Bhishma

In the Mahabharata, the later of the two
great Hindu epics, Bhishma is the son of
King Shantanu and an uncle and counselor to both warring factions, the
Pandavas and the Kauravas. His name
as a child is Devavrata; he receives the
name Bhishma (“terrible”) as an
acknowledgment of his extremely difficult vow. King Shantanu has fallen in
love with the maiden Satyavati, who
agrees to marry him on the condition
that her sons will rule instead of
Devavrata, who has already been
anointed the heir apparent. Bhishma
not only agrees to give up the throne but
takes the solemn vow that he will never
marry, so that there will be no claimants
from his lineage to compete for the
throne. When Bhishma takes his dreadful vow, he is also given the option of
choosing the time of his death.
Bhishma faithfully keeps this vow,
and his adherence to it eventually costs
110
Bhima River
Bhima River at Pandharpur,
in the state of Maharashtra.
him his life. It is Bhishma who abducts
Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika, the
daughters of the king of Kashi, to
be married to his stepbrother
Vichitravirya. Ambika and Ambalika
happily marry Vichitravirya, but when
Amba confides that she has already
given her heart to King Salva, Bhishma
releases her to go to him. Salva rejects
Amba on the grounds that her virginity is suspect, since she has been
abducted by another man. Amba
returns to Bhishma and demands that
he marry her since he is responsible
for her plight, and when Bhishma
refuses to break his vow, Amba is
determined to get revenge. She is
reborn as the man-woman Shikhandi,
behind whom the Pandava prince
Arjuna hides to shoot the arrows that
eventually kill Bhishma.
Bhishma is a great man who is
respected by all. His skill with arms
makes him one of the finest warriors of
his time, but he is most famous as a wise
and generous counselor to both the
Pandavas and the Kauravas. Although
he ultimately sides with the Kaurava
prince Duryodhana in the war
between the two groups, before its
outbreak Bhishma repeatedly advises
Duryodhana to make peace with the
Pandavas and share the kingdom with
them. He fights valiantly in the
Mahabharata war and destroys a large
part of the Pandava armies, but finally
he is hit by so many of Arjuna’s arrows
that he lays upon them like a bed.
Although Bhishma is mortally wounded
by Arjuna, he delays his death (through
the boon given by his vow) until the sun
resumes its more auspicious northern
path (uttarayana). During this time he
gives the victorious Pandavas copious
instruction on state affairs and related
topics. Bhishma’s unswerving commitment to a vow that deprives him of the
joys of family life, and his inability to
avert the fratricidal conflict between his
nephews, through which the family is
ultimately destroyed, make him a lonely,
somewhat tragic figure.