Shantanu

Shantanu was the King of <a href="/facts/Kuru_Kingdom/8Uqlu8TH">Kuru Kingdom</a> with his capital at <a href="/facts/Hastinapura/GJD8ugeg">Hastinapura</a>, in the epic <a href="/facts/Mahabharata/EKbN9XwS">Mahabharata</a>. He was a descendant of the <a href="/facts/Bh%25C4%2581ratas/HogJkfxu">Bharata</a> race, a forebear of the lineage of the <a href="/facts/Lunar_dynasty/92JELfx7">Chandravamsha</a>, the father of <a href="/facts/Bhishma/sFwjB5bG">Bhishma</a> and the great-grandfather of the <a href="/facts/Pandava/0YvHSqHT">Pandavas</a> and the <a href="/facts/Kaurava/GrtuWQ5e">Kauravas</a>. 
The ruler was the youngest son of King <a href="/facts/Pratipa/SWNnIxkt">Pratipa</a> of Hastinapura and had been born during the latter's latter years. His eldest brother, <a href="/facts/Devapi/0K9oh6LP">Devapi</a>, had <a href="/facts/Leprosy/FSjTpMEB">leprosy</a>, and had given up his inheritance to become a hermit. The middle son, <a href="/facts/Bahlika_(Mahabharata)/MPDSER4C">Bahlika</a>, (or Vahlika) abandoned his paternal kingdom, and had started living with his maternal uncle in <a href="/facts/Balkh/WEsWFqp6">Balkh</a>, subsequently inheriting his kingdom. Shantanu, thus, ascended the throne of Hastinapura.

Shantanu open-in-new

Shantanu