7.The birth of devavrat(later known as bhishma)

There was a king named Mahabhisha born in ikshvaku dynasty. Once when celestials assembled for some sacrifice Ganga in her human form also came where the wind displaced her clothes upon which everyone else bent down their heads but mahabhisha kept staring upon which he was cursed that he would be reborn onto the earth with ganga as his wife who would keep hurting him until his wrath be provoked by her deeds.This was mahabhisha who took birth as Shantanu and was later married to ganga .When ganga was returning to her abode she saw the vasus to be very sad and asked for the reson upon which they told that they have been cursed by vashishtha also known as apava for stealing the celestial cow nandini from his place ,to be born on the earth . When pleaded by them he said that although 7 of  you would get to leave the earth as soon as you are born the 8th one named dyu who stole the cow when asked to do so by his wife would have to remain on the earth for a long time and he would not be able to enjoy the companionship of any lady while being on earth.They hence asked ganga to be their mother as they did not want to be born of any normal human being of which ganga agreed and went away.Time passed by and once ganga saw a king practicing his penance on her banks.She was spellbound by his smartness and she went to him and sat onto his right thigh asking him to marry her.Thsi was king pratipa of great bharat dynasty.The king said that as you sit on my right thigh whigh is meant only for daughter and in laws i cannot marry you as it is the left thigh meant for wives but i assure you that you would be married with my son.Ganga then asked for a boon that his son would not interfere in anything she did and the king agreed.As the time passed by shantanu was born as son of pratipa and as the time came his father told him the whole story . Once when shantanu was wandering on the coast of ganga he saw ganga of utter beauty and asked for her hand onto which she repeated the same promise which she asked for from his father and shantanu agreed.As the time passed by ganga gave birth to 8 sons out of which 7 were thrown by her in the flow of herself and they ll drowned and died but the 8th was protected by shantanu when he asked ganga the reason for killing her own sons and then ganga told him the story which i wrote just now.But as shantanu had broken his promise of not interfering in anything done by her she left him along with her son with a promise that he would be returned at an pt time.Years later when shantanu was once wandering near the banks of ganga he saw that the flow had been stopped by a handsome boy who was later introduced to him by ganga as his own son devavrat or gangeya,She gave shantanu his son and went away telling that the boy was taught the vedas by vashishtha himself and the art of war by great warrior parshuram.The king declared him the crowned prince.