Vaishampayana said: -
1. There was a king, named Pratipa, engaged in doing good to all creatures. He spent many years in ascetic penances, going to the source of (the river) Ganga.
2. The accomplished and beautiful Ganga, in the form of a tempting woman, rose from the water and came to the king.
3. That beautiful- featured lady, that intelligent celestial maiden, endued with ravishing beauty, sat upon the right thigh of the king which was like a Shala tree.
4. Thereupon, the king Pratipa asked that famous “O fortunate lady, what good can I do to you and which you desire?”
The Maiden said: -
5. O king, I desire to have you. I offer myself, accept me. To reject a woman who is full of desire is never considered good by the wise.
Pratipa said: -
6. O beautiful lady, I never go to another man’s wife out of lust. O fortunate maiden, this is my solemn vow.
The Maiden said: -
7. I am neither inauspicious, not ugly, nor a detestable maiden. I am a celestial damsel of great beauty, O king, I offer myself, accept me.
Pratipa said: -
8. I have abstained from the course to which you would invite me. If I break my vow, its sin will destroy me.
9. O beautiful lady, you have sat upon my right thigh. O timid girl, it is the seat for daughters and daughters-in-law.
10. The left thigh is the seat for the wife, but you have rejected it. Therefore, O best lady, I cannot accept you.
11. O beautiful girl, be my daughter-in-law. I accept you for my son. The left thigh is for the wife which you have not accepted.
The Maiden said: -
12. O virtuous man, let it be as you say. Let me be united with your son. Out of respect for you, I shall be a wife of the famous Bharata race.
13. You are the refuge of all the monarchs of the earth. I am incapable of reciting your qualifications even in one hundred years.
14. O virtuous man, the greatness and goodness of many celebrated monarchs of (your) this race is unlimited. But, O lord, this must be the term (of my becoming your daughter-in-law) that your son shall not be able to judge the propriety for my acts.
15. Living thus with your son, I shall make him happy and do him good. He shall finally ascend heaven in consequence of his virtues and good conduct and of the sons I shall bear him.
Vaishampayana said: -
16. O King, having said this, the celestial maiden then and there disappeared. The king also waited for the birth of his son, so that he could fulfil his promise.
17. Sometime after, the best of Kshatriyas, that light of the Kuru race, Pratipa, was engaged with his wife in ascetic penances with the desire of a son.
18. When they grew old, a son was born to them and this son was Mahabhisha. He was called Shantanu, because he was born when his father had controlled his passions by asceticism.
19. The best of Kurus, Shantanu, knowing that the regions of indestructible happiness could be gained only by virtuous deeds, devoted himself to virtue.
20. When Shantanu grew up to be a youth, Pratipa told him, “O Shantanu, some time before, a celestial damsel came to me for good.
21. If you meet that beautiful celestial damsel in secret and if she solicits you to beget offspring on her, accept her as your wife.
22. O sinless one, judge not the propriety of impropriety of anything she does. Ask not who she is, whom she belongs to and whence she comes. But accept her as your wife at my command.”
23. Having thus commanded his son Shantanu and installed him on his throne, that king, Pratipa, retired into a forest.
24. That greatly intelligent king Shantanu, as effulgent as the king of the celestials, became a lover of hunting and passed much of his time in the woods.
25. That best of kings many deer and buffaloes. Wandering along the banks of the Ganges, he came upon a place frequented by Siddhas and Charanas.
26. There did the great king meet with one day a lovely damsel of blazing beauty like Sree herself.
27. She was endowed with a faultless beauty and beautiful teeth. She was decked with celestial ornaments. She wore garments as fine and beautiful as the filaments of lotus.
28. The king was surprised to see that damsel of great beauty; and his hair all over his body stood up in rapture. His steadfast gaze drank her charms, but it failed to satiate him.
29. The maiden also, seeing that king of great effulgence move about in great agitation, was moved and felt for him an affection and friendship. She gazed at him and longed to gaze at him more.
30-31. The king then addressed her in sweet words. “O beautiful one, O beauty of slender waist, be you a lady of the Deva or Danavas race, be you a maiden of the race of the Gandharvas or the Apsaras, be you a damsel of the Yakshas or the Nagas, or be you a human female, I solicit you to be my wife.
Thus ends the ninty seventh chapter, the history of Shantanu, in the Sambhava of the Adi Parva.