Who killed seven of her children by drowning them in the river according to Hindu mythology?

Answer 1

Goddess Ganga, who flows as the river Ganges in Northern India, drowned seven of the children born to her and Shantanu, the king of Hastinapur, to release them from their curse. Ashtavasus are a group of 8 divine beings who live in a higher world. They were troublesome enough and angered sage Vasistha by their actions. The angry sage cursed them to be born into the human world to suffer pain. The Ashtavasus realised their mistake and pleaded to Vasistha to release them from the curse. In Hinduism, curses and blessings cannot be withdrawn. Therefore, sage Vasistha guides them to Goddess Ganga who could help them out.

Goddess Ganga agrees to bear them as her children and to drown them in the river Ganges to release them from human form. Meanwhile, Shantanu, king of Hastinapur, fell in love with Goddess Ganga when he saw by the banks of Ganga. Ganga puts forward a condition for marriage that King Shantanu should not question any of her activities, whatsoever. Otherwise, she would go away. He agreed and they married. Every year a child was born to them, Goddess Ganga would immediately drown them in the Ganges. The king was terrified by her actions but couldn't question her. For seven consecutive years, Goddess Ganga did the same thing. The 7 Ashtavasus were liberated from the human birth-death cycle. But when the eighth child was born, king Shantanu couldn't bear anymore of Ganga's actions. Without caring about the consequences, he asked Ganga why she drowned all the children. By asking this question, he had broken the promise to her. This meant that that the eight child could not be drowned and he must live as a human on earth and experience the miseries of humans. The mythologies say that the eighth Ashtavasu was the greatest troublemaker among the eight and destiny made him lead a life full of sufferings as a human. This was in accordance to the karma, the law that decides a person's fate based on his previous actions.

Ganga took the child away with her for 15 years. He was named Devavrata who later came to be known as Bhishma. Due to his hereditary greatness, his divinity and his great teachers, Devavrata was the master of everything: from finance, politics, arts, crafts, and science to athleticism and war techniques. But his life was full of pain and sadness.