Madhuvidya

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

Page 533

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Pandavas were also won (2.62.33). Significantly he spoke nothing about Draupadi He was as if speaking for himself and his brothers. This reply of Bhima is clearly out of the place in the standard version because nobody had raisedd the question about the Pandavas. It gains significance only in the abovu version assumed by us. The significance of the expression win yourself back" is that Sakuni agreed to stake Yudhistira who had become a dăsa, against Yudhisthira's stake of Draupadi; if Yudhisthira won this last game he would be free (and of course Draupadi would not be won). It may be noted that the way Sakuni's victory is announced in the standard version (2.53.25; 2.54.3,7 etc., for the winning of the Pandavas (2.58.13, 15, 21, 25,28) is quite different from the way the same is done in the assumed lost version (2.58.30). Of this mode of play -- one against many -- we know practically nothing. It is however, difficult to understand what Satyaki could have meant when he continued that if the gamblers had approached Yudhisthira while he was playing the game with his brothers at his residence and won, that would have been a lawful victory (5.3.7). In the Nala story too Damayanti gave a different account to the ascetics whom she met in the forest. She told them: “Some mean persons, rogues, who were expert gamblers challenged the king (Nala) to a game of dice and deprived him of his kingdom and wealth" (3.61.78). In the principal narration, however, we are told that Nala's brother Puşkara challenged Nala and defeated him. Hence Nala story too apparently was current in two versions. That is, as in the game where the dice are divided by four, it was not necessary that the number be exactly divisible by two and no remainder left.
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