day and the celebrations lasted for a week...

Shantanu was very happy after his marriage. Ganga was a
perfect wife and a perfect queen...He looked after Shantanu
very well...Ganga was a good queen and the people also
adored her.

Soon Ganga was pregnant and Shantanu became even more
happy....

When he heard that his wife had given birth of a healthy son,
he almost burst with joy and ran to see his son...

He walked into his wife's chambers and to his surprise he
found it empty...Surprised he turned to his servants, 'Where is
the queen and my son?'

The servants looked nervously at the King. One came forward
and spoke, 'Your Majesty! The queen...' The maid swallowed.
King Shantanu suddenly afraid spoke sharply, 'Speak! What
has happened?' The main looked at the King and spoke, 'The
queen took the child with her and ordered us not to follow
her...'

Where would Ganga go? Shantanu wondered. Some time later
he saw Ganga come back, but there was no child with her...

Shantanu looked surprised and looked at Ganga, 'Where is my
son, Ganga?'

Ganga looked at Shantanu and spoke sharply, 'Shantanu, you
promised me that you will not ask me anything about what I
do...You asked me this question, without understanding
that...So I forgive you, but please not further questions...'

Shantanu wanted to shout...Where is my son? But he knew
Ganga too well...Once she had decided to keep quiet, she
would not talk...that was it...So fuming to himself Shantanu
kept quiet...

The next day Shantanu saw Ganaga back to her cheerful
self...It was like she was his Ganga...The one he had fallen in
love with...But Shantanu was not at peace...Where was his
son, what had Ganga done to him...But Shantanu was bound
by his promise and suffered silently by not knowing what
happened to his son and what had made his wife act like that...

Shantanu and Ganga had six more sons....However Shantanu
never knew what happened to any of them....He suffered and
he was very angry with Ganga.

Finally when Ganga was about to give birth to the eighth
child, Shantanu followed Ganga, without her knowing it...

He saw Ganga go alone towards the river, Ganga...Shantanu
saw wide eyed as he saw his wife go near the water.

With a yell, he brought out his sword and ran towards Ganga
and shouted at her, 'What are you doing? Who are you? What
are you going to do...' Shantanu looked too grief stricken to
talk properly and fumbled.

Ganga looked at the child between her arms and then looked
at Shantanu with tears in her eyes. 'You broke your promise,
Shantanu...You and me will have to part...' She handed the
baby back to Shantanu and spoke quietly, 'Before we part I
will tell you everything you wanted to know about me and
explain everything I have done...'

Shantanu looked at Ganga with the baby in his
arms...Somewhere deep inside he felt like he had done
something grievously wrong....but he could not identify
exactly what it was that he done wrong...

Ganga vanished from there...In her place stood a Goddess, a
glowing Goddess....who looked like she was
flowing....Shantanu breathed...He thought back...

Because I found you near the banks of the river Ganga...I will
call you Ganga....

Ganga...The thoughtful look on her face...Shantanu had
actually guessed the truth she was Ganga, the river Goddess...

The Goddess Ganga spoke, 'In your previous birth, Shantanu,
you were King Mahabhishek...' Shantanu felt something deep
stir within himself when he heard Ganga's
words...Mahabhishek...Yes...yes...He had done something
wrong...Shantanu shook his head paying attention to what
Ganga was saying.

'King Mahabhishek was a great King. In fact he was so great
that though he was just a human, Indra frequently invited him
to the heavens...It was when you were in heavens that we
met...' Ganga said as Shantanu felt fragments of his memory
coming back, 'We met for the first time and you were
so...stunned on looking at me...' Ganga said a little shyly, 'You
kept staring at me....'

Shantanu remembered all this slowly...He had been so much
in love when he had looked at her for the first time...In fact
that was exactly how he felt when he looked at her...in this
life...

Ganga was saying something. 'That proved to be a problem...'
Ganga said a little wistfully. 'Indra the King of the Devas
became angry with you. He felt that he had invited you to the
heavens because he felt you were worthy of it...' Ganga shook
her head, 'After you kept on staring at me, Indra was disgusted
with you, because he felt you were still swayed by your
emotions...'

Shantanu remembered Indra's angry face as Ganga spoke,
'Indra cursed you to be born again as a human and experience
love and separation...' Ganga looked around, 'This was the
result...'

Shantanu shook his head unhappily, 'My sons! What about
them?' He looked at the baby in his arms and hugged the child
dearly, 'What about my children Ganga?' He shouted angrily.

Ganga smiled sadly, 'There in one more curse you have to
know about Shantanu! Sage Vasishta had a cow Nandhini.
Sage Vasishta loved Nandhini and her calf like he would love
his own daughter. There are eight heavenly Devas called
Vasus. The Vasus when they saw Nandini wanted to take
Nandini for themselves. Egged on by his brother, the Vasu
called Prabhhasa, stole the cow and the calf...' Images swam
through Shantanu's head...Eight Vasus...his eight sons...He
shook his head to clear it.

'Sage Vasishta was furious...he cursed the Vasus...' Shantanu
shuddered. Ganga continued, 'He cursed the Vasus to be born
as humans...The Vasus when they heard the curse, they were
shaken. They ran to Vasishta and pleaded before him....They
requested him to take back the case...'

Ganga shook her head and continued, 'But Sage Vasishta was
too powerful a sage...Though he realized that the Vasus
regretted their actions, he could not take back his words...He
however lessened the curse. He said that seven of the Vasus,
would go to heaven as soon as as they were born...But Vasu
Prabhasa....' Ganga let out a deep breath, 'as he was the one
who actually stole the cow...Vasishta said that he was to have
a long and meritorious life as a human...As I was already
coming to earth, the Vasus requested me to be their mother...'
Ganga shrugged. 'The first seven sons were the first seven
Vasus...They reached heavens as soon as they were born...'

Shantanu had tears in his eyes as he realized he had been
wrong in doubting his wife...With sudden fear he asked her,
'Please...please...don't leave me...I asked you questions
because I did not understand...please...' Shantanu said a little
desperately.

Ganga shook her head sadly, 'I was hoping I could change the
Vasu Prabhasa's destiny and make sure he also reached
heaven as soon as he was born...But no...that was not to be...'
Ganga looked at Shantanu with pained eyes, 'That will be the
end of the road for us...We will not meet, not in this life...'

Shantanu suddenly panicked. He hurriedly handed over the
baby to Ganga, 'Ganga! What about our son? You need to...to
be there for the son...Please don't leave...'

Ganga smiled sadly, 'No Shantanu! Our son will never live
with both his parents...' She said it with a finality that
Shantanu was brokenhearted. Ganga looked at Shantanu and
asked him hesitatingly, 'Shantanu! This son of ours, he is right
now the heir to the whole of Hastinapur...! He is to have a
long and difficult life..I was just wondering...'

Shantanu looked at Ganga numb with grief unable to
understand what she was saying. Ganga spoke again, 'I was
just thinking if I would take him with me and bring him up in
the heavens...' Shantanu looked alarmed at Ganga, as Ganga
said hurriedly, 'I will make sure he learns everything there is
to learn and then I will send him back...to you..' Ganga looked
hesitatingly at Shantanu.

Shantanu was too brokenhearted. In a single day, he had
found and lost both his wife and son...But deep down he
realized the intelligence in her words...His son would receive
a better upbringing in the heavens, then on the
earth....Shantanu nodded his head. He watched as Ganga held
the baby in her hand and disappeared to the heavens.
Shantanu stood in the spot watching..waiting...waiting for a
miracle...But deep down Shantanu realized that it was not to
be...He knew that Ganga was gone, forever...She would not
come back...Shantanu's life with Ganga was over...