Vignettes from Udyoga parva Information in conversations between Yudhishthara and Sanjaya Yudhishthara asks Sanjaya, “Is Drona well? Are Kripa along with his son? Are they respected by Kauravas? Does son of Drona live there and is he honored? Is Prince Yuyutsu born from Vaisya well? Is the Minister Karna who rules stupid Duryodhana well? O Soota, are the mothers, the old ladies of family, the great wife of Dasa, the brides, the nephews, sisters, sons of our sisters, the daughters of our sisters, the grandsons of our daughters, all ok and living well? ” So we know Kripa’s sons are mentioned here. In Santi Parva, Bheeshma tells of old Kripa’s death in sanyasa while worshipping in forest, Yudhishthara tells of death of Kripa at hands of Arjuna. Kripa in the descriptions indicates a family of Gautam Rishis rather than one person. Original Kripa was found by Shantanu and was much older than Satyavati. Now among family members Yudhishthara asks about the Famous wife of Servant or Dasabharya. Some scholars mean this to be referring to Satyavati who is almost unheard since death of Pandu. It cannot be Satyavati as she was bharya or wife to Santanu and not wife to a Dasa. When Shantanu died, Bheeshma went to help the Gods fight Asuras. Satyavati ruled with help of her relations (the fisher folk sons of Dasharaja) and this could be referring to a wise wife or daughter-in-law of Satyavati’s brother who helped Satyavati rule in that period. It could be wife of one of older Kaurava servants who was nice to Kunti or Pandavas when the orphans came to Hastinapur. Satyavati also adopts the children of one of her brothers as a precaution. Their lineage also dies in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Another point Yudhishthara re-states couple of times “The kingdom of Kauravas is overrun by gangs of dacoits. The life of common people is miserable. Roads are not safe.” This sense of chaos and lack of police control over the region and general lawlessness and disorder was indicated in the description of Teerthas inside the Kaurava kingdom during Teerth yatra Parva also. This could be a revolt by the people against Duryodhana since Dyuta except this description of lawlessness and disorder is shown in Dhritrashtra’s kingdom during Pandava first exile as well after Lakshagraha. This is Vyas again and again demonstrating the misrule and disorder of Dhritrashtra and Kauravas. We are again and again given the hints of bad rule and brutalization of populace by Kauravas and Vyas gives the opposite sense of rule of law under Pandavas in Indraprastha. At start of Vana Parva, the population of Kurujangala did not want Yudhishthara to leave. They beseech him not to go and crying for their Father and Mother in their terms of address. (Yudhishthara and Draupadi) Gandharvas inside Kaurava territory with total disdain capture the royal prince and royal princesses and kidnap them. Dhritrashtra and Duryodhana either disdain giving cows to Baka Dalbhaya for Yagna or cannot afford to till Sahadeva comes to their aid is another story. The epic has many stories and straight forward indicators that Pandava rule was beneficent, not only that, the year they spent in Matsaya revived and made that nation prosperous. Bheeshma indicates that best way to find the Pandavas is to look for nation which has become prosperous all of a sudden. The reverse may not be always true but with warriors like Bheeshma, Drona, Asvwathamma, Kripa, Karna, Hundred Kauravas, Bhurishrvas, et all, Kaurava kingdom is plagued with dacoits!! Of course, you don’t use elephants to hunt jackals. But, Yudhisthara rubs salt on wounds by reminding Sanjaya that Arjuna was able to keep the country free of the dacoits. Yes the Kauravas had the greatest warriors in the world who could not even be bothered to protect the safety of their lowest common denominator. The real warriors are those who can fight as Kshatriyas and hunt as policemen do. The allrounders, the complete warriors. Even in Vanavasa, the Pandavas go in four directions for hunting animals and dacoits on regular basis. Their fights against the four legged and two legged dangerous animals are described again and again. The proud akaramik Kshatriyas like Bheeshma, ministers like Drona and Karna would disdain to do the job of a policeman. Arjuna and Bhima as well as twins did not. The safety and security of common people meant that Pandava brothers were always active while Kauravas wallowed in luxury, a point also stated by Dhritrashtra while briefing Sanjay. Yudhishthara reminds Sanjaya when he sent Sahadeva alone to punish the Kalingas as King of Indraprastha. Sahadeva alone firing arrows using both right and left hands defeated the Kalinga army. (Sahadeva also has Savyasachi skills!). Yudhishthara reminds Sanjaya that he had sent Nakula and Sanjaya (then a Pandava employee) to punish Trigartas and Sivis for past affronts. Nakula had executed his orders perfectly. He further reminds Sanjaya that Kauravas following evil advice of Karna (no use of word Sootaputra, he is called Mantri Karna and bad advisor) were trapped by Gandharvas and it was Bhima and Arjuna who freed them. We know three things here about Sanjaya, o Sanjaya was employee of Pandavas in past, he was recommended for that job by Vidura, so he left Hastinapur in partition and joined Pandava side, o as a child, Sanjaya and Arjuna were best of friends, as was Bhima and Yuyutsu. (Yuyutsu who later describes how he was always hurt by disregard by his real brothers and was always “protected” by Pandavas.) o Pandavas looked upon Sanjaya as second Vidura. Arjuna’s best friend as child was a Sootaputra!! (Dhananjayasyatmasmaha Sakhasi) and while we are at it, we learn also Yudhishthara’s best friend was Bhurishrvas. There is a very cryptic statement by Yudhishthara. In the Gandharva war, we know that Yudhishthara was busy with Yagna. Here he states to Sanjaya that as Bhima protected the backs of Nakula and Sahadeva in war with Gandharvas, he protected the back of Arjuna. I have not thought much about this. Any ideas would be welcome. He might be mentioning the Drupada war after graduation. Or Bhima might be the interlocutor here and some previous slokas are missing when Bhima takes over message delivery. In folk and in foreign Mahabharatas, Yudhishthara‘s dual nature is highlighted, BOTH Dharmaraja and Yamaraja, the two aspects of his father. Many times in epic, he is called Grandson of Surya, again highlighting the Yama link more than the Dharma link. In folk and foreign versions, he is able to be at two places at times in some stories splitting his two personas. Especially the story of Kritya which is very famous. The same goes for Nara and Purandhara in Arjuna and almost infinite aspects as Vayu everywhere. In the forested and mountainous central Indian villages, they are filled with tales of multiple Bhimas. In these cute and beautiful legends, twelve belles, daughters of ironsmith, potter, vaidya, pujari, fisherman, farmer, washerman, carpenter, shopkeeper, chaukidar, cowherd, basically all village level professions worship Vayu to get them husbands so Vayu asks Bhima to split into that many youth to marry each profession and hide during Agyatavasa. (Puranas also add the stories of Bhima’s brother Makanaka and his eight sons, seven of whom were companions of Pandavas in exile.) These Eight or Twelve Bhimas clear out dacoits, marry the daughter of chief of thieves (all village professions remember). They defeat and crush the pride of Vasuki. Do Yajna, rray (remember Pujari too!!) and force clouds to visit the parched famine ridden lands. So, they still do those Bhima prayers in Central India when the rains do not arrive on time. Twins do not miss out, Sahadeva’s Mahadeva portion is very busy with the various shakti wives of Siva testing Pandavas especially Sahadeva time and again in local legends of the local shakti temples.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 12:41:59 +0000
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