Sahadeva, Part 3, Rajasuya yagna and Draupadi's humiliation

Did you know that Sahadeva, following his expedition to southern India seeking allegiance of many kingdoms to Indraprastha Kingdom established by his oldest brother Yudhishthira, honoured Lord Krishna by giving the highest place of honour at the Rajasuya Yagna by offering Arghya and washing his feet?

Sahadeva, the youngest of the five Pandava brothers of epic Mahabharata, following his succesful armed expedition to south of Indraprastha kingdom, seeking allegiance and tributes of small and large kingdoms and individuals of the region to the Kingdom of Indraprastha established by his oldest brother Yudhisthira, participated in the Rajasuya Yagna in which a very large number of Kings including the Kaurava King Duryodhana, Shishupala, and many noble and learned personages participated. Sage Narada had advised Yudhishthira to conduct this Yagna. Bhishma Pitamaha, advised Yudhsithira to give the place of precedence to Lord Krishna as the chief guest of honour by offering him the first sacred arghya at the Rajasuya Yagna. Bhishma made this suggestion as he was of the opinion Krishna commanded the qualities of a Brahma and Kshatra, of a rishi, a yogi and a king. Then Bhishma signalled to Sahadeva, who held Krishna in great reverence and as his friend, to begin the proceedings of Rajasuyayagna by washing the feet of Krishna as the first recipient to recieive sacred arghya, in form of the water of the Sarasvati river.

Sahadeva was too happy to perform this honour to Krishna. He went to Krishna, placed his feet lovingly in a flat vessel and poured the holy water of the Saraswati river mixed with five sacred herbs on Krishna's feet. He then touched Krishna's feet to his forehead and proceeded to dry them with a towel. After drying he proceeded to apply sandalwood paste to them and to venerate hirn with a form of worship offered to the first among equals in a yagna.

At this stage of the Rajasuya Yagna proceedings, the court erupted with commotion created by Shishupala and Rukmi, Krishna's cousins and haters who openly created a ruckus and insulted Krishna by calling him by all sorts of names. Krishna, in great fury slayed Shishupala with his Sudarshanachakra as a punishment for his opprobrious abuse made against him. It was one of the saddest event of the epic Mahabharata. Krishna, however, excused Rukmi at the request of his sister Rukmini, but not before having his head shaved as a visible sign of a warrior's defeat.

Duryodhana also felt insulted as he had fallen down thinking a mirror floor in the palace of Indraprastha as a pool of water, and had stumbled and fallen down.; then Draupadi and her friends had laughed in ridicule. This is when Duryodhana probably decided to take revenge against her at the earliest.

Soon after the Rajasuya Yagna, an emphatic assertion of suzernity, where Yudhishthira was crowned as an emperor 'Chakravarti Samrat', Duryodhana returned to his Kingdom Hastinapur, and in cohets with his maternal uncle Shakuni plotted against the Pandavas as they they could not digest the fame and prosperity of Indraprastha kingdom. Knowing the weakness of Yudhishthira to gambling, they invited him and his entire family to a gambling game of Pachisi, a game of dice. At that time, Sahadeva had compared this dice game to their earlier expericnees at Varanavata where the Kauravas had plotted to burn them alive. He had advised his brother Yudhishthira to reject the invitation to the dice game as it was a tragic plot to destroy them. But Yudhsitiura argued as if it was fateful and destined to happen. It was here that Sahadeva took Draupadi's (also known as Panchali) hand and presented her a gemstone studded ring and put it on a finger on which the gemstone would be most effective, and he also energised the ring with few incantations and left. Draupadi had observed at the time that Sahadeva had seen something to happen to her.

Then the Pandavas along with Draupadi went to Hastinapur where they were welcomed by Duryodhana and his brothers, and Duryodhana is even said to have touched Yudhishthiras' feet in reverence. Sahadeva was unable to digest this hypocratic behaviour of Duryodhana and his brothers, but realised that he was destined to deal with much more. They assembled in the Hastinapur court where the Kaurava elder, Dhritarashtra presided and every 'Who is Who' of the two kingdoms were present. Shakuni, a master at the game, represented Duryodhana against Yudhishthira. It was called Dyut Sabha and when the rules of the game were stated by Shakuni, Sahadeva in disbelief shook his head and felt that events were getting messy and he could do nothing about it. Shakuni then manipulated Yudhishthira into gambling his kingdom, wealth, the freedom of his brothers, his wife Draupadi, and even himself. When Sahadeva was staked and lost, Sahadeva felt that his mentor, guide and God Krishna had let him down; at this time Shakuni had even slapped Sahadeva. This was followed by the most shameful event of insulting Draupadi leading to the Vastraharan, her disrobing. Pandavas were shamed and seemed helpless to defend Draupadi. When Draupadi was being disrobed by Dushasana, she pleaded to Krishna for help who did help her, and then Sahadeva cried and said: "...that the sari of Panchali was never going to come off- it was supported by the infinity of the element of space". Sahadeva also noticed that the gemstone ring he had given to Draupadi was shining on her finger in fully glory and protecting her modesty. It was at this court's shameful event that Sahadeva then stood up to defend Draupadi. Sahadeva openly vowed in the court to kill the evil Shakuni with his sword, as he had engineered this debacle of the Pandavas and humiliation of Draupadi. Sahadeva swore to thrust the sword he was adept at handling into the man who was sitting the Hastnapur court, clad in black robes, rolling a pair of dice, chuckling to himself. Sahadeva had even predicted, with his psychic extra sensory perception ( ESP - foresight), an eventual war between Pandavas and Kauravas will happen in which the Duryodhana along with his 100 Kaurava brothers and their ilk would be decimated.

At the end of all the traumatic events, Yudhishthira not only lost his kingdom but also was forced into exile with his wife Draupadi and his brothers for 13 years (it was their second exile), which included one year in anonymity.

Note: To be continued in the next episode titled "Sahadeva, Part 4, Exile and Kurukshetra War".

Narasipur Char