Reading Notes: Epified: Mahabharata, Part A

Shantanu meeting his son, Devavrat, for the first time. Source: Wikipedia

Shantanu fell in love with a goddess, Ganga, and would not question her. She drowned the first child and the king was so upset, but said nothing as the queen drowned the next 6 children. He finally stepped in to prevent the death of his 8th child. Ganga revealed that the children were drowned because they were celestial spirits being punished for something they did in their past lives. She took the 8th child and vanished.
16 years later, Shantanu visited the riverbank of Ganga because he really missed Ganga and his son that she took away. He was interrupted by some sounds of fighting which turned out to be a young archer taming the Ganga river by shooting arrows into the river. All of a sudden, Ganga appeared and told Shantanu that the young archer was actually his son, Devavrat. He was taught by the sage Parshuram. Shantanu brought back Devavrat to his kingdom. The people of the kingdom were really happy and were proud to have Devavrat as their future king.
Shantanu fell in love with a fisherman's daughter, Satyavati. He asked her to marry him but her father was a little against it because even though she would become queen, her children would not have a chance on the throne because of Devavrat and his children if he had any.