The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c22.35

Language: English

v1.c22.35.1

The 'cousins' called Pāṇḍus first excited the jealousy of the Kurus when the latter were obliged to come south and offer tokens of submission to the Pāṇḍu king, who had crowned himself as emperor and performed the horse-sacrifice establishing this title. Resorting to trickery, the Kurus invited the Pāṇḍus to make them a visit. The somewhat uncouth Pāṇḍus, who are described as good examples of *nouveaux riches*, flaunting in the eyes of their guests all the evidence of their wealth and making the lowly but aristocratic Kurus objects of ridicule¹, despite their sudden rise to power were not yet adepts in courtly arts, and the chief art for a knightly gentleman of that day was gambling. As the Pāṇḍu king says, no gentleman (warrior) can refuse to fight or gamble when challenged. The Kurus were an old house and had the skill of the court at their command, however poor they might be in worldly goods. The Kuru prince, who had been humiliated, concocted a scheme to overthrow the Pāṇḍus by gambling. The old king, his father, was a noble at heart as well as by blood and made what protest he could against this scheme, which he knew implied cheating at dice. But he was old and blind; and it was not the custom to pay any regard to what a man said after he grew old. When any man's hair grew grey he was expected to abdicate his power in favour of his son and retire from active life. What regard was paid to him thereafter was a matter of courtesy.

v1.c22.35.2

He usually made over his property to his sons and disappeared literally or to all intent, becoming a wood-dweller. If such was the fate of the ordinary old man, the fate of kings was worse, as there was more to gain by their suppression. No regard at all was paid to the old king, who was king only in name. The Pāṇḍus were challenged to a friendly game of dice to be played in the Kurus’ city. It may be remarked here that the old site of the Kurus at the famous Kuru Plain had evidently been given up, as the Kurus were pushed back to Hastināpur, where they lived at the time of the epic story. The Pāṇḍus vaingloriously assented to make this return visit and see their kinsmen in the north. On arriving they were courteously received, and after spending a night with their hosts proceeded to the gambling-hall, where in one throw after another the Kuru prince, playing by proxy and thus securing the aid of the best gambler at court, won all the wealth, family, and kingdom of the Pāṇḍu emperor, who, however, ventured to play once more for the stake of banishment. As the emperor had already played the lives of his brothers and wife and lost, this last throw was an effort on the part of the Kurus to get them out of the way without imprisonment or other disgrace which might have occasioned a rising of other allies of the emperor. As it was, the Pāṇḍu king gave his word that, if he lost the last throw, he would go into banishment for twelve years with all his family.

v1.c22.35.3

After the twelve years were over, he and his brothers took refuge with the Matsya clan, and from that vantage-point collected other allies, marched to the Kurus’ land, were met at Kuru Plain, defeated the Kurus, and regained the old power. It is noteworthy that in all the twelve years of banishment the bitterest note in the lamentations of the Pāṇḍus is not the loss of the kingdom but the insult to their wife. As related above, they were a polyandrous race, and the king and his four brothers were husbands of Kṛishṇā. When the king had gambled away his brothers and himself, he offered to gamble their wife and did so, though the proceeding raised the legal question¹ whether one who had already made himself a slave could gamble away anything, slaves possessing nothing. The question being over-ruled, however, the wife was dragged off and insulted by the brother of the Kuru prince. Now whenever the Pāṇḍus, who are fulfilling the pledge to remain in banishment, begin to bewail and plan revenge, it is the former plight of Kṛishṇā Draupadī which evokes most anger. Not the cheating at dice, though that is not forgotten, but the insult to Kṛishṇā, who was dragged into the assembly of men and made a slave dishonoured, animates the Pāṇḍus in their despair and causes Bhīma to vow that he will drink the blood of the Kuru prince, a threat which he fulfils on the field thereafter.