Yudhishthira was certain that he had left Hastinapura in safe and capable hands. He and his brothers renounced all they had, distributing their fine silks and jewels to the poor and needy. Dressed only in deerskin and rough cloth woven from bark, they set off on their last journey.
First, they visited Dwarka, or what remained of it. They stood by the seashore, contemplating the vast sheet of water under which the city lay submerged. There they paid homage in their hearts to Lord Krishna, who had guided them in the course of duty and righteousness through their years of war, exile and victory.
Agni, the god of fire, appeared before them. He addressed Arjuna. ‘Long ago, I gave you the sacred bow, the Gandiva,’ he said solemnly. ‘I took it from Varuna, lord of the elements. The time has come for you to return it to him.’
Arjuna wept helpless tears at the thought of being parted from his beloved Gandiva. He took the magical bow and the quiver of unending arrows and returned it into the arms of the waiting sea. They sank without a trace. The serpent of time, the Sheshnaga, swallowed them up into his coils.
Next, they proceeded to the north, where the mighty snow-topped mountains of the Himavatha range awaited them. As they approached Mount Meru, Draupadi fell down in a dead faint. Neither Bhima nor Arjuna, nor any of the other Pandavas could revive her. Draupadi’s years on earth were over.
Sahadeva died next, and then Nakula. Arjuna too fell before he could reach the gates of heaven, and then his brother Bhima collapsed beside him. They died before they could enter heaven, because they each carried some human frailty and fault within them. Draupadi was proud, and Nakula vain about his beauty. The wise Sahadeva had carried too high an opinion of his wisdom. Arjuna had fallen from excessive pride at his prowess in arms, as had Bhima for his incessant boasting about his physical strength.
Only the patient Yudhishthira was left to complete the long climb to the heavens. He walked alone, until a small, helpless puppy joined him on his trek.
The chariot of Lord Indra stopped beside the exhausted Yudhishthira. ‘I have come myself to take you to heaven,’ said Indra.
‘I cannot come without my brothers or our wife Draupadi,’ replied Yudhishthira.
‘They have cast off their human forms,’ smiled Indra. ‘You shall meet them again in time.’
‘And this little dog, who follows me so faithfully,’ said Yudhishthira. ‘How can I possibly leave him behind?’
‘You stand at the threshold of heaven and worry about a stupid dog?’ asked Indra scornfully. The puppy looked up at Yudhishthira and wagged its tail trustingly.
‘I am the son of Dharma, the god of righteousness,’ Yudhishthira replied. ‘I cannot fail in my duty towards this dog because of my greed for the joys of heaven.’
At these words, the tiny puppy transmuted its form and stood before them in his true guise of Dharma himself. Yudhishthira bowed low to his father and received his blessings.
‘I was only testing you, my son,’ Dharma said. ‘Let us proceed to heaven together.’
They reached the fabled city of Amaravati, which Arjuna had once described to his brothers from his travels there. Indra’s palace was decorated with flowers to welcome Yudhishthira. All the kings and great men of the past had assembled to greet him.
But a rude shock awaited Yudhishthira. None of his brothers were there, nor any of his allies and companions in the war. Instead, Duryodhana was seated among the assembly of kings.
‘Where are my brothers and all those that I love?’ asked Yudhishthira. ‘And why is the evil Duryodhana seated so comfortably in Indra’s heaven?’
Narada, the celestial sage who knows all things past, present and future, came to his aid. ‘Duryodhana was true to his birth and his duties,’ he explained. ‘He was never afraid. He ruled his kingdom justly. He died nobly in battle. The rules of heaven are different from those of earth and you must learn to accept them.’
‘But where are my brothers?’ Yudhishthira asked again. ‘I must see them.’
The custodians of heaven took him across the bubbling, boiling waters of the Vaitarni, the river of hell. There was a stench of sulphur and rot and decay. Forms that might once have been human called out to each other in pain and agony. Yudhishthira could see and hear his brothers and his wife Draupadi, but they were oblivious to his presence.
The mists and vapours of hell vanished in a trice and Yudhishthira found himself back in Indra’s heaven. He was not alone; his brothers and Draupadi sat around him, radiant with heavenly beauty.
‘Every king must once behold hell,’ said the custodian of the heavens. ‘The best of men visit hell and then are transported to heaven, while those who have put their pleasures before their duties travel first to heaven and thence to the realms of hell. You, being entirely blameless and of irreproachable conduct, could have entered heaven without delay, but the lie you told about Ashwathama’s death, even though it was a half-truth, cost you dear. This was the reason why you could not enter in all your glorious human form: for this lie, you lost your little finger.’
Yudhishthira looked down and saw that his right hand had only four fingers, for one had fallen off on account of the only lie he had ever told. And yet he was in heaven, reunited with his brothers and Draupadi and Karna. He thought of Lord Krishna, and in his mind he thanked him for guiding them through the difficult dilemmas of life to the reality of the worlds beyond.
And so, all the great heroes of Bharatvarsha who lived through those times arrived, after the dream of life, in heaven or hell or the dimension that awaits next. All this happened a very long time ago, when the world was young. The story has been told again and again, to generation after generation, as a caution against the evils of war, and a call to fight with courage and conviction when justice demands it.
Glossary
DEVAS—THE LORDS
Agni: The lord of fire
Ashwins: The twin gods of dawn
Dharma: The god of righteousness
Indra: The lord of the heavens, also known as the lord of the east
Kama: The god of love
Kubera: The lord of wealth, also known as the lord of the north
Rudra: One of the forms of Shiva
Skanda: The god of war
Varuna: Lord of the elements, also known as the lord of the west
Vayu: The god of the wind
Yama: The god of death, also known as the lord of the south
DEMONS AND CELESTIAL BEINGS
Apsaras: Celestial women of incredible and everlasting beauty
Asuras: The enemies of the gods
Gandharvas: Celestial musicians, a class of demi-gods
Kaalla: The demon of wrong advice and misdirection or the Supreme Spirit regarded as the destroyer
Maya: An architect of the asuras who is said to have built a splendid hall for the Pandavas; in Vedantic philosophy it is unreality or illusion
Narada: The celestial sage who knows all things past, present and future
Rakshasa and Rakshasi: A class of demons
Sheshnaga: The great snake which is said to be the bed of Vishnu; it is also said to bear the world on its thousand hoods
Vishwakarma: The celestial architect
Yakshas: Demi-gods or guardian spirits
EVERYDAY BEINGS FROM THOSE TIMES
Acharya: A preceptor, guru
Brahmin: According to the Vedantas, the Brahmin is both the efficient and material cause of the visible Universe
Kanka: Philosopher and companion to the king
Muni: A sage, a holy man, a saint
Rishi: A sanctified sage, an ascetic
Snataks: Brahmin students who have just finished their education under a religious teacher
Suta: A charioteer, usually an attendant of the king and at times even his confidant; a suta is the son of a kshatriya and a Brahmin woman
ASTRAS—WEAPONS(An astra is said to be presided over by a particular god who, when invoked, enters the astra)
Aindrastra: The astra p
resided over by Indra
Agneyastra: The astra presided over by Agni
Brahmastra: The weapon created by Brahma which is considered as the deadliest weapon that never loses its mark
Gada: The mace, favourite weapon of Balarama, Bhima and Duryodhana
Gandiva: The magical bow of Arjuna presented by Soma to Varuna, by Varuna to Agni and by Agni to Arjuna when the latter helped Agni to burn the Khandava forest
Kaumodoki: Krishna’s invincible mace
Kavach: Breastplate, armour
Kundala: Ear ornaments
Nagastra: An astra presided over by a serpent
Narayanastra: Weapon unleashed by Ashwathama, it is the personal missile weapon of Vishnu in his Narayana form; this astra lets loose a powerful tirade of millions of deadly missiles simultaneously
Panchjanya: The famed conch belonging to Lord Krishna
Pasupata: Weapon given by Shiva to Arjuna; it is the irresistible and most destructive personal weapon of Shiva discharged by the mind, eyes, words or a bow, never to be used against lesser enemies and by lesser warriors
Pinaka: The bow of Mahadeva
Shakti: The weapon given by Indra to Karna
Sudarshan Chakra: The weapon given by Agni to Krishna, a razor-sharp discus with a thousand spokes and an iron rod through the centre
Vijaya: Karna’s bow which no man but he could bend
SOME OF THE DHWAJAS AND CHINNHAS—FLAGS AND ENSIGNS
Arjuna’s banner bore the emblem of the monkey god
Abhimanyu’s banner bore the emblem of the beautiful mauve and white flower, the Kovidara
Bhishma’s banner bore the emblem of a golden palm tree
Dhristadyumya had a red banner and his dark shield had a hundred silver moons
Duryodhana’s banner bore the emblem of a serpent embroidered on a cloth of gold
Karna’s emblem was a stout cord for binding elephants
Nakula’s banner bore the emblem of a Himalayan sarabh bird
Sahadeva’s banner bore the emblem of a silver swan
Yudhishthira’s flag bore the emblem of a golden moon
Yuyutsu had a banner of plain gold
Bhishma’s banner bore the emblem of a golden palm tree
Yuyutsu had a banner of plain gold
MILITARY TERMS AND FORMATIONS
Akshauhini: An army division consisting of 2,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 65,610 horses and 109,350 footmen
Chakravyuh: The circular formation of the army which Drona arranged during his commandership
Krauncha: The formation in the shape of the bird, Krauncha
Makaravyuh: The arrangement of the army in the shape of a crocodile
Padavyuh: The army arranged in the form of a full-blown lotus
Suchimukhavyuh: A difficult and rare arrangement of the army where the vyuha tapers into a needle point where there is maximum protection
MOUNTAINS, RIVERS AND GRASSES
Arani: A piece of wood from the sami tree; two pieces of wood are rubbed together to produce fire, specially the sacrificial fire
Durva grass: When it is dry, kusa straw is called durva or dharbai; however, some say these are two different species: kusa is Poa cynosuroides and durva, Agrostis linearis
Ganga: The celestial river which was later brought to the earth
Hiranvati: The river along whose banks was placed the Pandava army during the great war
Dwaitavana: The forest where the Pandavas spent a large part of their exile of twelve years
Kailasa: The peak in the Himalayas which is said to be the abode of Lord Shiva
Khandava: The great forest which was burnt by Agni with the help of Arjuna and Krishna
Kusa grass: Grass used in sacrificial ceremonies, the grass has been sanctified because tradition has it that the bowl of Amrita from the heavens rested on it for a few moments
Meru: Name of the fabulous mountain round which all the planets are said to revolve; it is also said to contain gold and gems
Sami trees: Tall trees with dense branches; the wood of this tree is used to make sacrificial fire
Vaitarni: The river of hell
Yamuna: The river which has been immortalized because of Krishna spending his boyhood on her banks; it is a tributary of the Ganga
YUGAS—Time is said to be divided into four quarters called yugas namely,
Satya: The first, where Dharma is believed to walk firmly on both legs
Treta: The second, where one of his legs is maimed
Dwapara: The third, where two of his legs are disabled
Kali: The last, where Dharma is said to limp on just one leg
Namita Gokhale is a multi-faceted Indian novelist and publisher, and the author of Paro: Dreams of Passion (1984), Gods, Graves and Grandmother (1994), A Himalayan Love Story (1996), The Book of Shadows (1999), The Book of Shiva (2001) and Shakuntala: The play of Memory (2005), all published by Penguin India. In her forthcoming anthology In Search of Sita, she re-examines the figure of Sita in both mythic and modern contexts.
The Puffin Mahabharata is her first book for young readers.
Suddhasattwa Basu is a painter, illustrator and animation film-maker, who studied at the College of Art, Calcutta. He is one of India’s foremost illustrators of children’s books. Among the books he has illustrated and designed are Khushwant Singh’s Nature Watch, Ruskin Bond’s To Live in Magic and V. Sulaiman’s The Homecoming. He has also authored and illustrated a children’s book The Song of a Scarecrow (Katha), for which he received the Chitrakatha Award 2003 for best children’s book illustrations. He lives in Delhi and works under the banner of his company Raikhik Films.
THE BEGINNING
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This collection published 2009
Copyright © Namita Gokhale, 2009
The moral right of the author has been asserted
ISBN: 978-0-143-33300-5
This digital edition published in 2013.
e-ISBN: 978-9-351-18415-7
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The Puffin Mahabharata Page 17