Shantanu

The illustrious, highly romantic early monarch of the Kuru dynasty whose profound entanglements with mysterious women set the catastrophic generational karma of the epic into motion. He first married the mesmerizing river goddess Ganga, enduring the agonizing trauma of watching her intentionally drown their first seven infants before he broke his vow of silence to save the eighth, Devavrata (Bhishma), causing her immediate departure. Years later, wandering the banks of the Yamuna, he fell desperately, paralyzingly in love with Satyavati, a fiercely ambitious fisherwoman whose father demanded that ONLY her future child could inherit the throne. Caught between his duty to his immensely capable son Bhishma and his crippling absolute lust, he sank into severe depression until Bhishma voluntarily renounced his kingdom and swore lifelong celibacy to secure the marriage. Shantanu's tragic concessions essentially created the massive succession crisis that resulted in the Kurukshetra war generations later.