[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v2.c18 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c18: XVIII. The Woman of Energy Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c18 - **Language:** English ## Contents - [v2.c18.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.5) — 5 parts ### XVIII. The Woman of Energy ### [v2.c18.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.1) A SOFT, swelling fulness of the limbs is thus looked on as a matter of course in the pattern woman. It corresponds to the softness and fulness of her feelings, of the life of her soul. But we should be much mistaken, if we thought that the women who are actually shown us in action and speech by the Indian poets are all made after this pattern, or act always in harmony with it. No, the Epic particularly, in spite of much that is cast in a fixed mould, has in it a very long series of varying kinds of womanly figures. In this the Mahābh. especially stands out. But in the Rāmāyaṇa also we have two so utterly different representatives of the sex as Sītā and Kaikeyī. Hard and ruthless is Kaikeyī, the spoiled favourite of the king and of fortune, when once her fear and her ambition have been aroused, as is described in cantos ii, 9–39, in numerous passages. Even the gentle Sītā is quite capable of blazing anger and harsh words. How hot she is against Lakshmaṇa, when he, faithful to Rāma’s bidding, wishes to stay by her, and not to go off to his brother who seems to be calling for help; she even hints, certainly not without womanly vanity, that Lakshmaṇa wants her husband to die that he may himself get her for his wife (iii, 278.25–29; Rām., iii, 45).¹ As a true Kshattriyā she is, too, so soon as she has seen the wondrous phantom gazelle when picking flowers, ruthlessly determined to acquire at least its skin, if Rāma cannot take it alive. She wants to sit on it, far too much. “Such a headstrong whim is held, indeed, to be a dreadful thing and unbecoming to women. ### [v2.c18.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.2) ¹ This passage thus seems to pre-suppose the widow’s marriage with her brother-in-law as a matter of course; and here the younger brother would take the elder brother’s wife, which is opposed to the passage already discussed on Tārā’s and Sugrīva’s relationship, but which is otherwise natural enough. ### [v2.c18.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.3) But the wonderful beauty of this creature fills me with astonishment ” (Rām., iii, 43.19.–21).¹ ### [v2.c18.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.4) ¹ So, too, the queen in Chavannes, \*Cinq cents contes\*, ii, 273 ff., wants to have a cushion made of the skin of the wonderful golden stag; and another lady clothing and ornament from the skin and horns of the nine-coloured stag-king Bodhisatta (ibid., i, 220 ff.). ### [v2.c18.5.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.5.1) Strong-willed women are found, above all in the Mahābh., in great numbers. Indeed Eastern literature in general shows us, as has been already pointed out, the woman as being resolute, full of fire, passionate in comparison with the often so slack and sinewless man.² This characteristic comes out first of all in love. The fire of the senses is here also on the Indian doctrine far stronger in the woman, and it is not for nothing that the tender, timid sex so often takes the leadership in the Indian love tales, especially when it is a case of the fair one bringing about the tryst for the delights of sexual union that they desire as soon as possible, of keeping it successfully hidden, and of finding a safe way out when it is discovered.³ This characteristic is further shared by the tales of the other parts of the East, which for the most part come from India, or are inspired by it, and, most certainly not without a connection here, by the medieval, especially the French love tales.⁴ The woman is active, the man often quite passive ; he not only just lets himself be made happy by his beloved, but, in India, be also visited in the night. ### [v2.c18.5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.5.2) Juliet with her Romeo on the balcony is indeed to be found, but such things are by no means the custom of the land—not Leander, but Hero swims to the tryst in the Indian version of the well-known tale.¹ Even in the newer Russian literature—the latest of all I know too little about—the same Eastern strength and firmness of will in the woman is to be seen alongside the wavering, useless weakness of the man. So it is above all in Turgeniev, and in Pushkin and others. Now as the Mahābh. has much more unspoiled naturalness and undistorted reality, as it is far truer to life than the Rāmāyaṇa, which is much more strongly under priestly influences in its very foundations, so too the woman, as she is represented here in the narrative, is probably drawn far truer to the actual conditions of earlier times than in the companion Epic.² Then the pictures drawn of women in the minded, it is true, set before our eyes in his \*Rajasthan\* the tende and manly respect which the Rājputs show towards woman (i, 74, 295), and the truly noble romantic feelings they are capable of. Here belongs the custom of the “Gift of the Bracelet”: a lady in distress sends her bracelet to a knight often quite unknown to her; he becomes thereby her “bracelet brother”, who hastens into the fray for her sake, looks after her interests, and never sees her, though he is in a near relation to her (\*Rajasthan\*, i, 332, 614). ### [v2.c18.5.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.5.3) Tod rightly points out that the European knight, or \*cavaliere servente\* of the Middle Ages is far less high-minded (see for this J. J. Meyer, \*Isoldes Gotteseurteil\*, pp. 1–74). Akin to this is the fine relation between the sister and brother by election among the South Slavs (Krauss, \*Sitte u. Brauch\*, etc., p. 638 ff.). Mention may also be made of the rape of the Rājput princess, who calls on Rāj Sing for help, and promises him her hand (\*Rajasthan\*, p. 401). Now in the veins of at least a part of these very Rājputs there flows the purest Aryan blood. Fuller, \*Studies\*, etc., p. 47; Crooke, \*The North-Western Provinces\*, pp. 62; 201. And although Crooke in a later study: “Rājputs and Mahrattas,” \*Journ. Roy. Anthrop. Inst.\*, vol. xl, p. 39 ff. shows that many originally Scythian, and especially Hunnish elements have been taken into the Rājputs, he still supports the view there expressed in \*Tribes and Castes of Bengal\*, ii, 184, that the higher classes can claim to be sprung from the Kshattriyas. The Agāriah of to-day in Bengal also claim to be sprung from the Kshattriyas, and among them likewise the women have an honoured standing. See \*Ztschr. f. Ethnol.\*, Bd. 6, p. 377 f. (according to Dalton). Mention should be made, too, of the ruthless revenge which the Gurkha in Nepal, who claims at least to be descended from the Rājputs, takes on the offender who dares touch his wife. Wright, \*Hist. of Nepal\*, p. 32. ### [v2.c18.5.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.5.4) Clear traces of a higher value being set on the woman have often shown themselves to us in the narrative parts of the Epic, and elsewhere. Like the Rājputs, the heroes of the Epic feel themselves most deeply dishonoured if another man touches their wives, or even only their kinsmen’s (e.g. iii, 243.5; 244.17–18; 248.8). And undoubtedly the glories of the old lyric poetry, whose gold still gleams out here and there from under all kinds of rubbish and dirt, have in this respect likewise had to suffer heavily from loss and distortion. Ideal men and women, and ideal conditions we must not, indeed, think of restoring in our dreams even there. But in spite of all, the woman of the warrior nobility stands proud, strong, and honoured wherever Brahman hands and later influences have not smirched her. It would, of course, be a hopeless undertaking to try to carry through in the present MBh.—and that is all we have—a clear-cut separation between old and new, between what belongs to the epic poetry of the warriors, and what Mahābhārata have, too, very often an immediate and natural power of conviction which has an irresistible effect on the unprejudiced reader. Lastly it is highly instructive, often comic beyond words, to see how the revisers of this Epic not seldom tried to patch up, and in the most unskilful, nay, craziest way, the stark contradiction between what is actually said of the woman, and the ideal, or anyhow the ideal which was held later. ### [v2.c18.5.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.5.5) Draupadī in particular has cost them much toil. This personage, who in the original poem was evidently highly natural, with strong feelings and will, and blessed with a clear understanding, will not let herself be put at all as she is priestly botchery. The Kshattriyas were, of course, Hindus too, and the Brahman certainly from early times had won an influence on the life and poetry of the noble class too, here more, there less. Moreover in Brahmanic literature there often can be found a higher view of woman; and the not seldom lofty moral doctrine which in Brahmanic circles along with all kinds of irritating trash was partly built up in independence, partly, however, taken over from outside, in very many aspects was to woman's advantage also. In the old Upanishad there is found instruction how to beget a learned daughter; and in the same place Yājñavalkya initiates his wife, who longs after instruction, into the deepest secrets of philosophy. Here Gārgī takes part, a woman, in a philosophical congress, and of a truth is not dumb. How unspeakably ridiculous such a thing would have seemed to men like Plato or Aristotle, or to a Council of Fathers of the Church, which would rather take up the question whether women had souls at all! In the Brāhmaṇa literature the women speculate and argue with the men just as Draupadī does in the Epic. Of course, very much of this in the Brāhmaṇa may go back to the Kshattriya influence, which elsewhere, too, comes out so clearly. ### [v2.c18.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.6) ² Indian literature has not a single complete hero in our meaning of the word, not one man corresponding wholly with the ideal of a man; for even Karṇa is not without a stain, perhaps in greatest part, if not altogether, as a result of later distortions. On the other hand not a few wonderful and complete women stand out, especially in the Epic. ### [v2.c18.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.7) ³ Mucho sabe la zorra, pero mas la donna enamorada (The fox knows a lot, but the woman in love knows more). ### [v2.c18.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.8) ⁴ It is from France that those usually even high-born, and very high-born maidens, who often throw themselves, and at once, into the stranger hero’s arms, or who are anyhow utterly wretched if he does not prove them his manhood in the most evident way within a very few hours after they have first known him—it is from France that these maidens then came into the literature of the German Middle Ages; for the older writings of the Germans, found before the courtly culture, represent the woman in love in quite another light. ### [v2.c18.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.9) ¹ The young girl swims with the help of a baked pot or jar to her lover; an unbaked one is foisted on her, and she drowns. J. C. Oman, \*The Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India\*, Lond., 1903, p. 266 ff.; Huth, \*Zschr. f. vergleich. Literaturgesch.\*, N.F., Bd. 4, p. 189; cp. Stuttg. Lit. Ver., Bd. 208, pp. 127, 131; Hagen, \*Gesamtab.\*, i, p. cxxviii f., and note. The jar or pot for crossing over is also mentioned in MBh., xiii, 34.18; Rām., ii, 89.20. Cp. Hertel, ZDMG, Bd. 65, p. 439. ### [v2.c18.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.10) ² The Epic, above all the MBh., owed its birth originally to the Kshattriya environment, or at least mainly so, and to the bardic poetry, which above all painted the warrior nobility. This must not be forgotten where the question arises as to the influence and standing of the woman. The Rājputs in particular, who at least in part, are descendants of the Kshattriyas, may be brought in here as elucidation. Indeed their Bhāt or bards of to-day are etymologically the old Bharatas. And just as the old bard and his highly honoured position was kept up in Rājputāna and among the Marathas, so, too, the Johur custom (Tod, \*Rajasthan\*, i, 284 f.; 331; 347 f.; 674 f.; ii, 66) and the like among them will be found to link them with the olden time and the bardic poetry, unfortunately dreadfully mutilated in the Epic. In a burning like this of masses of women we may, indeed, see but barbaric ways and instincts. But such things as this remind us of the old Germans. Anyhow, in this there is to be seen a higher value set on woman and her purity. Thus a Rājput had to kill his daughter with his own hand, if she had been found in the arms of a young man. Dubois-Beauchamp\[^3\], p. 37. Especially does Tod, not very critically ### [v2.c18.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.11) Cp. further my note in Daçakum., p. 41, and Bhavabhūti's dictum, parallels for which are to be found elsewhere: "Excellence it is that yields the reason for respect in the case of the excellent, and not either sex or age" (Uttararāmac., iv, 11). The thought: "Woman is the word, man the meaning" is directly uttered in the wedding ritual (see Winternitz, pp. 51-52. Cp. Viṣṇupur., Bd. iii, p. 118). Particularly skilful and deep play is made with this thought in MBh., xiv, 21.13-26. Cp., too, Tennyson: "Till at the last she set herself to man Like perfect music unto noble words" ("The Princess," vii, towards the end). In short various currents, various social classes, various places and times are spoken of in the Epic. No universally valid picture can be given from it. ### [v2.c18.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.12) should into the Brahmanic strait-jacket; she is a spiritual daughter of the warrior nobility, in the beginning, judging from all appearances, like so much in the Mahābhārata, a pure creation of the Kshattriya poetry, and now plays very nasty tricks over and over again on the Brahmanic moral censors. Her kinsman Dhṛtarāṣṭra probably knew her, who was, indeed, born from the fire, very well; he says: “The daughter of Yājñasena is wholly and utterly the strength of fire” (iii, 239.9; cp. ii, 81.13). We have already been told how in the section on Kicaka she expresses herself with very scant ceremony indeed about her Guru Yudhishṭhira. When she lets strong words escape her even before him and the gambling company, he reprimands her and tells her she must not weep like an actress (before others’ eyes), and he speaks of the wife’s duty (iv, 16.40 ff.). ### [v2.c18.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.13) Among the most lively and striking passages of the great Epic is the dice-game. Yudhishṭhira has staked all his means, even his four brothers and himself, and has lost, and then last of all Draupadī also. Duryodhana spoke: ### [v2.c18.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.14) “Go, fetch Draupadī, O Prātikāmin: Thou needst no longer fear the Pāṇḍavas, Only Vidura is filled with fear, and does dispute; And he, indeed, ne’er wished our highest good.” Thus addressed, the Sūta swiftly went, Prātikāmin went at the king’s word; Even as a dog goes into the lions’ abode, So drew he nigh unto the Pāṇḍavas’ wife. ### [v2.c18.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.15) Prātikāmin spoke: ### [v2.c18.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.16) “Yudhishṭhira is mad with the fumes of play, Thee, O Draupadī, Duryodhana has won. Go into the house of Dhṛtarāṣṭra; I lead thee to the toil, Yājñasenī.” ### [v2.c18.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.17) Draupadī spoke: ### [v2.c18.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.18) “But how speakest thou thus, Prātikāmin! When, then, does a king’s son play for his wife! By the intoxication of the game the prince is blinded. Had he no stake besides me?” 1 ### [v2.c18.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.19) ¹ Probably, however, matto is to be taken as in cl. 4. Then: Blinded is the prince, drunk with the fumes of play. Had he, then, ### [v2.c18.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.20) Prātikāmin spoke : ### [v2.c18.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.21) “Ajātaçatru went on playing Until no other stake was left him. Then did the king first give for it his brothers, Himself also, then thee, O king’s daughter.” ### [v2.c18.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.22) Draupadī spoke : ### [v2.c18.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.23) “Go unto the gamblers, ask there, (Ask) Thou in the hall, thou Sūta’s son : ‘Didst thou first gamble thyself away, Or me, Yudhishṭhira ?’ When thou hast found this out, come And lead me away, O Sūta’s son; For when I know what the king wishes, Then do I go, filled with sorrow.” To the hall he hastened and spoke There these words of Draupadī; He spoke these words unto Pāṇḍu’s son, Who was standing amidst the princes : “Wast thou the lord, when thou didst me play away ?” 1 Thus speaks to thee Draupadī. “Didst thou first play thyself Away, or me, Yudhishṭhira ?” But senseless stood Yudhishṭhira, Like one bereft of life,2 Answered not one word To the Sūta, good or evil. ### [v2.c18.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.24) Duryodhana spoke : ### [v2.c18.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.25) “Let the princess herself come hither, And put this question; And all here shall hear What she, then he, speaks.” ### [v2.c18.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.26) no other stake for the dice ? Hi in this reading stands in a curious position. It is true that in the Epic it not seldom opens the pāda. 1 Liter. : as whose lord didst thou play me away ? 2 Gatasattva lifeless, dead, annihilated; probably also : robbed of the senses (wanting in Böhtlingk). It is often found in the Epic (e.g. i, 226.9; ii, 65.42; 69.20; iii, 39.63; 52.48; 68.30; 161.5, 20; 162.36; 206.5; 272.22; iv, 13.36; vi, 107.40; 110.23; viii, 3.6; 19.35; ix, 1.40; 10.41; xiii, 71.8; xiv, 77.22). ### [v2.c18.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.27) Faithful to Duryodhana’s bidding, He to the king’s house went away ; The Sūta spoke to Draupadī, As though reeling with anxious fear : Prātikāmin spoke : ### [v2.c18.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.28) “ The lords there of the hall¹ do call thee, Danger and doubt has crept o’er the Kauravas : His own happiness, truly, he heeds not, the poor fool That would take thee to the hall, princess.” ### [v2.c18.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.29) ¹ Since the sabhā (hall) here also, as with King Virāṭa, serves both as gaming-house and as court of justice, the “lords of the hall” (sabhya, sabhāsada, cp. sabhāsṭāra = akṣātivapāka) are here also both judicial assessors and gaming-fellows of the ruler. Indeed, the words in question have even the meaning of master or owner of a gaming-house. Cp. iv, 1.24; 16.32 ff., 43; 70.4, 18, 28. ### [v2.c18.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.30) Draupadī spoke : ### [v2.c18.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.31) “ The Maker, of a truth, ordained he two : Or young, or old,² good and evil befalls us. Yet one law as the highest to the world he gave ; If we follow it, it brings us peace. This law must not glide by the Kurus— Go, ask the lords that which I say of the Right. The noble ones, they with the law in their souls, the wise ones, Must give me the decision. I will follow.” ### [v2.c18.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.32) ² Or : Or stupid, or clever. ### [v2.c18.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.33) When he her words had heard, the Sūta went To the hall, then told of her speech. They lowered their faces, and to silence fell : Well they knew the stubbornness of Duryodhana.³ The king Duryodhana looked on their faces, And joyfully unto the Sūta said : ### [v2.c18.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.34) ³ I leave out here five çlokas inserted between the triṣṭubhs as being foolish interpolations. ### [v2.c18.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.35) “ Bring her hither, O Prātikāmin ; The Kurus shall themselves speak before her.” ### [v2.c18.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.36) The Sūta said, obedient to his power, Fearful of the anger of the king’s daughter, His pride disowning, to the lords of the hall said he Once more : “ What then shall I tell Kṛṣṇā ? ” ### [v2.c18.37](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.37) Duryodhana spoke unto his brother Duḥçāsana : ### [v2.c18.38](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.38) “ Duḥçāsana, this dull Sūta’s son, My coward, is fearful of the wolf’s belly Bhīma, Do thou thyself lay hold of Yājñasenī and bring her. What could the foes do to thee, the slaves ! ” ### [v2.c18.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.39) When he heard his brother’s words, the king’s son Arose with anger-reddened eyes ; He went into the house of the great chariot-fighters And spoke to Draupadī, the king’s child : “ Come, Kṛiṣṇā, come ! Thou art won in play, Leave thy shame aside, come unto Duryodhana. Yield thyself up to the Kurus, thou with the lotus eye. Thou art become their own by right. Come to the hall.” ### [v2.c18.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.40) Then stood she up with deeply troubled soul, And with her hand wiped her pale face ; In torment and distress to the wives she ran Of the old king, the bull of the Kurus. ### [v2.c18.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.41) Loud at her bellowed Duḥçāsana in anger, Hastening he ran to the prince’s wife, And took her by her long hair, That flowed down black in heavy waves. The hair that at the great sacrifice of the king Was moistened by the prayer-consecrated water of the closing bath, It the son of Dhṛitarāṣṭra boldly touched, Bringing shame on the hero soul of the Pāṇḍavas.¹ ### [v2.c18.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.42) ¹ To be laid hold of by the hair is looked on as particularly ignominious, and the offence of thus dishonouring a woman as dreadful beyond all comparison. See e.g. vii, 195.8 f., 19 f. ; 196.42 ; K, xii, 14.84. Cp. also viii, 83.20 f. \[From Melanesia for the tabu head or hair of a woman of the class of chiefs cp. G. C. Wheeler, \*Mono-Alu Folklore\*, p. 23 (Translator).\] ### [v2.c18.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.43) To the hall Duḥçāsana brings Kṛiṣṇā, Dragging her by the long hair, and he shakes her about As the wind does the poor weak young tree, As though she so rich in protecting lords had none. ### [v2.c18.44](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.44) Dragged along, her slender body Bent and swaying, she whispers low : “ I am not well ; My covering, thou fool, is but one wrapping ; Do not bring me to the hall, base one ! ” ### [v2.c18.45](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.45) Loud cries for help and rescue Yājñasenī : “ Come, Kṛṣṇa ! Jiṣṇu ! Come, O Hari ! Nara !” Then said he to her, in a wild grip Holding dark Kṛṣṇā by her dark hair : “ For me be thou unwell always, Yājñasenī ! For me thou mayst have one garment on or none ! Thou hast been won in play, thou art become a slave ; To the slave a garment is given as one likes.” With loosened hair her clothing half slipped down, Shaken wildly to and fro by Duḥśāsana, Filled with shame, glowing with hot rage, Then low to him Kṛṣṇā these words did speak : “ Those in the hall are masters of the doctrine, Rich in works, and all like unto Indra. They abide in honour and worship, all to me Are worthy of honour ; so before them can I not come. Unutterably base man of varlet ways, Take not my garb away, drag me no more !¹ The king’s sons will make thee pay for it,² Even though the gods with Indra, too, were to help thee. To the law clings the noble son of the law.³ The law is subtle and hard to know ; I would not that even through the word a whit of blame Or lack of virtue should on my husband fall. Yet this is evil, that thou in my sickness Doṣt drag me into the midṣt of the Kuru heroes, And none here raises one word of blame ; They all muṣt be of thy mind. Oh, shame ! Gone is the law and cuṣtom of the Bhāratas, Gone are the ways of those learned in the lore of warriors ; The Kurus all with calmness in the hall see The bounds overstepped of Kuru law. Ah ! Droṇa, Bhīṣma, these have no character, Nor even Vidura, the high-minded one ; So here the oldest and first among the Kurus Heed not the king’s dread wrong.” ### [v2.c18.46](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.46) ¹ Hardly : deṣtroy me not (from kṛi). Mā vikārṣiḥ is probably from kṛish. Cp. the already discussed apākarṣuḥ, iii, 128.2. ² More literally : will not forgive it thee. ³ Yudhishṭhira. ### [v2.c18.47](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.47) With these piteous words the slender one Looked sideways at her angry husbands ; With side glances the sons of Pāṇḍu she did Set afire, she round whose body anger welled. Loss of the kingdom and their treasures And most glorious jewels was not for them So painful as Kṛiṣhṇā’s sideway look She sent towards them in shame and anger. Barely became Duḥçāsana aware that Kṛiṣhṇā At her wretched ¹ husbands was gazing, Than he wildly shook her, who was wholly senseless, And to her shouted “ Slave !” and loudly laughed. And Karṇa to the word applause did give In utmost joy, and he loudly laughed ; The prince, too, of the Gandhāras, son of Subala, Praised Duḥçāsana high with joyous praise. Yet but for these twain and Duryodhana To all the lords of the hall that were there Came sorrow without measure, when they saw how Kṛiṣhṇā was dragged around the hall. ### [v2.c18.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.48) ¹ Or : pitiable (kṛipaṇa). ### [v2.c18.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.49) Bhishma now said he could not answer Draupadī’s question, for it was about a very fine point of law. On the one hand, he said, a man who was no longer his own master, a slave, could not play away another’s property.² On the other hand the wife was always under the dominion of her husband. Çakuni ³ was without a rival in the dice-game, Yudhishṭhira had wished to play with him, and his wish had been granted by Çakuni. Yudhishṭhira had owned himself beaten, “ won in the game,” and did not look on it as any trickery. Draupadī made answer : “ The king, who has had little practice in gaming, was challenged ⁴ by skilled, base, evil-minded, and malicious lovers of gambling in the hall. How can it be that his wish was granted him ! And how,⁵ then, could he make ### [v2.c18.50](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.50) ² Just because he cannot have any property of his own. ### [v2.c18.51](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.51) ³ Yudhishṭhira’s opponent, Duryodhana’s fellow-conspirator and uncle on his mother’s side, king of Gandhāra. ### [v2.c18.52](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.52) ⁴ He therefore, as we were told, as a Kshattriya had to accept. ### [v2.c18.53](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.53) ⁵ Probably kasmāt is to be read instead of yasmāt, although if needs must be, the latter is also possible. ### [v2.c18.54](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.54) a stake again, after he had unwittingly been won (as a slave) at play by the villains in union? Let the free Kurus here in the hall decide.” Duḥṣāsana hurls abuse at her once more; then Bhīma breaks out, and utters the bitter reproaches against his eldest brother which have already been spoken of. He wants to burn his two arms in the fire, so as to take insulting vengeance on Yudhiṣṭhira. Arjuna reminds him that unconditional obedience must be given to the eldest brother, and that a Kṣattriya loses his honour, if he refuses after being challenged to play. But now Vikarṇa, a younger brother of Duryodhana, stands up, upbraids the assembly for not giving the law its due, and declares that as Yudhiṣṭhira has already played away his own person, Draupadī who was staked afterwards cannot be held to be lost in gambling; moreover she is the property of all five brothers. Loud applause followed his words. But from Karṇa’s mouth harshly come the angry words: “Yudhiṣṭhira staked all he had, and lost it. Draupadī is part of this. Furthermore the gods have appointed but one husband for the woman; one that has more, like Draupadī, is a wicked woman, and cannot lay claim to any consideration or honour. Duḥṣāsana, take the clothing of the Pāṇḍavas and of Draupadī!” He that was now spoken to tears off her only garment from the wretched woman’s body, but by a miracle from Kṛṣṇa, whom she had called on in her need, a new one keeps on ever wrapping her limbs, until at length a great heap of garments torn off her by Duḥṣāsana lies in the hall.¹ Loud reproaches on Duḥṣāsana are then raised, and heartfelt praise for Draupadī. Bhīma swears he will drink Duḥśāsana’s blood in battle. Vidura comes forward for Draupadī, and demands of the gathering that it should deal out justice. But Karṇa calls out to Duḥśāsana to bring the slave-woman into the house. Filled with shame, and weeping, Draupadī then once more turns to the circle of great men and princes and complains of the evil done: “Sun and wind before were not allowed to see me; now in the midst of the hall I am gazed on among the men, and the Pāṇḍavas allow it. That was never heard of, that an honourable woman should be dragged into the public hall. Where is the Kings’ law? The old eternal law is gone. Decide ye whether I was won in the game, whether I am a slave or not, and I will act accordingly.” Bhīshma sorrowfully holds: He that has the power has the right.¹ While she is bitterly weeping and wailing, Duryodhana declares with the proud smile of the master that Yudhishṭhira and his brothers must decide. Yudhishṭhira keeps silent, Bhīma blusters and says that if his strong arms were not bound by all kinds of considerations, ### [v2.c18.55](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.55) ¹ This miracle is probably, though not certainly, of a later date. But certain it is that Kṛṣṇa as the worker of the miracle and the Kṛṣṇa cult belong to a later time. Originally Draupadī probably had to stand there naked. Secondary, of course, too, is the statement that the sun has never before looked on the face of the noble woman who is now thus exposed to the eyes of the men. The expression, indeed, is often found. and along with other things has even penetrated into very old parts of the Epic. That the Kṣattriya women in old days knew nothing of being veiled and secluded is quite clear. But the view of many Indians that it first came into the land through the Mohammedan conquest is refuted at every turn by Indian literature. But the watch over women was made much more rigorous after the coming ### [v2.c18.56](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.56) ¹ The saying: “Might is right,” as in other Indian literature, is here emphatically made, and in many forms. Often the pāda is repeated: balam dharmo ’nuvartate, “right follows might” (so e.g. i, 136.19; Rām., vi, 83.26); “above right (virtue) I set might” (xii, 134.6). Who has might and strength is the free lord over right; this is governed by might, as smoke by the wind. None, indeed, has seen the fruit of right or wrong; strive after might on earth, all obey the nod of him that has the might” (xii, 134; see the whole chapter). Especially for or among the Kshattriyas power and right coincide (ii, 23.28, and elsewhere Heaven knows how often, in the most Machiavellian tones). I have already touched on that in a note. But here in Bhīshma’s words we have not his honest opinion. Hopkins mistakes the meaning of the whole. Bhīshma says: “And that which here in the world the man, who has the might, looks on as the right, is called the highest right, when the question arises of the right (or: where the question arises of the limits of the right).” Perhaps, even, we should take dharmo ’dharmavelāyām = “when wrong prevails”. But also without the apostrophe that is the true meaning of the words. ### [v2.c18.57](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.57) of the Moslems.—Anyhow the present section is among the oldest of the Bharata poem, but is often touched up or wholly recast. ### [v2.c18.58](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.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 ### [v2.c18.59](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.59) ¹ Karṇa rightly says that as wife of a slave she is \*eo ipso\* a slave (MBh., viii, 73.86). See Meyer, Kauṭilya, 289.44 ff.; addit., 290.31. ### [v2.c18.60](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.60) ² \*Mām\* sounds somewhat strange; \*tām\* (= “to her”) would seem more natural. But it is quite right. Cp. v, 90.82; 137.22; vii, 40.4. ### [v2.c18.61](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.61) has : offspring, pious works, and knowledge¹; and when man is an unclean dead body, forsaken in the wilderness by all, then these three show their profit. For us now the light has been destroyed, by strangers having profanely touched our wife. How indeed could offspring come from a woman that has been touched?" Arjuna brings out one or two wise sayings, and Bhīma has a fresh outburst of rage. But Draupadī has once more been stabbed, and deeply, in the breast, and though they can now all go away free, yet Yudhishṭhira lets himself be brought to dicing again, and once more loses all, whereupon Draupadī has to leave her children and go off with her five husbands into the celebrated thirteen years' banishment (ii, 67 ff.; cp. v, 90.44, 47).² ### [v2.c18.62](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.62) ¹ Or probably better, as I translated before: "Offspring, action, and knowledge." The conclusion, indeed, shows that religious works are at least included. How could this be thought of otherwise, indeed, in an Indian, who even "sins religiously"? The forefathers' offerings made by the sons are of help, of course, in the world of the dead, through pious works men come into the heaven of the gods, the glories of which, it is true, pass away, and knowledge, philosophical knowledge, sets free from the Saṃsāra. ### [v2.c18.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.63) ² This second dice-game (anudyūta) is of course a very stupid later distortion. In a more primitive form of the Epic, or of the Epic ballad poetry the Pāṇḍavas were, indeed, freed from slavery, perhaps, too, on Draupadī's prayer, but on the condition of going off into banishment, and so they went away into the forest owing to the first game. Thus Draupadī herself relates the matter (v, 82.28), and she must know about it better than the offenders against the poem who came later. Again and again the sharper sight can see the dreadful ravages done on the holy place; often we can with certainty conclude to an older and better form, but only too often there is nothing left but painful anger at the bungling profanation of the old poetry of the Kauravas and of other Epic ballad treasures. ### [v2.c18.64](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.64) There in the lonely forest she does her best to bring the listless Yudhishṭhira, always chattering of virtue and forbearance, to action. She describes to him how evil the foes are, she boldly attacks the very Godhead: "Not as a mother, or a father, O king, does the Maker act towards beings. As though in anger he acts by them like anyone else here on earth" (iii, 30.38). But man shall be up and doing, not fall a victim ### [v2.c18.65](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.65) to doubt and brooding hair-splitting—this the fiery Draupadī argues in magnificent phrases. “It is armoured in deeds that we must go through life, he that is bent on action is prized; he is a fool who speaks of blind necessity and lays his hands in his lap. To him that lies there a sluggard, comes only evil, but the active man has happiness. Now we are in the depths of wretchedness; it would undoubtedly not be so, if thou didst act energetically. And if success does not come after all, yet a man has tried his strength, and finds a proud self-reliance and honour in this.”¹ “The husbandman breaks up the ground with the plough and sows the seed, then quietly waits; the rain must do its share there. If the rain does not favour him, yet no blame falls on the husbandman in this matter: ‘I have done all that another man would do.’ Therefore we must act with zeal and wariness; let manly energy point the way, even though a mountain or a river have to be put out of the way, to say nothing whatever of a mortal man. He that earnestly strives does his duty towards others and himself. Let a man assert himself, and then fortune smiles on him. The patient man must bear with any and every mortification. Grief sheer weighs my heart down, when I think of all the former magnificence, and look on the wretched plight of us all to-day. Thou art a calm witness of it all, dost seem to be utterly incapable of anger, and wouldst be called a warrior! Fiery strength, a soaring will, an ever-lively feeling of honour—these are what the warrior must show, wherever needful” (iii, 27, 28; cp. e.g. iii, 32).² For her friend Kṛṣṇa she clothes her anger and sorrow with eloquent words, paints to him all the shame that was done her in the gambling-hall, how, while her husbands were still alive, the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra had wanted to make use of her as a slave, even for the quenching of their lust. She, the noble daughter of a king, and born in wondrous wise, the daughter-in-law of a great prince, she, the friend of Kṛṣṇa, the wife of five such heroes, had to put up with all this! Shame! she cries on her husbands, and their much-praised greatness. “When a man wards his wife, then he has warded himself; for from her his own self is born (anew). But how should a husband that must be warded by the wife be born from my body? They take the shame put on me and my ill-treatment calmly, and I glow with anger against our evil foes, who are weaker than we.” With her hand she covers her face, and with her tears moistens her firm-standing, swelling, well-shapen breasts. Kṛṣṇa consoles her and promises that all this shall have its punishment; but she looks sideways at Arjuna to see whether he also gives his assurance (iii, 12.61 ff.). She then accompanies the whole course of events with her flaming zeal and the full weight of her determined activity, presses and drives on with every means; her thirst for revenge can only be quenched by blood. As we so often find with the women of the Epic, she takes part in the men’s discussions; even where it is a case of deciding on war or peace she has her say like the most important of the heroes and great men; and her words are not a whit less of weight. So in v, 82 (cp. also e.g. x, 16.26 ff.). Once more there has been much talk of what must be done. The question now is about sending Kṛṣṇa as an envoy to the cousins and foes. In what wise is he to make his appearance ### [v2.c18.66](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.66) ¹ Whether abhimāna (32.45) comes from mā or from man would probably be very hard to decide. My rendering is meant to meet both possibilities. ### [v2.c18.67](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.67) ² From the mouth of women and of men we are always hearing in the MBh. the praise of amarsha, “not brooking,” the passion that flares up angrily and avenges an insult. Noble, good and glorious is anger, a magnificent thing is discontent—the never-resting striving for something always higher. It is only a poor wretch that puts up with everything; content, fear, pity, virtuousness kill happiness, and greatness is not won by him who has such things for his own. Anger and impatience is the strength of heroes. Cp. espec. Kauṭilya, 501.3 ff., 23 ff.; addit., 501.37; Ҫiçupālavadha, ii, 46; Kirātārj., xi, 57 ff. ### [v2.c18.68](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.68) espec. 65 and 70; Ṛgveda, x, 83 and 84. But Kauṭilya, 501.11 ff. agrees with Herman Melville when he says: “Hate is woe” (Moby Dick, ch. cxix). See also MBh., iii, 29; and so on ad infinitum in Old India. Tegnér’s splendid song of praise to “Oro” (Unrest) comes into the mind, when we read such verses as: “Discontent is the root of happiness, therefore I love it; if a man strives after rising, that, O king, is the highest wisdom in life.” Cp. i, 180.3; ii, 50.17 ff.; 49.13, 14; 55.11; v, 160.61, 92; etc.; but especially the utterances of Vidulā (v, 133 ff.) to be shortly given. ### [v2.c18.69](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.69) there, and speak? Even Bhīma, the man of fierce anger, drips most wonderfully with the milk and honey of gentleness and conciliatoriness. At last Draupadī, “eaten with sorrow,” speaks, and in deep disgust at Bhīma’s being so friendly disposed, with tear-stained eyes, she reminds Kṛṣṇa that their adversaries would come to no agreement earlier, even when this was deeply humiliating for the Pāṇḍavas. If Duryodhana would not give his cousins back their kingdom, then there could be no talk of peace. What was to the profit and credit of the Pāṇḍavas, of him, and of the whole estate of warrior nobles was this only: a crushing punishment for the irreconcilable ones. He that was a victim to greed must be chastened by the Kṣattriya. Then she tells at short length again of the insult done to her in spite of her high rank, in all essentials as in her earlier conversation with Kṛṣṇa.¹ “ ‘I was gripped by the hair, tortured and brought into the hall, while Pāṇḍu’s sons looked on, and thou wast still alive. I stood in the midst of the hall as a slave of the evil ones, and the Pāṇḍavas looked on without flaming forth or stirring a limb. If thou wouldst please me, if thou wouldst show me compassion, then must every drop of rage be poured out undiminished on the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.’ Thus having spoken, she of the black eyes and lovely hips with her left hand grasped the loosely bound coil of her hair, curling at the ends, and glorious to see, deep-black, steeped in every perfume, endowed with every mark of good luck, shining like a great snake; and so the lotus-eyed one went up with the proud step of the elephant to him of the lotus eyes, and with tear-filled eyes the dark one spoke to him, the dark one: ‘Of this hair, dragged upwards by Duḥśāsana’s hand shalt thou, O lotus-eyed one, think on every occasion, if thou wouldst make peace with the foes. If Bhīma or Arjuna, those miserable wretches, have a wish for peace, O Kṛṣṇa, then will my old father fight beside his sons, the great chariot-fighters. And my five sons with the strength of heroes will fight with Abhimanyu at their head against the Kurus. But if I do not see Duḥśāsana’s black arm lying hewn off and covered with the dust, how is my heart to find rest? Thirteen years have gone by me in hoping and waiting, while I have been fostering my anger within me like a burning fire. My heart wounded by the arrows of Bhīma’s speech, is bursting asunder, for this strong-armed one now looks only to pious virtue’. When Kṛṣṇā of the long eyes had spoken these words in a voice choked with tears, she fell to weeping, trembling and sobbing loud. The lovely one with the long swelling hips moistened her close-set breasts, as the water flowed from her eyes like molten fire.” Kṛṣṇā comforts her and makes aloud to her the holy promise that, as she now weeps, so will one day the wives of their foes weep, all of whose kindred will then have been slain, and dogs and jackals will eat the bodies of Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s sons. “The Himālaya mountains may move from their place, the earth be shattered into a hundred fragments, the sky with its stars fall down—my word cannot stay unfulfilled” (cp. iii, 12.139 ff. ; 51.36 ff. ; 235.4 ff.). ### [v2.c18.70](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.70) ¹ It is remarkable that she says: “I will say what I have already once said.” Such a fear as this of repetitions, and such a memory the Epic does not show anywhere else. Cp. iii, 12.61 ff. ### [v2.c18.71](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.71) It has been fulfilled—Draupadī has seen all that insulted her lying on the ground, and given her ears their fill of the weeping and wailing of the wives of them that once had exulted in victory over her. And Duryodhana himself acknowledges how much she has contributed to this end. Before the last day of battle, when his cause is already in great straits, Kṛpa begs him to make peace. But Duryodhana says it is too late, the Pāṇḍavas could not be held back from the fight, as they are thinking of the shameful treatment of Draupadī. “From the day when Draupadī was tormented, and to my destruction brought to sorrow, she has slept ever on the bare ground, until hate shall have had its due. Dreadful is the penitential mortification that Kṛṣṇā has undergone that her husband’s cause may win; and Vāsudeva’s sister (Subhadrā) dropping self-regard and pride, serves her continuously, obedient as a slave. Thus all is in highest tension, and can nowise come to rest (nirvāti). . . . But this is not the time to play a manless part, but to fight” (ix, 5.17 ff. ; cp. v, 139.13, 18). But heavily must Draupadī pay for this happiness, too, and for the new royal splendour, moreover much lessened through the battles of extermination. Her father and brothers perish. ### [v2.c18.72](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.72) But the most dreadful blow for her is the death of her five sons, who are surprised in their sleep and slaughtered by Aṣvatthāman in the night, following the ending of the many days' contest of the nations. Yudhishṭhira at the awful fate of these youths has nothing more to show than his usual swoon, and then after coming back to himself his still more usual loud and tearful cries of woe. Draupadī on the other hand, soon recovers from her great sorrow, utters scornful words for her husband, and goes on to say: "But I am burnt up with sorrow. If the son of Droṇa, the evil-doer, together with his following is not to-day bereft of his life by thee in stout fight in the battle, then shall I sit on in this place, and starve to death. Hear ye that, sons of Pāṇḍu!" Yudhishṭhira seeks to quiet her by saying that her sons and kinsmen have lost their lives honourably in battle, so that there is no reason for her to mourn. Moreover, the slayer has taken refuge in the forest fastness. But she will not be put off: "I have heard that Droṇa's son bears a jewel on his head, that was born with him. Only if the dastard is slain, and I see this jewel brought hither, and fastened to thy head, O king, will I live.¹ That is my resolve." She then entrusts Bhīma—whom she a long time ago put to trial as a rescuer in need, and whom she now, therefore, praises and spurs on—with carrying out the revenge (x, 10.24 ff.).² ### [v2.c18.73](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.73) ¹ This of course is a wonderful stone of the kind often found in the tales: whoever wears it is proof against all fear and danger; hunger and want, sickness and weapons have to leave him unscathed, even gods, demons, and spirits have no hold on him. See in my Daçakum., p. 166; K. Fleck's \*Flore und Blancheflur\*, 2884 ff.; 6713 ff.; Hagen's \*Gesamtab.\*, i, 463. With this piece of the MBh. cp. Bhāgavata-purāṇa, i, 7.14 ff. (Arjuna brings A. before Draupadī, and cuts the jewel out of his head). ### [v2.c18.74](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.74) ² Probably after Sītā's celebrated example, Draupadī, when she is alone once in the forest of banishment, is carried off, and by King Jayadratha. But the Pāṇḍavas very quickly follow him, he lets go his fair booty, and flees. Yudhishṭhira advises Bhīma and Arjuna, who follow up the pursuit of the insolent fellow, to spare his life. This arouses the utmost fury in the injured Draupadī, and she hotly demands his death (iii, 271.43 ff.). ### [v2.c18.75](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.75) When then at long last the kingdom is in Yudhishṭhira's hands, he begins a long lament, is tortured by remorse, and wants to go off into the penitential forest. Draupadī then shows him that by this he is doing ill by his brothers, who have shared all pains with him, and should now have their reward. “ He that hath lost his manhood cannot rule the earth, he cannot enjoy riches, in his house the sons can as little dwell, as fishes in the mud. Without punishment inflicted no king is possible. To bear love towards all beings, to make gifts, to study, to practise asceticism—this is the virtue of the Brahman, not of the ruler. To hinder the wicked, to help the good, and not to flee in the fight—this is the highest virtue of the ruler. Through thy blindness the fight now has been for nought. If the oldest and highest is crazy (unmatta), then all that follow him are crazy too. Were thy brothers not crazy, then they would put thee and the wrong thinkers in prison, and rule the earth themselves. He that thus goes astray should be treated with fumigations, salves, sneezing remedies, and medicines by a physician.¹ I am most contemptible among all women in the world, I who even so, robbed of my sons,² still wish to live. If they were still alive and doing, then I should not now be uttering my words to the winds. But thou art leaving the whole earth to itself, and thyself rushing into unhappiness ” (xii, 14).³ ### [v2.c18.76](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.76) ¹ As one out of his mind. ### [v2.c18.77](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.77) ² I read vinākṛitā (cp. 27.22). But K., too, has vinikṛitā : “ mortified through my sons (through their cruel death),” an unnatural way of expression. ### [v2.c18.78](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.78) ³ Read kurushe in çl. 37. ### [v2.c18.79](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.79) All this suffering and more, too, she has to bear,⁴ for though she is a soul of fire, and a wonder of beauty, yet, like so many of her kind, she is unhappy in her marriage, and this through her own fault—the only man that is worthy of her, Karṇa who is made for her, she scornfully rejects in a supercilious blindness, and clings to a Brahman beggar.⁵ One husband was what ### [v2.c18.80](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.80) ⁴ While living in the wilderness she is once even carried off by a Rākshasa, but quickly and once for all set free by Bhīma through the monster's death—a weak copy of the Rāmāyaṇa motive. ### [v2.c18.81](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.81) ⁵ What may the original lyrical poetry or the saga have had instead of the later priestly nonsense of Draupadī's choice of a husband ? Karṇa and Draupadī—Siegfried (he, too, according to the ### [v2.c18.82](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.82) she wanted, as every noble woman, and to give all her life and being up to him : five was what she got, and, oh ! greatest sorrow of all, none can be called a proper man—Yudhishṭhira is a poor creature, Arjuna a virtuous puppet of Brahman favour, the two twins hover like shadows through the poem ; it is only through the veins of the kindly, but not altogether polished or quick-witted Berserker Bhīma that red blood flows (cp. v, 90.46 ; K, iv, 22.115). ### [v2.c18.83](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.83) And yet they all five have divine fathers, and what is still better, an excellent and truly human mother. Kuntī also is an heroic woman, who not only nobly and steadfastly bears all the misery that comes upon her through her foes and her own sons, but who also, like Draupadī, strives to urge on her sons, above all their head, and to work them up to deeds. When Kṛishṇa, as a messenger of the Pāṇḍavas comes to Hāstinapura to treat with the foe, she is overwhelmed with sorrow and with joy ; now she sees someone that has come from her beloved sons and the daughter-in-law just as well beloved, and can give her news of the far ones. But alas ! they are in misery, and the poor mother herself has not seen her dear ones for the last thirteen years or more; and she has to bear a heavy burden, quite alone as she is among hostile men and forces. With a voice choked with tears, and a “ parched mouth ” she makes searching inquiries after them all, is filled with the tenderest anxiety as to how they are faring in the wilds, and bewails her own lot : in reality, she says, she is dead, and dead for her are her children. But then the Kshattriyā comes out in her. She charges Kṛishṇa to tell her sons : “ Do not act wrongly, so that your great duty may not suffer harm. Shame on the woman who lives, like me, in dependence on strangers ! Let not time go by. Do not act so basely, else will I turn my back ### [v2.c18.84](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.84) Edda a foundling), and Brunhild (whose flickering flames likewise mark her as a fire-being)—may in it perhaps have been bound together by more intimate relations before the Fire Maid came to her Gunther. Useless dreams ! \*Ignoramus et semper ignorabimus\*. It is, indeed, possible, nay very probable that even in the older Pāṇḍava saga, probably under strong priestly influences from the first, the brothers, disguised as members of the Brahman caste, wooed the princess of Pañcāla. ### [v2.c18.85](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18.85) on you for ever. The warrior must give up even his life, if the time demands it. That was not yet a sorrow, that the kingdom was taken from you, and that ye were beaten in the gaming and banished. But what greater sorrow could there be than that that tall, that dark woman came to the hall in but one garment, and heard the rough words? In her sickness she with the lovely hips, ever joyfully submissive to Kshattriya duty, found no protecting lord, she Kṛṣṇā, that indeed has protecting lords" (v, 90; cp. 137 and xv, 17.9 ff.). Kṛṣṇa's mission does not bring peace but the still greater hatred that he himself wishes for, and when he goes away again, Kuntī gives him a long message for her sons. Stormy, hot utterances on manliness, heroism, strength of will, and mighty deeds stream from her lips. Fire darts from her words (v, 132. 5-137, particularly finely in 133). It is true that the most magnificent and far the longest part of her speech does not give her own words directly, but Vidulā's. The son of this woman, truly queenly not only by position, but in her soul, too, has been brought by his foes into a wretched plight, and yields himself to it, sluggish and inactive. Then his mother rouses him; and her cast of mind and her words are among the most elevating and most powerful things, not only in the Mahābhārata, which is rich in such passages, but probably, too, in all that the world's literature knows of martially virile inspired dithyrambs. Here we give a few strophes only, which, indeed, come out very feebly in the bald and as far as possible literal prose rendering. Kuntī says among other things: "Say, O Keçava, to King Yudhishṭhira, the soul of duty: 'Let thy great duty not be harmed, O son; do not act wrongly. O king, thou art a simple learned man without insight; thy mind, spoiled by babbling and prating, looks only on the right and on pious virtue. Up! Up! Look but on the right and virtue as thou wast made by God: from (Brahma's) arms the warrior was made, and he lives by the heroic strength of his arms. Fight in accordance with the law and duty of the warrior, make not thy forbears to sink. Let not thy virtuous merit disappear, and go not with thy brothers towards an evil fate after death. There was once the very great Vidulā, gifted with glowing anger, born in a noble family, shining, _First 89 of 106 passages. [Read on](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18)_ ## Linked texts (10) - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.13.34.18) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.ramayana.valmiki.3.45) — Vālmīki, Sanskrit - [Bhāgavatapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.bhagavata.1.7.14) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Śiśupālavadha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.krsna.sisupalavadha.2.46) — Māgha, Sanskrit - [Kirātārjunīya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.bharata.kiratarjuniya.11.57) — Bhāravi, Sanskrit - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg.10.83) — Sanskrit - [Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.artha.kautilya) — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit - [Daśakumāracarita](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.novels.prasiddha.dasakumaracarita) — Daṇḍin, Sanskrit - [Viṣṇupurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.visnu) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Uttararāmacarita](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.plays.rama.uttararamacarita.4.11) — Bhavabhūti, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c18) · Pramāṇa