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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Sabhā

Śakuni's plan: Dhṛtarāṣṭra agrees to the dice match

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Duryodhana was moved by Śakuni's plan but would not carry it to his father himself, and asked Śakuni to do so. Śakuni went to Dhṛtarāṣṭra and said that his son looked pale and thin and anxious and the king should ask why. Dhṛtarāṣṭra asked: Duryodhana had every luxury, so what was wrong? Duryodhana replied that he burned with envy of Yudhiṣṭhira and described in detail the gifts that kings had brought to the Rājasūya. Śakuni then said he was an unmatched dice player and Yudhiṣṭhira, who loved the game but was unskilled at it, could be beaten by deception. His wealth would pass to Duryodhana. Dhṛtarāṣṭra said he would first consult Vidura. Duryodhana distrusted Vidura, who favoured the Pāṇḍavas, and said that if Vidura spoke against the match, he would kill himself.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra, moved by his son's distress, ordered a great hall built, with a hundred doors and a thousand pillars, and sent for Vidura anyway. Dhṛtarāṣṭra warned his son privately that dice breeds quarrels and quarrels destroy kingdoms, and asked him to be content with his place as the eldest son of the eldest wife. In a long speech he told Duryodhana the Pāṇḍavas were his own arms, that his wealth was equal to theirs, and that if he wanted a sacrifice, a Saptatantu could be performed. Duryodhana did not listen. He said dice was an ancient pastime with no weapons, and that it would make the Pāṇḍavas equal. Vidura came and warned the king that the match would be the ruin of the family and that it would turn the sons against each other.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra replied that fate was above all, and that with Bhīṣma, Droṇa and Vidura present nothing could go wrong. His mind was made up. When the artisans reported the hall finished, with its crystal-arched roof, golden pillars and carpets, he sent Vidura to Indraprastha to bring Yudhiṣṭhira to a 'friendly' game. Vidura went with a heavy heart and told Yudhiṣṭhira that dice was the root of misery, and that he had tried to dissuade the king. Yudhiṣṭhira asked who his opponents would be. Vidura named Śakuni, Viviṃśati, Citrasena and others. Yudhiṣṭhira said fate governs all; he would not choose to play at Dhṛtarāṣṭra's command, but if challenged by Śakuni in the assembly, he would not refuse. That was his settled vow.

He set out the next day with Draupadī and his brothers. The blind king's consent comes in steps. He first tells his son to give up envy, then says he will ask Vidura, then orders the hall built, and then, though he knows what Vidura will say, he calls him anyway. At each step he is moved by love for his son and by a belief in fate that excuses his choice. 'The universe follows its Creator's will under fate's control', he tells Vidura, and nothing acts freely. Many readers take it to be the key to Dhṛtarāṣṭra's character, a man who sees what is wrong, says so, and then does nothing. The hall with a thousand pillars and a hundred doors is a trap with a king's order behind it.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Śakuni, Duryodhana, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Vidura, Yudhiṣṭhira, Draupadī

Bound to

Duryodhana is humiliated in Maya's palace origin

Shakuni's dice from his father's bones mirror

Sarala Mahabharata: Gandharasena, Ganga's dice, bones of the palms mirror

Vidura-nīti mirror

The game of dice: Yudhiṣṭhira stakes and loses everything origin

Places: Hastināpura, Indraprastha

Where this comes from

See it on the tree · All stories

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