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The tale goes back to the time when King Shantanu was the leader of Hastinapur. Shantanu had wedded Goddess Ganga who later gave delivery to a son. But she drowned the child. Shantanu could not ask her the cause, because of his promise, lest she would leave him. One at a time, seven sons were born to them, and were drowned by Ganga. When Ganga was about to drown the eighth son, Shantanu, distressed, could not hold back him and confronted her. Goddess Ganga said that Shantanu had broker his promise and as a result she had no choice but to leave him. But before leaving Shatanu, Ganga explained her actions — the children she had drowned were demi-gods who had been cursed to be born as human. She had been releasing them from their curse. But now the eighth one was to live the curse on Earth. She handed him to Shantanu and went back to the river. The baby boy was named Devavrata, and ultimately came to be known as the mighty warrior Bhishma.
Time went by, Devavrata was a now a good-looking prince, but King Shatanu was all single-handed—a feeling of solitude and melancholy had crept in to him. At such times, Shantanu use to take lengthy walks in the woods besides the Yamuna. In one such walk, a particular scent fascinated him and he required to find the source of such a beautiful fragrance. This led him to the riverbed, where he met Satyavati, the daughter of the chief fisherman, and right away was love-struck by the love bug. Satyavati, was indeed a very delightful and gorgeous woman. Satyavati’s father agreed to the wedding on a circumstance that, the son born of her daughter would be successor to Shantanu’s throne.
King Shantanu was not capable to give his word on succession as his eldest son Devavrata was the heir to the throne. However, when Devavrata came to know of this and for the sake of his father, gave his word to the chief fisherman that he would give up all his claims to the throne, in support of Satyavati’s child. To support the skeptical ferryman, further Devavrata also vowed lifelong celibacy to make sure that future generations borne of Satyavati would also not be challenge by his children. Thus, that day, he got the name: Bhishma. Read more about Bhishma Pratigya.
Shantanu and Satyavati went on to have two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya.
But small known fact is that prior to Satyavati meeting Shantanu, she previously had a son. As an adolescent girl, Satyavati use to stroll in the forest and in one such event, she came across the great sage Parashar. Parashar, was the grandson of the great hermit Vashista, a first-born. Since Satyavati was the daughter of a fisherman, she used to smell of fish. Parashar was mainly bothered by the foul stench that was emanating from her. Parashar asked Satyavati to ferry him across the Yamuna. As they were crossing the canal in her boat, Parashar slowly got physically attracted towards Satyavati, and most wanted to perform coitus with her. Parashar said to Satyavati that the child born of them will not be any usual child but he will change the course of history, in fact mark the course of history. But Satyavati was frightened of him and gave a reason that there were many people there on either side of the river and she was afraid they will see them. So Parashar, with his mystical power, created a dense sheet of haze around the boat. After that, Parashar gave Satyavati two boons: the first one was that Satyavati would hereafter be emanating the finest of scent from herself. From that day, Satyavati was also called as Matsyagandha. The second one was that she would get her virginity back and no one will ever doubt her truthfulness. The son born of them was called Krishna Dwaipayana. He was dark-skinned and hence called by the name Krishna, and also the name Dwaipayana, meaning ‘island-born’. Maharishi Vyasa was, to be precise, grandfather to the Kauravas and Pandavas. Their fathers, Dhritarashtra and Pandu, adopted as the sons of Vichitravirya by the regal family, were fathered by him. He had a third son, Vidura, by a serving maid.
