Devavrata becoming Bheeshma

We moved on with the story of Mahabharatha. King Shantanu of Hastinapur , in one of his strolls, met and fell in love with a fisherman’s daughter named Satyavathi, and wanted to marry her. The fisherman puts a condition that his daughter’s son must be the king. Shantanu returns in dejection. Devavrata, the “Yuvaraja”, seeing his father so sad and depressed asks, “what happened?” .  Devavrata, after hearing what Shantanu said goes to the fisherman and gives up the throne of Hastinapur, so that his father could marry the fisherman’s daughter. But still the fisherman was not convinced. Devrarata, then promises and vows to the fisherman that he will never marry. Upon this vow the devas showered flowers and his name becomes ‘Bheeshma’.

Bheeshma means one “who keeps a terrible vow”. After hearing this Shantanu is rejoiced and decides to marry Satyavati. Together they have 2 children Chitrangada and Vichitraviriya.

Chitrangada goes to war with Vichitravirya against a neighbouring kingdom and gets killed.

As the throne’s heir Vichitraviriya becomes king of Hastinapur and rules along with his advisor Bheeshma.

Vocabulary: Vansha—is lineage.

One day Bheeshma looked for a suitable bride for Vichitravirya . Bheeshma then finds the three daughters of the king of Kashi appealing. In his impatience, Bheeshma kidnaps the three daughters of the king of Kashi.

On the way to the kingdom, Bheeshma encounters the king of Shalua. The king of Shalua and Amba had decided to marry each other, so he stops Bheeshma and asks for Amba. They both fight and Bheeshma leaves Shalua unconscious. Amba then confesses that they both are in love and wanted to marry each other. Bheeshma asks for forgiveness and sends Amba back to King Shalua. The King of Shalua refuses to marry Amba and she returns to Hastinapur. Vichitraviriya also refuses to marry Amba and marries Ambika and Ambalika. Amba gets really angry with Bheeshma, for ruining her life.

-We started drawing the family tree of King Shantanu’s family.

-We also made a note of all the characters we encountered so far, some good and noble, some selfish etc.

-Binder check next week.

-CORD registration is next week. There will be a CORD meeting/demo in the auditorium on the 14th. 6th grade and above classes will attend.