Bhishma

Bhishma (भीष्म) is the grand sire of the Kuru family in the Mahabharata, famed for his terrible vow of celibacy and his loyalty to the throne of Hastinapura. At Kurukshetra he is the first commander of the Kaurava army, and in the Bhagavad Gita his conch call opens the war as Arjuna faces him across the field.

Who was Bhishma?

Bhishma was born as Devavrata, son of King Shantanu and the river goddess Ganga. When his father wished to marry Satyavati, whose father demanded that her sons inherit the throne, Devavrata gave up his claim and vowed never to marry. This terrible vow (bhishana) gave him the name Bhishma, and his father granted him the boon of choosing the time of his own death.

Guardian of the Kuru house

Bhishma raised the princes Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura after Shantanu’s line grew thin, and later guided the Pandavas and Kauravas alike. He stood by the throne even when its rulers acted wrongly, and in the dice assembly he was unable to stop the insult to Draupadi. His loyalty to the crown, rather than to either family, is the key to understanding his place on the Kaurava side.

Bhishma in the Gita

In 1.10 and the verses around it, Duryodhana calls his army “protected by Bhishma”, and in 1.12 Bhishma blows his conch to cheer the Kauravas. When Arjuna’s grief begins, he names Bhishma and Drona as the revered elders he cannot bring himself to fight. This is the emotional weight of Chapter 1.

The bed of arrows

On the tenth day Arjuna, with Shikhandi in front of him, struck Bhishma down with arrows. Bhishma lay on a bed of arrows and, using his boon, waited for the sun to turn north before dying. During those days he taught Yudhishthira the Shanti Parva and Anushasana Parva, a large part of the Mahabharata’s teaching on dharma and statecraft.