Santanu

Title	Santanu - (Prabu) - Mahabharata
Other names
Size	65 cm
Personal data	Santanu was the son of King Pratipa of the Candrawangsa breed, king of Bharata and a descendant of Maharaja Kuru, who owned a farm called Kurukhsetra. Prabu Santanu was the king of Astina before the Pendawa era. He is a priest with the title of Rishi from the country of Talkanda.
Appearance	Prabu Santanu was angry and quick to lose his temper. He has slanted eyes, a nose and mouth like a sernbada, stout, with a moustache. Crowned with a mask, decorated with three layers. Dressed in waderan, with a bra and cloth in the shape of a king's butt.
Collection	Private collection

Santanu - (Prabu) - Mahabharata

Prabu Santanu was the king of Astina before the Pendawa era. He is a priest with the title Rishi from the country of Talkanda. Santanu rules the "elephant city". By Dewi Gangga, the river goddess, he has a son: Bisma (young Dewabrata), who will be ordained co-regent and heir apparent.

Prabu Santanu was Bhishma's biological father and was the grandfather of Pandu and Dhritarashtra from his stepson, Byasa (Abiyasa), son of Satyawati. That means he was the great grandfather of the Pandavas and Korawas. King Santanu ruled in Hastinapura, which was the capital and center of government for the Kuru descendants, in the Kuru Kingdom.

Prabu Santanu is described as very handsome, very skilled at playing weapons and likes hunting in the forest. When his father, King Pratipa, was about to abdicate, his older brothers, Dewapi and Bahlika, refused to inherit the throne. Dewapi decided to live as a hermit, while Bahlika decided to travel to West India. So from this, Santanu was the one who had to replace his father, as king of Hastinapura.

Once Prabu Santanu was hunting by the Ganges river, there he met a very beautiful woman. The woman is the Goddess Ganga, she is undergoing the curse of Lord Brahma to come down to earth and become the descendant of King Kuru. Prabu Santanu was captivated by the beauty of Goddess Ganga, he fell in love and proposed to Goddess Ganga to be his queen.
Dewi Gangga is ready to become Prabu Santanu's consort , but on the condition that whatever she does to her son, Prabu Santanu cannot forbid it. If Prabu Santanu breaks his promise, then Dewi Ganga will leave him. Prabu Santanu accepted the new woman's condition and made him fall in love with her. After marriage, Goddess Gangga became pregnant with her first son, she soon gave birth, but Goddess Ganga immediately drowned him in the Ganges river. She continued to do this until she had his seventh child. King Santanu could not prevent his wife's actions because he was bound by his previous promise.
Goddess Ganga then became pregnant with her eighth son. Because he could no longer stand what his wife did to the children she gave birth to, Prabu Santanu stopped his queen's actions. Goddess Ganga stopped what she was doing, then explained that the sons she gave birth to were incarnations of Astabasu or the eight Wasu. His act of drowning the babies was to release their souls so they could reach heaven, the abode of the Wasu.

It is said that the eight wasu once stole the sacred ox belonging to Resi Wasista. Because they were discovered, they were cursed by Resi Wasista so that their divine powers would be lost and they would be transformed into humans. One of the eight wasu was Prabata who was the leader of the theft plan. Meanwhile, the other seven Wasu are just joining in and Prabata is the main actor, so he will transform into the oldest human being. Later, Prabata will transform into a powerful human being named Dewabrata (Bhishma). After explaining this to Prabu Santanu, Goddess Ganga who was still pregnant disappeared in the Ganges river.
Prabu Santanu finally let his queen go and returned to rule the kingdom in Hastinapura. 16 years later, when King Santanu was walking along the banks of the Ganges, he saw a very strong young man, able to stem the waters of the Ganges using hundreds of arrows. Goddess Ganga then appeared and explained the origin of the child to Prabu Santanu. Hearing Goddess Ganga's explanation, Prabu Santanu was very happy, because his son who had been taken away since birth had returned.

Prabu Santanu gave the child the name Dewabrata, and invited him to return to the palace. Dewabrata grew up to be a son who was devoted to his parents and had a high warrior spirit, and he was nominated as successor to the throne. One day, King Santanu heard news that around the Yamuna river there was a very fragrant smell. Out of curiosity, King Santanu took a walk to the Yamuna river. There, he found the source of the fragrant smell from a village girl named Gandhawati, or Satyawati or Durgandini. The girl is very beautiful and her body is fragrant. Prabu Santanu also fell in love with Gandhawati and proposed to her to be his queen. But Gandhawati's father, Dasabala, made a condition that if his daughter became the consort of Prabu Santanu, she would be treated in accordance with Dharma and Gandhawati's descendants should be the heir to the throne.
Hearing these conditions, King Santanu returned home disappointed and heartbroken. He fell ill because he always thought about the girl he loved. Seeing him his father fell ill. Dewabrata also investigated the cause. He asked the coachman who was taking his father for a walk, Dewabrata finally got the information that his father was in love with a girl. Finally, Dewabrata went to the Yamuna river, he represented his father and proposed to Gandhawati, who his father really wanted. He accepted all the conditions proposed by Dasabala.

Dewabrata vowed not to marry for the rest of his life and not succeed to the throne of King Kuru's descendants so that in the future there would be no power struggle between his descendants and Gandhawati. His oath was witnessed by the Gods, and from then on his name changed to Bisma. Finally, Prabu Santanu and Dewi Gandhawati married and had two sons named Citranggada and Wicitrawirya. After Prabu Santanu died, Bhishma finally appointed his younger brother Citranggada as the successor to the throne of Hastinapura, but not long after inheriting the throne, Citranggada died and was succeeded by Wicitrawirya, but likewise with Wicitrawirya, he died before he could produce offspring as successor to the throne of Hastinapura.

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Source: History of Wayang Purwa - Hardjowirogo - PN Balai Pustaka - 1982 Blog: Hadisukirno – Yogyakarta - 2011