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Page 2
Ganga replied to his second question first. She said that she had approached Shantanu's father Pratipa by sitting on his right lap. But Pratipa refused her offer saying that the woman who sat his right lap was destined to become his daughter-in-law. Pratipa asked Ganga to marry Shantanu who was yet to be born. He told Ganga that another divine purpose would be fulfilled when she married Shantanu. He reminded her of the incident in heaven when Ganga had gone there to meet Brahma and her thinly veiled garment had flown up in the wind. All present in the august assembly closed their eyes so that they do not witness Ganga's embarrassment. All except King Mahabhisha, who could not stop himself from having a peek at Ganga's unclad body. Later Brahma proclaimed that King Mahabhisha would have to suffer at Ganga's hand to repay the suffering he had caused her. Pratipa said that King Mahabhisha would take birth as his son Shantanu and hence Ganga would get an opportunity to square up that account as well.
Sixteen years later Shantanu saw a stripling youth at the bank of the river. He shot an arrow in the sky, which split up into a million arrows and created a dam across the river thus stemming its flow. From the accumulation of the water Ganga appeared. After admonishing the lad for his playfulness she told Shantanu that the lad was his son Devavrata. He had been given education in the scriptures and the art of warfare by the best of teachers and was now ready to assume his responsibilities as a prince. After uniting father and son Ganga went back into the waters and that was the last that Shantanu saw of her. Go To Page: 1 2
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