Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.229

c8.229

A recent writer lays stress not only on the polyandrous marriage of the Pāṇḍus but on the drinking of blood by Bhīma⁵ which, according to him, points to the Scythian affinity of the family. But a family custom can hardly be inferred from a solitary act of a single individual done in the heat of war expressly to fulfil a vow. As to the polyandrous marriage of Draupadī it is significant that in spite of the alleged family custom no other wife was shared by the brothers, and their children had no common wife. Sakas are often mentioned in the epic, particularly in the battle-books, but they are never represented as next of kin to the Pāṇḍus.