Chapter 2 – Devabrata’s Oath

Devabrata was extremely knowledgeable and grew to be a skilled person in warfare and all other forms of arts. He was very powerful and all the neighbouring kingdoms were afraid of his strength.

One day, when King Shantanu was going for one of his country visits, he smelt a nice fragrance. When he went in the direction of the fragrance, he saw an extremely beautiful girl in a boat. He went to the girl and asked “Who are you?” She said,”I am Satyavati, the daughter of a fisherman.” Shantanu went to the fisherman’s house. When the fisherman saw the king, he respectfully stood up and said “My Salutations to the King. What brings you here, Dear King? ” Shantanu replied “I seek the hand of your beautiful daughter”.

The fisherman said, “I am very happy because you want to marry my daughter, but I will not be able to accept this”. “What makes you say this fisherman?” , asked the king.  The fisherman said “I would like the child born to both of you to become the King of Hastinapur. But only your son Devabrata has all the abilities and the right to become the King”.

Shantanu liked his son very much and wanted him to become the King.So he left to his palace. For the next few days, Shantanu was very sad because of this incident. Devabrata became thoughtful of his father’s condition. He asked his father’s charioteer what made the King sad. The charioteer had seen all that had happened at the fisherman’s place and told everything to Devabrata.

Devabrata went to Satyavati’s father and said “Please let your daughter marry my father”. “I can’t because my grandsons can never rule the Kingdom”, replied the fisherman. Hearing this Devabarata said, “I promise that I will never become the King and will let one of your grandsons to take the throne”. The fisherman replied,”You have sacrificed the throne but I cannot expect the same from your sons.”

Then, Devabrata took an oath , “I will never marry for the rest of my life and serve the King of Hastinapur forever”. Because he took an oath of celibacy, all the Gods began showering flowers on Devabrata from the skies. From that day onwards, all the Gods in Heaven and all people in the world called him “Bheeshma ” (Bheeshma means Terrible Oath ).

Shantanu heard about his son’s terrible oath and arrived at the spot immediately. He was extremely sad and equally proud of his son. So Shantanu gave Bheeshma a boon that he can choose when to die, till then death will not approach him.

Such is the greatness of Devabrata whom I will address as “Bheeshma” in my further chapters.

Previous  Chapter 1 : King Shantanu and Ganga

Next Chapter 3 – Sons of Shantanu