In Dialogue with the Mahābhārata by Black Brian;

Author:Black, Brian;
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Yudhiṣṭhira and Draupadī (2.52.17–19)

After his dialogue with Vidura, when he is surrounded ‘by his relatives, attendants, and the women of the household led by Draupadī’, Yudhiṣṭhira makes a remark that sheds further light on his decision:

Fate (daiva ) takes our reason (prajñā ) away

As glare blinds the eye.

Man bound as with nooses (pāśa )

Obeys Dhātṛ’s sway (vaśa )

(2.52.18)

Here, Yudhiṣṭhira returns to describing the dicing match in terms of Dhātṛ’s power or control (vaśa), but now equates Dhātṛ with fate (daiva), vividly describing how he is compelled to act as if bound by a cord or rope (pāśa). As Hill has pointed out, the rope imagery is regularly associated with Dhātṛ, where ‘Man is reduced to a powerless marionette with the course of events entirely predetermined by a power beyond his control. In this view, predestination is a theory about puppets and strings’ (2001: 167).

In addition to attributing the match to Dhātṛ, Yudhiṣṭhira also reveals that he is not thinking clearly, that he has been robbed of his ‘reason’ (prajñā). It is noteworthy that although he is in the company of many people, Draupadī is the only person specifically named as being present when he says this. It is not clear to what extent he is speaking to everyone present, or to her in particular, but what he says here seems to have particular relevance to Draupadī. As we will see in Chapter 4, a crucial aspect of Draupadī’s argument after the dicing match is that Yudhiṣṭhira was not in control of his senses (2.60.5).16 Here we see that even before the usher reports this to her after the match, Draupadī had already heard Yudhiṣṭhira speak of himself in this way. Although this is not presented as a private conversation between Yudhiṣṭhira and Draupadī, it is nevertheless interesting that when Draupadī is present, he brings up his loss of reason for the first time. In contrast with his dialogue with Vidura – where he seems to accept some moral responsibility – here he offers none at all. Not only is the game out of his control, but he has lost control of himself.

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