Bheeshma

Amar Chitra Katha #34

by Anant Pai

In those ancient days, when the king was next to God in power and authority, a young prince, Devavrata, declined a kingdom. He reinforced his refusal by a vow of celibacy so that no offspring of his could come forth to claim the throne. He took this difficult decision to please his father Shantanu, and was hailed by the gods as Bheeshma or the terrific one. In is ironical that Bheesham, who declined to be a king, wielded royal powers for a longer period that any other king of that dynasty. He was the regent for his stepbrothers and for his nephews. In fact, he ruled over the land till Duryodhana came of age. Yet all this was not of his seeking. He had to rule in spite of his renunciation. A partiality to the throne which he had guarded all his life, was perhaps responsible for his siding with Duryodhana against the Pandavas in the Mahabharata war. Bheeshma commanded the Kaurava army when the war started. As a soldier he was invincible.

Genres: Comics, Hinduism, Mythology

Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Anant Pai popularly known as Uncle Pai, was an Indian educationalist and creator of Indian comics, in particular the Amar Chitra Katha series in 1967, along with the India Book House publishers, and which retold traditional Indian folk tales, mythological stories, and biographies of historical characters. In 1980, he launched Tinkle, a children's anthology, which was started under Rang Rekha Features, India's first comic and cartoon syndicate, that lasted till 1998, with him as the Managing Director.

Today, Amar Chitra Katha sells about three million comic books a year, in English and more than 20 Indian languages, and has sold about 100 million copies since it inception in 1967 by Anant Pai, and in 2007 was taken over by ACK Media.

Reviews

[Dr. Appu Sasidharan (Dasfill) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bheeshma was the supreme commander of Kauravas during the Kurukshetra war. He was the only person who witnessed the entire events of Mahabharata. This book will help you to know why he was respected by everyone and the main qualities in him that made him an exceptional personality.
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[Sha · Rating 4 out of 5]

28 Nov 2020

1. Hindu Mythology comes in many versions and variations, and some of the things I remember to be true from my childhood may have been personal headcanons. But they are still very interesting stories. And honestly, this is not a review as much as me regurgitating all of my thoughts.

2. What Happens In This Book: King meets and marries beautiful woman who turns out to be Ganga. Ganga dumps him after he breaks his oath to her (in fairness it was a very valid breaking involving baby murder x 7) but he eventually gets the kid back. King gets horny again and hang on I'm sure I can put this better-

KING, now with an heir in his badass magical demigod son: today i wandered the banks of the Yamuna because i figure if I could find a hot queen on one river i can find a hot queen in another
HOT FISHERGIRL: hey
KING: JACKPOT.

KING: I, the king, would like the hand of your daughter the fishergirl in marriage please and thank you.
FISHERMAN DAD: oh hell no I don't care how rich you are I'm not having my descendants fight against a literal demigod no wedding till you disinherit him in favor of my hypothetical grandkids.
FISHERMAN DAD: and thus i've pushed back the succession crisis for a couple more generations at least you can thank me world.

3. So anyway this results in the demigod prince vowing to never marry and to give the crown to the hot fishergirl's sons in perpetuity and this vow is SO TERRIBLE A SACRIFICE (Hindu Mythology is very particular about people having descendants) that (a) the gods give him the name "Bheeshma" he of the terrible vow and (b) his happy newly married Dad gives him the Boon constructed from their mutual piety that allows him to choose his time of death.

4. The other Bheeshma story this book focuses on is that of Amba and her sisters. Amba gets angry at Bheeshma for reasons that may or may not be his fault (this comic absolves him of any wrongdoing, but I tend to prefer versions which don't) and vows to destroy him. This results in her seeking a boon from the gods and then killing herself so she can be reborn as the person who will kill Bheeshma.

5. Time passes, and Bheeshma eventually gets caught up in the Great War between his two sets of grand-nephews, and there's a war and he (like about half the named cast) dies in the war. Amba's reincarnation is involved.

6. Okay so what I like about the Amar Chitra Katha books is that they tell the mythology without the religious trappings. The old versions, anyway. And I'm thankfully reading a copy of the comic from the 1980s or so.

7. Hindu Mythology is very dramatic and ergo a lot of fun but it's getting harder and harder to find versions that aren't also religious texts. So this was fun. It could have stood to be a little more detailed and I would like comparative versions (especially of the Amba-Shikhandi story) but it's pretty solid for like 32 pages of image-heavy story so yay.

[avahardyam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Satyavati isn't daughter of fisherman ffs 🤦‍♂️

[Ravi Kumar Dandapani]

nice