Storytelling Week 9: Shantanu's Misfortune

When I first saw her by the river, I knew she was the woman whom I wanted to marry and mother my children.  She was absolutely beautiful with long, soft waves, like the water on a calm morning by the ocean, of rich dark hair that fell to her lower back.  Her olive skin looked softer than any piece of fine silk, and her eyes were a mesmerizing sepia color that would cause any noble man to become speechless.  She noticed me watching her from some trees not too far from the river bank.  She smiled and waved for me to walk over.  We didn’t speak much.  In fact, I never even asked for her name; however, I was so captivated by her beauty and charm that I asked her to become my wife.  Without any hesitation she assuredly said yes. 

Before I could fully take in my happiness and fortune at finding such a great beauty to be my wife, she made a demand that forced to uphold or else she would not agree to be my wife.  Furthermore, if I ever broke this promise during our marriage, our marriage would be over.  No matter what she did, at any time, I would never question her or her actions.  At the time, I thought nothing of this request.  I only thought of wedding this beautiful being before me and starting a family with her.  To me, this powerful request was an act of a woman ensuring her safety, happiness, and freedom within a marriage to a king.  For this reason, I quickly agreed to her demands.

A few days later, we were married in an elaborate wedding full of food, lights, and entertainment, and only a few months later, my wife was pregnant.  I was so elated to be a father and have an heir to my kingdom.  It was the most joyous time of my life.  Never throughout the first few months of our marriage did she do anything that would have caused concern.  In fact, she was a perfect wife who was humble and supportive.  She was a virtuous queen, and everyone within the kingdom adored her. 

Once our first child was born, we were overwhelmed with happiness.  I couldn’t wait to watch this child grow; however, my wish never came true.  After only a few months, my wife took our child to the Ganga River and drowned him.  I couldn’t believe that such an act was possible.  How could my beautiful wife who had never shown a harmful trait kill our innocent child?  I was heartbroken but I kept my silence in order to keep my marriage.  I thought that perhaps this was a one-time occurrence, or a test to see if I would truly hold to my promise.  However, my wife went on to kill six more of our children.  Once she became pregnant with our eighth child, I could no longer remain passive.  I knew that I had to destroy my marriage to save my child’s life.  

Giving her up was a difficult decision, but I had to save my child.  Every time I would hold him in my arms, I looked into his eyes and I saw myself.  I couldn’t handle seeing him die like the others.  I just couldn’t.

Shantanu meeting a beautiful women by the Ganga River.  Source: Wikipedia.

Author’s Note

For this week, I chose to tell the beginning of the Mahabharata where Shantanu meets Ganga, marries her, and discovers that she is drowning their children.  Within the original, Shantanu never questions or forbids Ganga to do this because of a promise that he made to her before they were married.  Essentially, I found it just so interesting for an individual to remain quiet while his children are murdered.  For this reason, I wanted to focus on Shantanu’s perspective and inner dialogue throughout these events.  I wanted to capture his fascination with Ganga and her beauty, which had an effect on him giving her whatever she asked for in order to become his wife.  I chose to have no dialogue within my story because I felt that it would distract from Shantanu’s thoughts, and the original gives some dialogue from the characters.  For these reasons, I felt that it was not needed.  I also chose to end this story before Ganga reveals her true actions because I wanted the sole focus to be on Shantanu’s thoughts while he sees his wife go from a good woman to the killer of his children.  While the story is very true to the original, I did expand on some details.  For example, within the original, their first child is given no specific gender, and Ganga is merely described as beautiful without any detail. 

Bibliography

Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.