Chapter 3 – Sons of Shantanu

This chapter will have lots of new characters and  hence lots of names to remember.

Shantanu then got married to Satyavati . They both bore two children and were named Chitrangada and Vichitraviriya. After Shantanu died, Chitrangada was made the King. One day Chitrangada was called for a fight by a Gandharva with the same name Chitrangada. At the end of the fight, Chitrangada died. So Vichitraviriya was made the king. Because he was too young , Bheeshma indirectly ruled the kingdom.When it was time for Vichitraviriya to get married, Satyavati told Bheeshma to go the swayamvara of the three Princess of Kashi – Amba, Ambika and Ambalika.

The story of Bheeshma and Amba is quite long and I tried to make it short.

Amba liked King Shalva and was ready to garland him during the Swayamvara. But when Bheeshma came there, he won over all the Kings including King Shalva and took the three princess with him to Hastinapur.

When they reached Hastinapur, Amba told Bheeshma that she had wanted to marry King Shalva only. So Bheeshma  asked her to return back. Amba went straight to King Shalva, but he refused to marry her because he had been defeated by Bheeshma. In the meantime, Vichitraviriya got married to Ambika and Ambalika. When Amba came back, she saw her sisters married. So she went to Bheeshma and asked him to marry her. Bheeshma refused because he had taken an oath of Celibacy .

Amba became very angry and blamed Bheeshma for her plight. She wanted to take revenge on Bheeshma. She went to Sage Parasurama, one of the Gurus of Bheeshma and asked for help. Parasurama called Bheeshma and asked him to marry her or face him for a fight. Bheeshma refused to marry Amba. So they both got into a fight.

They fought for a very long time . Parasurama stopped the fight realizing that this will never end and let Bheeshma go. Then he told Amba that he can be of no help.

Amba went to the forest and kept doing severe penances to please Lord Shiva. Shiva , pleased with her appeared before her and asked her “What boon do you want?” . Amba replied ,”I want to take revenge on Bheeshma. I want to kill him”.  Shiva told Amba that she will not be able to anything in this birth, but granted a boon that she will be the one to kill Bheeshma in her next birth and disappeared. Amba was impatient for her next birth and hence ended up her life by making fire and jumping into it.

After some years, Amba was reborn as Shikandi , the daughter of Drupada , the story of which I will narrate at a later stage.

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