Mortal Kuru king of Hastinapura; father of Bhishma (by Ganga) and Chitrangada and Vichitravirya (by Satyavati). Met the river-goddess Ganga in the form of a beautiful woman on the banks of the Ganges; married her under the condition of unquestioning acceptance. Bore eight sons by her; she drowned the first seven at birth (the Vasu-curse release); on the eighth Shantanu intervened, breaking the condition; lost Ganga, who took the boy (Devavrata) with her. Reunited with the grown Devavrata sixteen years later. Years later, his desire to marry the fisher-woman Satyavati prompted Devavrata's bhīṣma-vow of renunciation and celibacy — for which Shantanu granted Devavrata the boon of icchamrityu (death-at-will). Bore Chitrangada and Vichitravirya by Satyavati but died before either could rule effectively. Forms the structural foundation of the Mahabharata's Kuru-dynastic crisis: his second-marriage compromise produces Bhishma's vow, which produces the throne-succession problem (no Bhishma descendants), which produces the niyoga-conception of Dhritarashtra and Pandu by Vyasa on the widows of Vichitravirya, which produces the Pandava-Kaurava rivalry that culminates in the Kurukshetra war.