Pratipa Instructs Shantanu and Retires to the Forest
Remembering his promise to Ganga, the aging King Pratipa prepares his son Shantanu for a mysterious visitor. He instructs Shantanu to accept a divine lady without question, then retires to the forest.
King Pratipa had waited a long time for the promise made by the divine lady to be fulfilled. Though he and his wife were old, they performed austerities and were blessed with a son. The boy was named Shantanu, because he was born when his father had controlled his senses.
Shantanu grew to be a youth devoted to sacred conduct. Remembering the lady who had come to him years before, Pratipa called his son to him. He gave Shantanu a specific and strange instruction about his future. “Earlier, a lady had approached me for your welfare. O son! If that divine and beautiful lady comes to you in secret and desires you so as to obtain offspring, you must not question her about who she is and who she belongs to. You must not question any of her acts. I tell you that you must love her as she loves you.”
Having delivered this command, Pratipa installed Shantanu on the throne of the Kurus. His duty to his lineage and to the mysterious agreement was complete. The old king then departed for the forest to spend his final years in asceticism, leaving his son to rule—and to await a wife whose actions could never be questioned.