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M. A. MEHENDALE
Prof. Phatak and Prof. Buitenen are thus in no doubt about the inconclusive nature of the debate. Who then gave the turn to the course of events? According to Prof. Phatak this happened some how'. And Prof. Buitenen says "In the end Dhṛtar ştra rules that the last play was undecisive and that the game as a whole had been neither lost nor won. So Pandavas depart free and still rich men." (p. 30). Prof. Buitenen avoids making any reference to the ill omens and the boons granted by Dhṛtarästra and says that Dhṛtariṣṭra decided on his own that the game was neither lost nor won. I, for one do not know where in the Sabhaparvan or anywhere else Prof. Buitenen finds basis to make such statements.1
I, on the other hand, feel that we have definite evidence to say that Draupadi's question did not remain unresolved and hence we can assert that the impasse created in the Sabha did not end with the howlings of the jackals and the asses, nor somehow' as Prof. Phatak wants us to believe. We can say that the peculiar situation which developed in the Sabha ended because Draupadi's question was decisively answered. To understand this it is necessary carefully to look at the whole incident the circumstances in which Draupadi's question arose, the persons who were supposed to answer it, the persons who actually did try to answer it, and the answer which finally settled the issue.
The narration in the Sabh parvan runs as follows:
(1) When Sakuni wins the last game in which Draupadi is staked, Duryodhana assumes that she has become the slave and asks Vidura to bring her over to the Kauravas. When Duryodhana first tells Vidura "Draupadim anayasva" (2. 59. 1) he certainly does not mean "bring Draupadi to the Assembly Hall". He only wants her to be led to the Kaurava apartments to attend to the duties of the menial servants.
But, in the opinion of Vidura, Draupadi had not become a slave, hence he does not oblige.
(2) Duryodhana then entrusts the job to his messenger Prātikāmin. Prātikāmin tells Draupadi: "Duryodhana has won you in the game of dice. Hence I have come to take you to Dhitarăşira's house to do the household jobs" (2. 60. 4).
This message conveyed to Draupadi clearly shows that Duryodhana, to begin with, had no mind to get Draupadi to the Assembly Hall, but wanted her to be taken to the house of the Kauravas.
1. More recently A. Hiltebeitel writing in a paper on "Draupadi's Garments" (II J 22.97, 1980) observes about the fate of this question as follows: "The question remains moot through the entire episode. To the wisest counsellers it is irresolvable, and it drives Yudhisthira to silence, "
Madhu Vidya/424
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