Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 439

NEMESIS AND SOME MAHABHARATA EPISODES*
Ву
M. A. MEHENDALE
The Adiparvan of the Mahabharata (214-225 ) tells us about the burning of the Khāndava forest. Once, when Krsna was spending a few days with the Pandavas at Khāndavaprastha, he and Arjuna asked for Dharmaraja's permis. sion to go to the river Yamunā to spend there a day. While they were there Agni, in the form of a Brāhmaṇa, approached them and expressed his desire to burn the neighbouring Khandava forest. He requested them for help in fulfilling his desire. As Taksaka Nāga, the friend of Indra, lived in that forest, the latter had foiled Agni's earlier attempts to burn down the forest. Krsna and Arjuna asked Agni to supply them with the weapons necessary to achieve this end and when that was done, Agni started to burn the forest. Krsna and Arjuna vigilantly guarded the outskirts of the forest and brutally killed all the Dänavas and other beings, as well as the beasts and the birds, that tried to flee for their lives from the forest. Those seeking escape were helplessly crying and weeping, but to no avail. Indra, as before, tried to extinguish the fire with the help of rain, but Arjuna had fully covered the forest with his arrows so that pot even a drop of rain could reach the burning forest. Indra started to battle with Arjuna, but was told by the celestial voice that since his friend Taksaka was safe in Kuruksetra he should desist from further fighting. Indra, therefore, left the scene and the forest burned without any hindrance. It was burning for six days. Thousands lost their lives either through the fire or at the hands of Krsna and Arjuna. The denizens of the forest are so listed in the epic :
dänavā rākṣasā nāgās tarakşuşkşavanau kasaḥ / dvipāh prabhinnāḥ śārdālāḥ simhāḥ kesarinas tathā 11 mrgaś ca mahişāś caiva sataśah pakşinas tathā|
samudvignā visasrpus tathānyā bhūtajātayah 1 (1.219. 1-2).
Almost all of them died in the holocaust. Only seven remained alive : (1) Nāga Taksaka; (2) his son Asvasena; (3) Asura Maya: (4-7) four young birds (Sārngas ). The first, because he was not present in the Khändava, the rest, because they could, or were allowed to, escape.
. This is an English version of the authors's Original article in Marathi pub
lished in the Navabharat, November 1982. ...35
Madhu Vidyā/414