Mahabharata: Volume 7

by Debroy, Bibek

  ‘ “‘The swan said, “O crow! You spoke about one hundred and one different techniques of flight. Earlier, you spoke about many techniques. All of those have come to nought now.”

  ‘ “‘The crow replied, “O swan! Having fed on leftovers, I became insolent. I thought myself to be the equal of Suparna.397 I showed disrespect to many other crows and all birds. I seek my life back from you. Take me to the shores of an island. O swan! Let me obtain assurance and let me return to my country again. I will never show disrespect to anyone again. Save me.”

  ‘ “‘It was distressed and spoke in this way.398 Devoid of its senses, it lamented. Submerged in the great ocean, it cawed. The crow was drenched in water and faced a great hardship. The swan picked it up with its feet and gently raised it onto its399 back. O Karna! The swan made the crow, bereft of its senses, climb astride its back. They again quickly flew to the island where the match had started. Having placed the bird down there, it comforted it.400 The swan, as swift as thought, then flew away to the country it wished to. This is what happened to the crow that fed on leftovers from a vaishya household. There is no doubt that you have subsisted on leftovers from the sons of Dhritarashtra. O Karna! That is the reason you show disrespect to all those who are your equal and superior. You were protected by Drona, Drona’s son, Kripa, Bhishma and the other Kouravas in Virata’s city. Partha was single-handed. Why didn’t you kill him then?401 All of you were distressed and vanquished by Kiriti, like jackals defeated by a lion. Where was your valour then? When you saw that your brother was defeated and killed by Savyasachi, while all the brave ones among the Kurus looked on, you were the first to run away.402 O Karna! Like that, when you were attacked by the gandharvas in Dvaitavana,403 you abandoned all the Kurus and were the first to run away. Partha killed and defeated the gandharvas, with Chitrasena at the forefront, in battle. O Karna! He freed Duryodhana and his wife. Then again, in earlier times, in the assembly of the kings, Rama404 himself spoke about the power of Partha and Keshava. In the presence of the kings, Bhishma and Drona have always said that the two Krishnas cannot be killed. You have heard that. I have only told you a little bit about how Dhananjaya is superior to you in various ways, like a brahmana is superior to all other beings. You will soon see that expensive chariot and Vasudeva’s son and Pandava Dhananjaya stationed on it. Those two bulls among men are famous among gods, asuras and humans. They are renowned among men because of their radiance and you are like a firefly. O son of a suta! Know this to be your state. Those two lions among men, Achyuta and Arjuna, will destroy you. Do not indulge in self-praise.’” ’

  Chapter 1179(29)

  ‘Sanjaya said, “Adhiratha’s son heard these unpleasant words spoken by the lord of Madra. But he was not pacified and spoke to Shalya. ‘Everything about Arjuna and Vasudeva is known to me. Shouri’s skill in driving Arjuna’s chariot, Pandava’s strength and great weapons are just as you have said and are known to me. O Shalya! But you have not directly seen this.405 They are invincible and foremost among the wielders of weapons. However, without being overcome with fear, I will fight with the two Krishnas. I am suffering from greater torment because of Rama. That supreme brahmana has cursed me. In earlier times, wishing to obtain a divine weapon from Rama, I lived with him, in the disguise of a brahmana. O Shalya! For the sake of Phalguna’s welfare, the king of the gods caused an obstruction there.406 He penetrated my thigh and entered my body in the distorted form of an insect. Because of fear of my preceptor, I did not move.407 On waking up, the brahmana saw this. The maharshi asked me who I was and on learning that I was a suta, he cursed me.408 “O suta! You have obtained this weapon through a deception. Therefore, when it is time to perform a task, it will not manifest itself before you.409 When it is the time for your death, it will go elsewhere.” The brahman can certainly not be present in a person who is not a brahmana. “O father!410 In this fierce and tumultuous battle today, I have forgotten that powerful weapon. The powerful and unfathomable lord of the waters dashes forward, to submerge many beings. The ocean is like a mighty mountain. But the shoreline repulses that immeasurable object. In this world, Kunti’s son is the foremost among those who stretch bowstrings. He will release a mass of arrows that can’t be resisted. They will be shafted and will penetrate the inner organs, slaying heroes. However, I will counter him in the battle. He is supremely strong amongst those who are strong. He possesses great weapons. He will shoot from an extremely long distance and will be like the fierce ocean. The kings will be submerged in his waves of arrows. But, like the shoreline, I will withstand Partha’s arrows. I think that he has no equal among men who wield the bow. But I will fight with him in the battle today, though he is capable of vanquishing the gods and the asuras in a battle. Behold my extremely terrible battle with him today. Pandava is extremely proud and desires to fight. He will advance against me with his superhuman and great weapons. In the battle, I will counter his weapons with my own weapons. I will bring down Partha with my supreme arrows. I will scorch like the rays of the sun. I will blaze like the illustrious one’s rays. Like clouds gather around the dispeller of the darkness, I will envelop Dhananjaya with my arrows. A flaming fire has trails of smoke. Its energy scorches all the worlds. But like clouds pacify that fire, I will quench Partha with my arrows in the battle. The fierce wind god is powerful and destroys with a storm. The angry and intolerant Dhananjaya is like that. But, in the battle, I will withstand him like the immobile Himalayas. He is skilled and knows about the circular motions of a chariot. He is always foremost among those who are borne in a battle. He is supreme among all archers in the world. However, I will withstand that Dhananjaya in the battle. I think that there is no archer who is equal to him among men. I know that he has withstood the entire earth. But today, I will encounter him in the battle. Savyasachi vanquished all the beings, together with the gods, in the region known as Khandava. Which other man, with me being an exception, can fight with him and seek to protect his own life? I will cheerfully speak about Pandava’s manliness in an assembly of kshatriyas. O stupid one! O one who has lost his senses! Why are you telling me about Arjuna’s manliness? Those who are forgiving always forgive an inferior and cruel person who speaks harsh and unpleasant words. I can kill one hundred who are like you. However, because I am forgiving and bearing the appropriate time in mind, I am forgiving you. For Pandava’s sake, you have spoken unpleasant words. You have censured me, like a stupid person who performs evil deeds. I did not deserve it. Yet, you have used your tongue to lash me. You are one who hates friends. One with whom one walks seven paces is a friend.411 The present time is full of death and is extremely terrible. Duryodhana has chosen this to advance in battle. I desire that his objectives are accomplished. But you act as if to counter them, as if you are one who doesn’t love him. A friend delights a friend, and always does that which brings him pleasure. He frees him, honours him and shares in his delight. This is what the brahmanas have said earlier. Towards Duryodhana, I tell you that all these traits exist in me. An enemy always chastises and sharpens his weapons. He causes injury, makes us sigh and distresses us. These many harmful qualities are seen in an enemy and almost all of these exist in you. You are showing them towards me. For the sake of accomplishing Duryodhana’s objective and for bringing him pleasure, for the sake of bringing glory to myself and for the sake of accomplishing what the gods want,412 I will endeavour to fight with Pandava and Vasudeva. Behold my deeds today. Behold my supreme weapons today, brahmastra and other divine and human weapons. I will cushion the one whose valour is fierce, like a supreme elephant killing another crazy elephant. For the sake of victory, I will use my mental powers to hurl the brahmastra at Partha. It is unrivalled and is victorious. In the battle, he will not be able to escape from it, unless my wheels get stuck in uneven terrain. O Shalya! Know that I will not be frightened, even if Vaivasvata413 with his staff, Varuna with his noose, the lord of riches414 with his club, Vasava with his vajra, or any other assassin advances against me. Therefore, I have n
o fear of Partha or Janardana. Today, there will be a clash between me and those two enemies. However, a brahmana told me, “Your miserable wheel will be stuck in the ground and you will confront great fear in your heart, when you are fighting in a battle.” Since then, I have greatly suffered from fright at the brahmana’s words. O Shalya! The brahmana was a store of austerities and I had unconsciously used my arrows to kill the calf that had been born from his homa cow,415 while it was roaming around amongst people. I gave that foremost among brahmanas seven hundred tusked elephants and hundreds of servants and servant-maids. But he was not satisfied with me. To obtain the favours of that supreme among brahmanas, I brought fourteen thousand black cows, each with a white calf. I offered him a beautiful house, with every object of desire, and all the riches I possessed. I honoured him with all this, but he did not wish to receive them. I had committed a crime and begged him, so that I might remedy it. However, he told me, “O suta! What I have uttered will certainly happen. It cannot be falsified. If I utter a falsehood, beings will be killed and I will commit a sin. Therefore, to protect dharma, I have no interest in speaking a falsehood. You must perform atonement for causing violence towards what provides a brahmana sustenance. There is no one in this world who can make my words false and you should accept them.” Though you have censured me, because I am a well-wisher, I have told you this. I know that you are the one who is censuring me. But be quiet and listen to what I will tell you next.’” ’

  Chapter 1180(30)

  ‘Sanjaya said, “O great king! Radheya again addressed the king of Madra, the scorcher of enemies. He restrained him and spoke these words. ‘O Shalya! You have spoken to me about instances. However, your words are incapable of terrifying me in this battle. Even if all the gods, together with Vasava, fight against me, even then, I will not be frightened, not to speak of Partha and Keshava. I am incapable of being frightened by words alone. Know that the person you are capable of terrifying in a battle is someone else. O evil-minded one! You have spoken a lot of harsh words to me. That is the strength of inferior people. You are incapable of comprehending my qualities. O venerable one! Karna was not born so as to be frightened. I have been born for valour and for fame. O lord of Madra! Listen attentively to what I had heard in Dhritarashtra’s presence. Honouring Dhritarashtra, brahmanas recounted the ancient and wonderful accounts of many kingdoms and many kings. An aged one, foremost among brahmanas, recounted ancient tales and spoke these words of ill repute about those from the lands of Bahlika and Madra. “They are cast out from the region of the Himalayas and are despised in the region of the Ganga. That is also true of those who live in the central regions, around the Sarasvati, the Yamuna and Kurukshetra, the five rivers416 and with Sindhu as the sixth. It is one’s dharma to avoid the impure Bahlikas, who are outside these regions. From the days of my youth, I remember that the kings of their lineage had a fig tree named Govardhana and a quadrangular spot named Subhanda near the gate.417 Because of some secret work, I had to live with the Bahlikas then. Because I dwelt among them, their conduct is known to me. There is a city named Shakala, a river named Apaga that flows downwards and a lineage of the Bahlikas named Jartika.418 Their conduct is severely censured. They drink liquor made from grain and molasses. They eat the flesh of cows, laced with garlic. They eat bread mixed with meat and fried barley that has not been sowed.419 They are devoid of good conduct. Intoxicated, the women throw away their garments and laugh, sing and dance in the cities, and outside the walls, without garlands and unguents. Intoxicated, they sing many songs, in voices that are like those of asses and camels. They freely summon others.420 When their husbands and lords are killed, they call out their names in intoxication and say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ However, those wicked ones do not observe sacred occasions and continue to scream and dance. A chief among the Bahlikas lived among those women who made such uproar, and then dwelt for some time in Kurujangala. Cheerless in his mind, he said, ‘She is large and fair.421 She is attired in a thin blanket. When it is time for lying down, she must be thinking about the Bahlika who now lives among the Kurus. When will I cross the river Shatadru and the beautiful Iravati and go to my own country, where I will see those handsome women with large bodies? Those fair women have circles of red arsenic on their limbs and black collyrium on their heads.422 Those beautiful ones are attired only in skins and are sporting. When will I obtain happiness among those intoxicated ones, who have the sounds of asses, camels and mules? There will be the sounds of drums, kettledrums and conch shells. There is joy in the forest paths there, full of shami, pilu and karira trees. I will live amongst those who eat cakes ground with wheat and coarse meal. When will I be prosperous and strong along those paths, which echo to the many sounds of our oppression and banditry?’423 The evil-souled Bahlikas are inferior and outcasts in this way. Which man would like to and dwell amidst them, even for an instant?” Thus did the brahmana describe the Bahlikas, whose conduct is vile. Whether it is their good qualities or bad, you possess one-sixth of those. Having said this, the virtuous brahmana began to speak again. This is what he said about the ill-mannered Bahlikas. Listen. “In the large city of Shakala, a rakshasa lady always used to sing every night, on the fourteenth day of the dark lunar fortnight,424 to the sound of drums. When will those songs be announced and when will I sing in Shakala again?425 When will I satiate myself with the flesh of cows and drink the great liquor made from molasses? Having drunk the liquor made from molasses, I will be with the large and ornamented women. I will wash my mouth after eating copious quantities of the meat of sheep, laced with onions, and also the flesh of boars, fowl, cows, asses and camels. Those who do not eat the flesh of sheep, are born in vain.” Drunk with liquor, thus do the residents of Shakala, young and old, cry out. How can there be good conduct among them? O Shalya! Know this and be surprised. I will tell you more. This is what another brahmana told us in the assembly of the Kurus. “There is a forest of pilu trees in the spot where the five rivers flow—Shatadru, Vipasha, Iravati as the third, Chandrabhaga and Vitasta. As the sixth, Sindhu flows outside that region. There is a country named Aratta426 there, where dharma has been destroyed. One should not go there. The gods, the ancestors and the brahmanas do not receive offerings from those who are outcasts, those born from servants and those from the land of Videha,427 who do not sacrifice. It has been heard that those from Bahlika have destroyed all dharma.” The learned brahmana also said this in the assembly of the virtuous. “Bahlikas eat from vessels made out of wood and clay, in which, coarse meal has been ground and which have been licked by dogs. They have no revulsion at this. They drink the milk of sheep, camels and asses. They drink and eat preparations made from these. Inter-caste sons are born there and those contemptible ones drink every kind of milk and eat everything. The learned say that the Bahlikas known as Aratta must always be avoided.” O Shalya! You are certain to know this. But I will tell you more. In the gathering of the Kurus, in the assembly hall, another brahmana said the following. “Having drunk milk in the spot known as Yugandhara, how can one go to the place without decay? Having bathed in Bhutilaya, how can one go to heaven? That is the spot where five rivers issue from the mountains and flow. A noble person should not dwell among the Aratta-Bahlikas for even two days. In Vipasha, there are two pishachas named Bahi and Hlika. They were not created by Prajapati, and the Bahlikas are their offspring. One must avoid those without dharma—Karashkaras, Mahishakas, Kalingas, Kikatas, Atavis, Karkotakas and Virakas.” He had gone on a tirtha and had spent a single night under a shami tree.428 He was addressed by a rakshasi, whose hips were as broad as a mortar. “Those from the land known as Aratta, the people known as Bahlika and those who reside in the Sindhu-Souvira region are generally reviled.”429 O Shalya! You are certain to know this. But I will tell you more. Listen with an attentive mind to everything that is spoken by me. On an earlier occasion, a skilled brahmana came to our house as a guest. Witnessing our conduct, the skilled one was delighted and said, “I have lived for a long time on a single pea
k of the Himalayas. I have seen many different countries, where diverse kinds of dharma are followed. But I have never seen a country where all the subjects act against dharma. All of them professed dharma to be what those learned in the Vedas have proclaimed it to be. I have always travelled in many countries, where different kinds of dharma are followed. O great king! However, having gone to the Bahlikas, I learnt the following. There, one first becomes a brahmana and then becomes a kshatriya. Thereafter, one becomes a vaishya, a shudra, a Bahlika, and finally a barber. Having become a barber, one once again becomes a brahmana. Having become a brahmana there, one is once again born as a slave. In every family, there is only one virtuous brahmana. Everyone else follows one’s desires. The Gandharas, the Madrakas and the Bahlikas possess limited intelligence. That is what I heard there, about the admixture of dharma. Having travelled throughout the entire earth, I heard about this catastrophe among Bahlikas.” O Shalya! You are certain to know this. But I will tell you more. These were the censorious words that another one spoke to me about the Bahlikas. In earlier times, a virtuous lady was abducted by some bandits from Aratta. They displayed adharma towards her. Consequently, she cursed them. “I am young. I have relatives. But against dharma, you have had intercourse with me.430 Therefore, all the women in your lineages will be ignoble. O worst among men! You will not be able to escape from the consequences of your terrible act.” The Kurus, the Panchalas, the Shalvas, the Matsyas, the Naimishas, the Kosalas, the ones from Kashi, the Angas, the Kalingas, the Magadhas and the immensely fortunate Chedis know about eternal dharma. In many countries, even those who have outwardly deviated know about virtue. Among the Matsyas, those from the lands of Kuru and Panchala and especially those from Naimisha and Chedi, the virtuous ones lived according to ancient dharma. But this is not true of the Madras from the land of the five rivers. They are false in their tongues. O king! Knowing all this about dharma, be quiet. O Shalya! Be like those who cannot speak. You are the protector and the king of those people. Therefore, you have one-sixth share in their good and evil deeds. Or else, since you do not protect them, you only have a share in their evil deeds. A king who protects the good deeds of his subjects obtains a share in those good deeds. In earlier times, the eternal dharma was revered in all countries. But on seeing the dharma practised in the land of the five rivers, the grandfather431 cried, “Shame!” They are outcasts. They are born from servants. They are the performers of wicked deeds. That is the reason the grandfather condemned the dharma in the land of the five rivers. Though they followed their own dharma and that of their varna, he did not honour it.432 O Shalya! You are certain to know this. But I will tell you more. A rakshasa named Kalmashapada433 was about to be submerged in a pond and said, “Begging is filth for a kshatriya. Falsehood is filth for a brahmana. Bahlikas are the filth of the earth. The women of Madra are the filth among women.” When the traveller of the night434 was being submerged in the pond, a king saved him. Listen to what he435 said when he was asked. “Mlecchas are filth among men. Boxers are filth among mlecchas. Eunuchs are filth among boxers. Kings who act as officiating priests are the filth among eunuchs. Among kings who act as officiating priests, the Madrakas are filth. If you do not save me, all of that filth will be yours.” The rakshasa spoke those supreme words as antidote, when a person’s valour has been destroyed by the poison of a rakshasa. The Panchalas follow the brahman. The Kouraveyas follow their own dharma. The Matsyas observe truth and the Shurasenas perform sacrifices. Those from the eastern regions are like slaves and those from the southern regions are contemptible. The Bahlikas are thieves and those from Surashtra are of mixed breed. Shame on those from Aratta and the land of the five rivers. They are ungrateful and steal the property of others. They are addicted to drinking liquor and have intercourse with the wives of their preceptors. Those from Panchala, Kuru, Naimisha and Matsya know about dharma. The aged ones from Kalinga, Anga and Magadha follow the virtuous path of dharma. With the fire god at the forefront, the gods reside in the eastern direction. The south is protected by the ancestors and Yama, the perfomer of auspicious deeds. The west is protected by Varuna, who takes care of other powerful gods there. The illustrious Soma is in the north, along with Brahma and the brahmanas. The rakshasas and pishachas are there in the Himalayas and the guhyakas in Gandhamadana. It is certain that Vishnu Janardana protects all the beings in the world.436 The Magadhas understand signs, the Kosalas from what they see. The Kurus and Panchalas understand even if the speech is partly uttered, the Shalvas understand only when everything is spoken. Those who live in mountainous and hilly regions are coarse. O king! The Yavanas know everything, the Shuras especially so. The mlecchas follow their own signs. Other inferior people understand nothing. The Bahlikas, and not just the Madrakas, are against anything that has been undertaken. O Shalya! You are like that and you should not venture to give me a reply. Knowing this, keep quiet. You should not try to contradict me. Do not make me kill Keshava and Arjuna after I have killed you first.’