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Annals BORI, LXV (1984)
is most unlikely that ākumāram here means down to the children '2 because Duryodhana could have impossibly noticed children in the gathering that had come together for the Rajasaya and hence could say that even children were well-disposed to the Pandavas. Moreover Duryodhana is not particularly likely to be jealous of the Pandavas on seeing even children favour able to them, but certainly on noticing that the people upto the (very distant) land of Kumara were so disposed towards the Pandavas." (2) अचैव तद्विदितं पार्थिवानां
246
भविष्यति आकुमारं च सूत । निमग्नो वा समरे भीमसेन
एक: कुरून् वा समरे विजेता ॥ 8.54.18.
Bhimasena tells his charioteer Visoka that that very day the kings would know that either he himself had gone down in the confrontation, or he alone had conquered the Kurus. He says that the kings coming from as far as the Kumāra (country)' would come to know that fact.
In this context it is hard to believe that Bhimasena declared that the fact would be known by the kings on the battle-field and by the young princes at home that very day. What happened on the battle-field would be known on that very day only to the kings who had gathered there from far and wide. The expression äkumāram, therefore, has to be interpreted as referring to some distant place and not to a child."
(3) When Bhima points out to Yudhisthira how difficult it is going to be for the Pandavas to remain unknown during the period of the ajñātavāsa, about himself he says:
मां चापि राजानन्ति आकुमारमिमाः प्रजाः । अज्ञातच पश्यामि मेरोरिव निगूहनम् ॥ 3.36.27.
In this connection too ākumāram has to be understood as indicative of wide geographical area. There is no point in saying that even children knew Bhima and hence it would be difficult for him to remain unknown; it would be more to the point if he were to say that since he was known far and wide, however far he might go from Hastinapura, people would recognize him."
Jain Education International
The above passages from the Mahabharata make it clear that the word kumara in the expression ākumāram in them should be understood to
* As translated by van Buitenen.
8 ākumāram ia mām vā lokāḥ kirtayanty ākumāram (8.54. 19) is also to be understood as upto the Kumāra (country). P. C. Roy, however, translates 'beginning with the feats of my earliest years'.
4 But P. C. Roy translates including the very children
6 van Buitenen, however, 'down to the kids'.
Also cf. 11. 9. 8; 8. 30. 12 (very peculiar is the expression akumāraḥ smarāmy aham where ākumāra- is an adjective).
Madhu Vidya/409
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