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Has the Vedic Rājasūya any Relevance for the Epic Game of Dice?*
M.A. Mehendale
Närada, who visited Yudhisthira's sabha told him that king Hariscandra, after conquering the entire earth and subduing all the kings (2.11.53, 554) had performed the great sacrifice Rajasūya. Only a king who had performed the Rajasūya got a place in the sabha of Indra (2.11.62). Hence Pandu sent a message to Yudhisthira to perform the Rajasūya (2.11.65-66).
Acting on this message, Yudhisthira performed the Rajasūya. For this purpose the Pandavas collected an enormously large amount of wealth by way of tribute from the kings. Soon afterwards they lost everything to the Kauravas in the game of dice. Why must this happen?
Prof. van Buitenen in the Introduction to his translation of the Mahabharata' observes that we are entitled to raise the above question. He asks : "Why, when everything has been achieved, must it now be gambled away by the hero in all whose previous life there has not been so much as a hint of a compulsion to gamble, all of whose life has in fact been of exemplary rectitude and prudence? It is this disturbing contradiction in the character of Yudhişthira that demands the question whether this was indeed a contradiction, or whether the events in his life may not have been modeled on a preexisting structure". His conclusion is : "In my opinion there is such a model : the events of The Assembly Hall follow fairly closely the principal moments of the very rajasūya ritual that is central to the book". (p.5)
Madhu Vidyā/493
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