Bhishma In Kashi

After Devavrata vowed and got the name of Bhishma king, Shantanu and Styavati got married and they both settled at the palace of Hastinapur. Years passed as Shantanu and Satyavti were having the time of their life, while Bhishma was fighting in many battles and he never lost even a single war. Years passed and Styavati bared king Shantanu's first child and named him Chitrangada.

As Chitrangada grew older he looked up to his step brother Bhishma as his role model and when he was around 14 Styavati gave birth to another child and they named him Vichitravirya. Years passed and Shantanu announced his retirement and made Chitrangada the new king of the Kurus. He was also a mighty, powerful and brave warrior he followed his brother into many battle fields. One day the king of Gndhaaras came to challenge Chitrangada in a duel.... they both fought for 3 years straight on the banks of river Hiranyavati, but... Chitrangada lost his life during this battle.

Shantanu who was already weak and bedridden heard the news of the death of his son and died due to the shock. Now vichitravirya who was the only heir left but he was only 8 years old but he had to be enthroned as Bhishma promised that he would never ascend the throne. Therefore Bhishma said that till his brother Vichitravirya comes to age he will look after the kingdom as his proxy.

When Vichitravirya came of age his mother began thinking about his marriage so she summoned Bhishma

"Dear Devavrata as you have vowed neither to get married nor be a king but..... your brother Vichitravirya he has to be a king and get married so, help me find a beautiful bride for your brother"

"But mother who has the capabilities of becoming the bride of my brother and be a competent queen who can lead the Kuru dynasty alongside my brother ? But however I will ask the spies to go look for someone capable"

Bhishma sent out the spies in search of a competent and a beautiful woman. The spies came back with not so good news...

" lord Bhishma we have got the intel that the king of Kashi is holding a swayamvara for his three children Amba, Ambika and Ambalika."

Swayamvara is a type of marriage mentioned in Hindu mythology where a woman chose a man as her husband from a group of suitors. Svayaṁ in Sanskrit means 'self' and vara means 'groom'. The bride wishing to marry would select an auspicious time and venue and then broadcast her intentions. Kings typically sent messengers to outside lands, while commoners simply spread the news within the local community. On the appointed day, suitors would gather at the venue and declare their qualifications. The bride would place a garland on the man of her choice and a marriage ceremony was held immediately.

The spies also said that these three princesses are so beautiful that they would shun the apsaras (nymph) of the havens.

Bhishma was furious because except for the Kurus all the other major empires were attending this ceremony.

"How dare they not invite the great Kurus! Even though we have had small skirmishes in the past this is not the way to treat us"

Bhishma decided to bring the three Kashi princesses to Hastinapur and teach that king of Kashi a good lesson. This was an accepted tradition in the Kshatriyas (warrior) so he would exercise his right as a Kshatriya. Then Bhishma boarded his golden chariot and took off to the kingdom of Kashi.

On the other hand in the Kashi kingdom all the kings and princes were arriving at the swayamwara and were seated in their respectful places.

"I am the king of Kashi Kashya (name of the king) and I am very delighted to see all of you attending this wonderful ceremony and I wish all the best to the kings and princes who have attended and show the best of your abilities."

Now Bhishma had arrived at the kingdom and everybody who was present there was in a massive shock as Bhishma had vowed to never get married in his life.

"why is Bhishma here in the swayamvara"

"I heard that he had vowed to never get married?"

Kashya was also in for quite a shock as he had checked multiple times before inviting all the guests that even if by mistake ha had added the kurus name on the list and their names were not in this list.

"Are the princesses of Kashi so beautiful that Bhishma had to break his vow?"

"ye and that he came here uninvited."

In the midst of all this chaos the three princesses Amba, Ambika and Ambalika entered the hall and the whole hall went silent everybody who came was mesmerized by their beauty.

"I am Bhishma of the Kuru dynasty and I have come here on behalf of my brother Vichitravirya who is the king of the Kuru dynasty. King Kashya you have made a grave mistake by not inviting us now I will take princesses back to Hastinapur and stop me if you can!"

There was once again chaos in the hall

"The kuru dynasty knows no bounds who do they think they are to insult king Kashya and all of us who are sitting in this hall!"

People talked about all kinds of things about the Kuru empire.

"Are you guys just going to sit and do nothing but watch! Go and rescue my daughters and whoever rescues my daughter I will marry them to that person.

All the kings and princes ran and boarded their chariots to chase after Bhishma they showered arrows at him but it was all useless as Bhishma fended them all and came out unscathed. Soon one after the other they all gave up except for king Salva who chased relentlessly after him but… Bhishma broke king Salva's shoulder and his chariot leaving him humiliated in front of every one.

Soon after that Bhishma arrived at Hastinapur with the three princesses....