[Advaita-l] Re: Thanks

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>Thank you Vidyasankarji for the succession story of Mahabharata.  You have
>written "Santanu, father of bhIshma, was the second prince. His elder
>brother, devApi, had renounced the world at a young age."  I am interested
>to know more about this prince DevApi brother of Santanu.  Could you please
>enlighten me.

The mahAbhArata has very brief descriptions of devApi. The kuru dynasty king 
pratIpa had three sons, devApi, valhika and Santanu. In the Adi parva of the 
mahAbhArata, it is merely stated that devApi went to the forest as a hermit 
at a young age, while valhika became the king of the western kingdom of 
valhika. In a later parva, dhRtarAshTra gives duryodhana a more detailed 
account. pratIpa wanted to name devApi as the crown prince, but his 
ministers advised him against it, because devApi had some skin disease and a 
king was supposed to be blemishless in body. Upon hearing this, devApi 
decided to renounce his claim arising from first birth and went away to the 
forest. valhika inherited his maternal grandfather's kingdom of valhika. 
Thus, Santanu inherited pratIpa's kingdom.

Regards,
Vidyasankar

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