Week 9 Storytelling: The Eighth Son

The Eighth Son

There was a ruler of an ancient kingdom of Hastinapura. His name was Santanu. One day while hunting Santanu came upon a lovely lady by the river and he instantly fell in love with her. He asked her to marry him and she said yes, but under one important condition. She asked to be able to do whatever she liked, and at no like will he have the right to question her actions. Santanu accepted this offer without objection. To him this was only a small price to pay to marry the woman of his dreams.
After a while she brought forth a baby, but s. as soon as he was born she drowned him in the river! This shocked Santanu, but he was unable to do anything about it remembering his oath he made with his new wife. When the next child was born she did the same thing, and another and another again. The strangest part of it was that after she drowned the children she came back with a smile on her face. Santanu never said anything about her behavior because he feared that he might leave him if he did. Besides, she was a great wife otherwise.

The wife had an eight child, and she began to prepare the baby to be drowned like she usually does. Finally, the husband was unable to control himself and he cried out to her to stop the madness.
To his surprise she said yes. She was already doing to spare his life, but in return she was going to leave him. Santanu asked why she would leave him. She explained to him to her real identity was. She was Ganga, the goddess of the river. She took the form of a human only to give birth to eight babies. She told the husband that she married him because he was the only person worthy enough to father the children. The children were known as the eight vasus (a class of deities, attendatans of Indra). In another life they were cursed to be corn on earth by Nandini for stealing the Sage Vasishta’s rare cow. Appealing the accusations, seven of them were allowed to go back to heaven. The eight member who arranged everything just to satisfy his wife, and actually stolen the cow must continue to live his life on earth. He will have brilliant accomplishments, but he must live a life of celibacy.


After Ganga explained the story she told Santanu that she would take the child and return him later years later instantly vanishing into the river. One day while the King was at the river she came back to return the son. His name is Devavratha, and he mastered all the Vedas. Santanu was very happy to have his son back and he returned back to his kingdom and announced that the boy would be the heir.

Ganga the River Goddess

Wikipedia

Author's Note

I deciede to write about the first story in Narayan's version of The Mahabharata. I wanted to retell this small story because it was shocking to read if you have never done so before. I find it interesting to learn that the wife "Ganga" was drowning her babies to send all of them to heaven except for one, Devavratha. This story sets up the character, and it provides a background story for him. I kept the story the same as the original.