Shantanu

In the Mahabharata, the later of the two
great Sanskrit epics, Shantanu is the
father of Bhishma by his first wife, and
the husband of Satyavati in his second
marriage. Satyavati has agreed to marry
Shantanu on the condition that her sons
reign, despite the fact that Bhishma is
the eldest and thus is rightly entitled to
the throne. Shantanu agrees to this condition, and to please his father Bhishma
vows never to marry, so that he will have
no heirs to compete with Satyavati’s.
Bhishma upholds his promise until his
death, but Shantanu’s willingness to put
aside the rightful heir has terrible consequences. When Satyavati’s son Vichitravirya dies childless, she calls on her
elder son Vyasa to sire children by his
wives. From this union comes Pandu
and Dhrtarashtra. The struggle for royal
power by their respective sons culminates in the Mahabharata war, in which
the family is destroyed.