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Other names- Bhishma, Bhishmaa, Devvrata, Devavrath

Bhishma was the son of King Shantanu and Ganga. That is why he is also called Gangeya. Once, the eight Vasus ("Ashtavasus"-devtas of the eight directions i.e. North, South, East, West, North-east, North-west, South-east and South-west.) visited the Vashishtha’s ashram accompanied by their wives. One of the wives took a fancy to Nandini, the wish-bearing cow, and asked her husband Prabhas to steal it from Vashishta. Prabhas then stole the cow with the help of the others who were all consequently cursed by Vashishta to be born in the world of men. The seven Vasus who assisted in stealing Nandini have their curse mitigated to be liberated from their human birth as soon as they are born, but Prabhas, due to his being instrumental in the theft, is cursed to endure a longer life on the earth, though the curse is softened so that he becomes one of the most illustrious men of his times. It was this Prabhas who took birth as Devavrath (Bhishma).

All of the Vasus took birth as Ganga’s sons. Ganga set afloat seven sons in the river as soon as they were born. Shantanu kept the eight one for himself. Though Ganga had married Shantanu on a condition that he will never interfere in Ganga’s decisions, by keeping the eighth child, the promise was broken and so Ganga went away. The eighth son was Bhishma – he was named Devavrath. He was engrossed in unselfish filial duty. Bhishma was a great warrior and a majestic person. He was an honest person and could sacrifice anything like wealth or heaven but could not part ways from the path of truth. He learnt the science of arms from Parshuram.

Devavrath became known as Bhishma because he took the bhishan pratigya — the vow of life-long celibacy and of service to whoever sat on the throne of his father (the throne of Hastinapur). This was because when his father Shantanu wanted to marry a fisher woman Satyavati, her father refused; on the grounds that his daughter's children would never be rulers as Shantanu already had a son (Devavrath). This made Shantanu despondent. To convince Satyavati's father, Devavrath promised that he would never stake a claim to the throne, implying that the child born to Shantanu and Satyavati would become the ruler after Shantanu. At this, Satyavati's father retorted that even if Devavrath gave up his claim to the throne, his (Devavrath's) children would still claim the throne. At this, Devavrath, to make his father happy, took the terrible (bhism) vow, thus sacrificing his 'crown-prince' title. This gave him immediate recognition among the gods and his father granted him the boon of Swechha Mrityu (control over his own death i.e. he could choose the time of his death.

On being adamant about not marrying Kashiraj’s daughter, there was a fight between Parshuram and Bhishma which lasted for twenty three days. The teacher could not defeat his student. In the end, the Devtas (deities) intervened and stopped the war.

In the process of finding a bride for his half-brother the young King Vichitravirya, Bhishma cleverly abducted princesses Amba, Ambika and Ambalika of Kashi (Varanasi) from the assemblage of suitors at their Swayamvar. Salwa, the ruler of Saubal, and Amba (the eldest princess) were in love. Upon reaching Hastinapur, Amba confided in Bhishma that she wished to wed Salwa. Bhishma then sent her back to Salwa who turned her down as it was humiliating for a man to accept a woman so long in the company of another man. She then naturally approached Bhishma who refused her, citing his oath. Amba, who was humiliated and enraged beyond measure, vowed to avenge herself against Bhishma even if it meant being reborn over and over again. Amba was reborn as Shikhandi, prince of King Drupad.

Satyavati’s (Kauravas’ and Pandavas’ grandmother) sons (Vichitravirya and Chitraganda) died and no one was left to take over the throne. Then Satyavati called Vyasji and made her widow daughter-in-laws go for Niyog (Ancient Aryan Practice according to which a child widow could have sexual intercourse to beget a child) as a result of which they got three sons – Dhritrashtra, Pandu and Vidur. Though Vidur was the most healthy amongst the three, since he was a maid-servant’s son, Pandu was throned the king. Bhishma was working with the Kauravas but then also he was biased towards the Pandavas because of their truthfulness.

During the Mahabharata war, Krishna vowed not to pick up weapons, but at one point he lost temper at Bhishma’s valour and picked up the broken wheel of the chariot and ran. On seeing Krishna running, Bhishma folded his hands and said, “O, Almighty! You always protect your devotees’ promises; you protected my resolution because I had vowed today that I will forbid Krishna to pick up the weapons.”

Arjun called for Shikhandi as his charioteer, so Bhishma did not fight because Shikhandi (rebirth of Amba) was born a woman and to strike a woman was deemed unworthy of the chivalrous. Bhishma was pierced with arrows and just as he was about to fall, the arrows didn’t let him fall on the earth and made a bed of arrows for him but his head was hanging.

Duryodhan and all the Kauravas ran with pillows to Bhishma Pitamah but Bhishma told Arjun to do it. Arjun made a pillow out of arrows. He was thirsty so Arjun shot an arrow on the ground and Devi Ganga appeared and quenched Bhishma’s thirst with her water.

When the war ended, Krishna went with Yudhishtir to Bhishma’s side where he taught them dharma (righteousness) and prayed to Krishna to show him his four handed form (Chaturbhuj) in the end moments of his life. Till the Uttarayan Surya (around 14th January when the auspicious festival of Makar Sankranti is celebrated, when the Sun starts to make its Northward journey after reaching the peak of his journey South to the Tropic of Capricorn), Bhishma laid down on the bed of arrows referring to let go of his life.

In the end moments of his life, he got engrossed in Shri Krishna with his mind and soul. Before he ascended to heaven, he recited to Yudhishtir the famous hymn, “Vishnu Shahastranaam” (1000 names of Vishnu) in praise of Krishna after the war, where Krishna or Vishnu is also called 'Rama', among other names of Vishnu, avatars of Vishnu and the names of Shiva.

It is believed that Bhishma died after the age of 350 years. Considering that he was a true Yogi and lived like a true human, this age is not unbelievable. Bhishma Pitamah was the patriarchal figure in the Mahabharata war also standing for dharma, truth and justice.