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The Tales in Mahabharata
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the strength of a demon, Duryodhana has the mind of a demon - which is much worse Not sharp arrows, but the massive mace is, characteristically, his proper weapon, for the great strength of Bhima is raw, crude, gross. In a way, it is blind, it lacks the refined intellect and pointed accuracy that is the strength of Arjuda. That, perhaps, is the reason why Arjuna is romantically more successful than Bhima. The situation is characteristic wherein Draupadi loves Arjuna more than any other of the five, but if she has any wish to be fulfilled, she would immediately turn to Bhima with a request. Characteristically, the tales with Bhima as their hero are all child ren's tales.
The episode of Draupadi-svayamvara can be shown to have a symbolic significance. The condition for obtaining Draupadi for wife was shooting at a target set at the top of a pole, with not more than five arrows passing through the hole of a 'Yantra'. 112 The popular description of the candidate expected to shoot the right eye of the fish revolving at the top of a pole while balancing the feet on the two scales and looking into the waters of the pond below is not confirmed in the critical' edition. The details must have been added by the popular imagination to make the feat appear more difficult and therefore more interesting. However, the basic condition of winning the bride by a shooting test is the motis most familiar in folk-stories. "The idea possibly works on the line of sympathetic action - one who fixes lance or the as row is the husband fixed by destiny to give the girl perfect marital happiness. Viewed thus the test does not appear so much a show of strength as a sincere effort in finding out a proper match by means of luck and mimetic magic."113
That Arjuna, of all the five brothers, is chosen to shoot at the target is also not without significance. Even a cursory perusal of the MBh. will show that Arjuna has always been portrayed as "the Prince Charming" of the MBh. Nakula is the most handsome of all the brothers, 114 but the one most successful with women is Arjuna. Draupadi is supposed to love all the five brothers equally, but she is said to love Arjuna more than the other four brothers.115 That is the reason, says Yudhişthira, why she fell first of all at the time of the Mahāprasthāna. In fact, a whole group of romantic tales is added to the epic in the name of Arjuna. 116 As is well-known, he accepted the vow of twelve-years' celibate life for violating the self-imposed regulation of the Pandavas with regard to the privacy of their stay with Draupadī. But
112 AdiP. 176.9-10-11, 34, 113 A Folk-Custom in the Aśvamedha, S. A. Dange, JOIB, XVI, No. 4. June 1967. p.327. 114 Cf. SabP. 71.17.
nābam manānsy adadeyam mārge striņām iti prabbo pamsupacita-saryango pakulas tena gacchati // Cf. MahP. 2.6. pakşapāto mahān asyā višeşena dhananjaye 1
tasya'itat phalam adya'işā bhunkte puruşa-sattama // 116 Vide. AdiP. (Arjuna-vanavāsa-parva) 205-210 and Subbadrā-barana-parva. 211-212.
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