Bhishma Dwadashi Vrat Katha

According to the popular legend related to Bhishma Dwadashi, in ancient times, there was an extremely powerful and righteous king named Shantanu. King Shantanu was married to Goddess Ganga. Before the marriage, Goddess Ganga had taken a vow from King Shantanu that he would not interfere in any of her actions.

In the course of time, seven sons were born from the womb of Goddess Ganga, whom she flowed into the river one by one. Thereafter, Goddess Ganga gave birth to the eighth son named Devavrata. When Goddess Ganga was going to flow Devavrata into the river, at that very moment, King Shantanu stopped her, as a result of which Goddess Ganga abandoned him and disappeared. This same Devavrata became established in the future by the name of Gangaputra Bhishma.

After the disappearance of Goddess Ganga, King Shantanu began to remain extremely restless and grief-stricken. One day, with the desire to cross the Ganga river, he was waiting for some boatman on the bank. At that time, he saw a beautiful maiden rowing a boat whose name was Matsyagandha. Matsyagandha was the daughter of Haridas Kewat, who later became famous by the name Satyavati.

King Shantanu was attracted by the beauty of Matsyagandha and appeared before Haridas Kewat with a proposal of marriage to his daughter. Before accepting King Shantanu's marriage proposal, Satyavati's father urged him to give a vow that he would declare the son born of Satyavati as the successor to the kingdom. But Shantanu rejected this proposal of Haridas Kewat.

Due to not being married to Matsyagandha, King Shantanu began to live distressed in her memory. Moved by his father's restlessness, one day Devavrata asked him the reason for his suffering. King Shantanu described the entire episode related to Matsyagandha before Devavrata. Upon knowing the reason for his father's restlessness, Devavrata himself went before Haridas Kewat and, taking Ganga water in his hand, took a vow to remain unmarried throughout his life. Because of taking such a 'Bhishma' (difficult and great) vow, he became established in all the worlds by the name of Bhishma. King Shantanu, pleased with Devavrata's devotion to his father, granted him the boon of ICCHA-MRITYU (death at will).

Later, when the Mahabharata war began, Pitamaha Bhishma appeared on the battlefield to fight on behalf of the Kauravas. Due to his unique martial arts, the defeat of the Pandavas began to seem certain. Therefore, in such a situation, Lord Krishna made a plan to neutralize Bhishma on the battlefield by putting Shikhandi forward. Considering Shikhandi to be born in a male-female form, Pitamaha Bhishma considered it unrighteous to raise weapons against him, taking advantage of which Arjuna, standing behind Shikhandi, forced Pitamaha Bhishma to lie on the Sharshayya (bed of arrows) with his arrows.

Pitamaha Bhishma determined the time of his death according to his boon of Iccha-mrityu. He waited for the sun to become Uttarayan and gave up his life on the day of Ashtami of the Shukla Paksha of the Magha month, which is known as Bhishma Ashtami. According to beliefs, his last rites were performed on the Dwadashi Tithi. Therefore, this date became famous as Bhishma Dwadashi. On the day of Bhishma Dwadashi, his worship and Tarpan (offering of water) etc. are performed in the memory of Pitamaha Bhishma.

॥ Thus the popular Bhishma Dwadashi Mahatmya is completed ॥