Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c18.58

v2.c18.58

his foes would pay bitterly for their ill-deeds against Draupadī. Karṇa is triumphant. “Three kinds of persons, it is well known, cannot hold anything—the slave, the child, and the (ever) dependent woman. Thou, O fair one, art the wife of a slave without right to hold property,¹ and hast lost thy master; so is it with all the slave possessed. Take thy place in the king’s following, and be one of it; that is thy portion, the rest will then be allotted thee. But thy lords, O king’s daughter, are all the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, not the sons of Pṛthā. Choose thyself quickly another husband, O fair one, from whom thou shalt not fall into slavery through the dice.” Bhīma again gives vent to his anger: “I am not angered against the Sūta’s son, O king; he has therewith rightly set forth the law of the slave. But would my foes so speak to me,² if thou hadst not diced for this woman?” Again Duryodhana calls on Yudhishthira to give an explanation himself; he keeps silence, as though stupefied, and Duryodhana bares his left thigh and shows it to Draupadī, as a scornful token that she is no longer of any account, a woman worthy of respect; for it is on the left thigh that the sweetheart is put to sit. Bhīma again flares out, and makes the solemn vow to shatter Duryodhana’s thigh. But for all the words that are being bandied, she is that is hurt to her innermost being is standing alone with her pride and her shame until ill-boding beast-like voices are heard. Then Dhṛtarāṣṭra becomes afraid, upbraids Duryodhana, and grants Draupadī three favours. She chooses two only: first, that Yudhishṭhira shall be free, so that his and her son need not hear himself called a slave’s child; and secondly, that the other brothers shall be freed from slavery. Herewith Karṇa finds a new opportunity to hurt the Pāṇḍavas and Draupadī: it is by a woman that they have had to let themselves be saved! Against this Bhīma is aroused in violent and useless sorrow, and to Arjuna he says: “Three are the lights that mankind