Duryodhana’s double whammy
After Duryodhana gestures to Draupadi by slapping his left thigh at the dice game, Bhima vows that he will kill him by smashing his thighs with his club. However, in the Mahabharata, a character’s vow isn’t enough to seal the fate of another character. It has to be prophesied, by a brahmin or by a god. Or it has to be explained by a past-life story that leaves no other outcome possible.
The Pandavas depart for the jungle, but for a while, the possibility of a quick reconciliation with them is still possible. However, we learn that Duryodhana, Karna and Shakuni are in fact planning an ambush for the unwitting Pandavas. Vyasa, having divine eyesight (a prerogative of authors?), also comes to know of this and visits the Hastinapura assembly hall to ask Dhritarashtra to take action.
Note that Vyasa is Dhritarashtra’s biological father, and grandfather to both the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Vyasa’s solution has a stroke of genius in it — he advises that Duryodhana be made to live with the Pandavas in the jungle. That way, all enmity between them is sure to get evaporated.
But Dhritarashtra acknowledges that he is powerless before Duryodhana, and asks Vyasa to deliver the lesson to his son. For this, another rishi named Maitreya is called. Maitreya has spent some time with the Pandavas in the forest, and Vyasa introduces him as someone who is really angry seeing their fate. If Maitreya’s suggestions are not accepted by Duryodhana, the former will curse the latter — this information is given to the sabha beforehand by Vyasa.
Maitreya attempts to instill some fear in Duryodhana, by telling him how the Pandavas are powerful enough to even kill rakshasas of immense energy. He also recounts their alliance with Krishna, and their murder of Jarasandha, as warnings to Duryodhana.
But Duryodhana doesn’t heed him, and does something that is deemed even today as a gesture of insolence; young boys not listening well to a teacher, for example—with his head bent, he draws patterns on the ground with his feet. In addition, he slaps his thigh lightly.
This enrages Maitreya, who announces that in the great war that is now sure to come, Bhima shall smash Duryodhana’s thighs with his club. This is exactly the same as Bhima’s vow. But an incredible amount of emphasis has now been added. In fact, it is only now, when a kshatriya’s vow is appended with the curse of a brahmin, that the inevitability of the scenario is established.
One wonders what is Duryodhana’s bigger crime: the lewd gesture towards Draupadi, or the insolent gesture towards Maitreya? Once again, the priest class that no doubt penned the story can’t let a kshatriya vow exist without brahmin sanction. What greater testimony do we need of the hierarchical structure implicit here. If we take an earlier example of a kshatriya vow: Bhishma’s vow of celibacy had also been explained by a mythological story after which no other outcome had seemed possible.
Tanuj Solanki
Twitter@tanujsolanki
The writer is reading the unabridged Mahabharata