Ganga is a strikingly beautiful seer who is actually the goddess of the Ganges River in mortal form. When Pratipa encounters her one day, he is overcome by her beauty but ultimately decides that to sleep with her would go against his dharma, so he arranges for her to have children with Śamtanu—his son—when Śamtanu comes of age. When Śamtanu encounters Pratipa one day as a young man, she fulfills her promise. She ends up having eight of Śamtanu's children, though she drowns seven of them because they're actually gods who took mortal forms due to a curse. Śamtanu stops her before drowning their eighth son, whom Ganga spares before leaving Śamtanu. This sole surviving child is Bhishma.