BHISHMA PITAMA / DEVVRATA

== BHISMA PITAMA/DEVVRATA== He was the mighty son of ganga and shnatanu who had taken the vow of life long celibacy/ bramhachari.He was the grandfather of the pandavas and the kauravas.He was a great warrior.

Legend associating to bhishma pitama's birth.
once the eight  Vasus ("Ashtavasus") visited  Vashishta's ashram accompanied by their wives. One of the wives took a fancy to Kamadhenu, Vashishta's wish-bearing cow and asked her husband Prabhasa to steal it from Vashishta. Prabhasa 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. Upon the Vasus appealing to Vashishta's mercy, the seven Vasus who had assisted in stealing Kamadhenu had their curse mitigated such that they would be liberated from their human birth as soon as they were born; however, Prabhasa being protagonist of the theft, was cursed to endure a longer life on the earth. The curse, however is softened to the extent that he would be one of the most illustrious men of his time. It was this  Prabhasa who took birth as Devavrata

SKILLS
Bhishma was not only a good warrior, but also highly skilled in political science.He had all the qualities and abilities fit for an excellent king. . He tried his best to bring reconciliation between Pandavas and Kauravas to prevent the war. Even in the Kurukshetra war while he was the general he tried his best to keep the war low key by minimising confrontation between the two camps. Even as he fell he tried to use the opportunity to persuade both camps to put an end to the war. After the war, while on his deathbed he gave deep and meaningful instructions to Yudhishthira on statesmanship and the duties of a king.

IN THE WAR
Bhishma was the genral "senapati" of the kaurava armyfor 10 days of the war after which he died.Although Bhishma was righteous he was forced to be on the kaurava side because of his "pratigya"/ vow. Bhishma 's approach was comparitively gentle and he did not kill any of the pandavas. As Bhishma had ichamrityu vardan he could die only when he wanted to, so defeating him was very difficult also he was a brilliant general and an accomplished fighter.bhishma was defeated by arjun finally. Arjun took cover behind shikhandi ( amba's reicarnation) and launched volley after volley of arrows, Bhishma had taken a vow that he would never raise a weapon on a woman, as he could see amba inside shikhandi , he dropped his weapon and did not fight. Arjun kept launching volley after volley of arrows and Bhishma was finally covered  with arrows as he fell to the ground his body did not touch the grounf=d as the arrows made a bed for him. Bhishma died after the pandavas won and Yudhistra was crowned king. He also taught Yudhistra about administration on his bed of arrows.