Mahabharata: Volume 7

by Debroy, Bibek

  Chapter 1177(27)

  ‘Sanjaya said, “Karna left, delighting your army. He told every Pandava soldier that he saw, ‘Today, I will grant the one who points out to me the great-souled one on the white horses, whatever boon he desires for. If he thinks that is not enough, I will again give a cart full of jewels to the one who tells me about Dhananjaya. If the man who shows Arjuna to me thinks that is not enough, I will again give him six carts full of gold, drawn by bulls that are like elephants. I will again give him one hundred ornamented women. They will be virgins,372 with necklaces of gold, and skilled in singing and dancing. If the man who shows me Arjuna thinks that this is not enough, I will give him another boon of five hundred white horses. They will have golden harnesses and be decorated with bejewelled ornaments. I will give him another eight hundred well-trained horses. I will give the person who tells me about Dhananjaya a golden and sparkling chariot that is yoked to supreme horses from the Kamboja region. I will give him another boon of six hundred elephants that have golden harnesses and are adorned with golden necklaces. They have been born in the frontier regions and have been trained well by those who are skilled in elephants. If the man who shows me Arjuna thinks that this is not enough, I will give him another boon that he will desire himself. I possess sons, wives and riches. If he desires these, I will again give them to him. I will give the person who shows me Keshava and Arjuna all their riches, after having killed the two Krishnas.’ In the battle, having spoken these and many other words, Karna blew on his supreme conch shell. It had been generated from the ocean and produced a wonderful sound. O great king! Having heard these words of the son of the suta, which were appropriate to his character, Duryodhana and all his followers were delighted. At this, drums and kettledrums were sounded in every direction. Together with the musical instruments, there were roars like lions and the trumpeting of elephants. O king! O bull among the Bharata lineage! These sounds arose among the soldiers. The sounds made by the delighted warriors mingled with these.

  ‘ “The soldiers were delighted and Radheya, the afflicter of enemies, was about to plunge himself into the ocean of battle. The king of Madra laughed and addressed him in these words. ‘O son of a suta! When a man shows you Dhananjaya, do not, in your insolence, give him six golden bulls that are like elephants. Like a child, you are giving away riches as if you are Vaishravana.373 O Radheya! Even if you do not make an effort, you will see Dhananjaya today. Like an extremely foolish person, you are unnecessarily giving them away. Because of your delusion, you do not realize the sins of giving to the undeserving. With the many riches that you propose to give away, you are capable of performing many sacrifices. O suta! Perform sacrifices. Because of your delusion and your intolerance, you desire to kill the two Krishnas. But we have not heard of two lions being brought down by a jackal. You desire what should not be desired. Clearly, you have no well-wishers, since they are not restraining you from swiftly falling into a fire. You do not know what should be done when. There is no doubt that you have been ripened by time.374 A man who desires to be alive should not speak such words that should not be listened to. You are like someone wishing to cross an ocean with his arms, with a stone tied around his neck. Or you are like someone who wishes to fall down from the peak of a mountain. If you wish to ensure your own welfare, fight with Dhananjaya from the midst of this battle formation, with all the warriors, and well protected. I am saying this for the welfare of Dhritarashtra’s son and not from malice towards you. If you wish to remain alive, pay attention to the words spoken by me.’

  ‘ “Karna replied, ‘I wish to encounter Arjuna in the battle on the basis of my own valour and not by relying on others. You are an enemy in the disguise of a friend and are trying to frighten me. No one is capable of restraining me from my resolution today, not even Indra himself, with an upraised vajra. What can a mortal seek to do?’”

  ‘Sanjaya said, “When Karna had finished speaking, Shalya, the lord of Madra, wished to provoke Karna further and again spoke these words to him. ‘Forceful arrows will be released from Phalguna’s arms and unleashed from his bowstring. They will descend on you, sharp at the tip and shafted with the feathers of herons. It is then that you will regret advancing against Arjuna. Partha will grasp his celestial bow. Savyasachi will scorch the soldiers and oppress you with his sharp arrows. O son of a suta! You will regret it then. You are like a child supine on a mother’s lap, who wishes to touch the one who removes water.375 Because of your delusion, you wish to vanquish the resplendent Arjuna today, who is stationed on his chariot. It is as if you are rubbing the extremely sharp edges of a trident against all your limbs. O Karna! Today, you are wishing to fight with Arjuna, whose deeds are extremely sharp. This is like the childish folly of a spirited but small deer, who wishes to challenge a large and maned lion. O son of a suta! Your challenge to Arjuna now is like that challenge. O son of a suta! Do not challenge that prince, who is extremely valorous and is like a lion. You should be like a fox in the forest, satisfied with some meat. Do not challenge Partha today and be destroyed. O Karna! Your challenging Partha in a battle will be like a rabbit challenging a mighty elephant with tusks like ploughs and with a shattered temple. You will be like a child, striking a cobra, with great poison and full sacs, in a hole with a stick. Your desire to fight with Partha is like that. O Karna! Pandava is a lion among men. Like a stupid jackal, you are shouting at a maned and angry lion. For the sake of its own downfall, a small bird challenges the spirited Suparna, Vinata’s son, supreme among birds.376 O Karna! You are like that against Partha Dhananjaya. You wish to cross the terrible ocean, the abode of all the waters, on a raft, at a time when the moon is rising and its waves are turbulent and full of thousands of fish. He is a bull with sharp horns. His neck is as thick as a drum. He is a striker. O Karna! Like a small calf, you are challenging that Partha Dhananjaya to a fight. A large cloud makes a mighty noise and pours down desired rain on the world. Arjuna is like a cloud among men and you are croaking back at him, like a frog. From its own house, a dog barks at a tiger that is roaming in the forest. O Karna! Like that, you are barking at Dhananjaya, tiger among men. O Karna! Dwelling in a forest and surrounded by rabbits, a jackal thinks itself to be a lion, until it actually sees a lion. O Radheya! Like that, you think yourself to be a lion. But you do not see Dhananjaya, tiger among men, the crusher of enemies. You think yourself to be a tiger until you see the two Krishnas on a single chariot, like the sun and the moon. O Karna! Until you hear the roar of Gandiva in the great battle, till then, you are capable of speaking as you wish. You will hear that tiger377 roar and make the ten directions resound with the clatter of his chariot and the twang of his bow. You will then become a jackal. You have always been a jackal and Dhananjaya has always been a lion. O foolish one! Because of your hatred towards those who are valiant, you have always seemed to be a jackal. Because of your own deeds and your strengths and weaknesses, you and Partha are known to be like a rat to a cat, a dog to a tiger, a fox to a lion and a rabbit to an elephant.’

  ‘ “Thus rebuked by the infinitely energetic Shalya, whose words were like darts to him,378 Radheya became extremely angry and spoke to Shalya. ‘O Shalya! Qualities, and the absence of qualities, are known to those with qualities, not to those without qualities. You have always been devoid of qualities. How will you know the difference between qualities and the lack of qualities? O Shalya! I know about Arjuna’s great weapons, anger, valour, bow and arrows. You do not know their true nature. In that way, I know my valour and Pandava’s valour. O Shalya! Knowing that, I have challenged him to a battle. I am not like an insect that heads towards a fire. O Shalya! I possess this arrow. It is well tufted and will drink blood. It has been washed excellently in oil and has been decorated well. It is lying alone in this quiver. It is lying down in sandalwood powder and has been worshipped by me for many years. This is extremely poisonous and is a serpent.379 It is capable of slaying large numbers of men, horses and elephants. It is powerful and extremely terrible and is capa
ble of shattering body armour and bones. In my wrath, I can use this to shatter the giant Mount Meru. Listen to me. I am saying this truthfully. I will never release this at anyone other than Phalguna and Krishna, the son of Devaki. O Shalya! I will use this arrow against Vasudeva and Dhananjaya. I will be extremely angry and fight with them. That will be an act that is worthy of me. Among all those of Vasudeva’s lineage, Lakshmi380 is vested in Krishna. Among all the sons of Pandu, victory is vested in Partha. When those two advance, how can one retreat? Those two tigers among men are united and stationed on a chariot, and will advance against me, who is single-handed. O Shalya! Behold my good lineage then. They are unvanquished cousins, one the son of a maternal uncle and the other one the son of a father’s sister.381 You will see them killed by me, like two gems on a single thread. Arjuna’s Gandiva, Krishna’s chakra and Tarkshya and the ape on the standards382 only generate fear among cowards. O Shalya! They generate delight in me. You are evil in nature. You are stupid. You do not know about great battles. You are overcome with terror and have spoken a lot of words because of your fright. I do not know why you are praising them, perhaps because you have been born in a wicked country. Having killed them in the battle, I will slay you, with your relatives. You have been born in a wicked country and are evil in intelligence. You are inferior and the worst among kshatriyas. If you are a well-wisher, why are you frightening me about the two Krishnas, like an enemy? Today, I will be stationed in battle and either I will kill them, or they will kill me. I am not scared of the two Krishnas. I know my own strength. I will single-handedly slay one thousand Vasudevas and one hundred Phalgunas. O one who is born in a wicked country! Do not speak. Women, children, aged ones and those who have completed their studies often say something about the evil-souled ones from Madraka383 and it has become a universal saying. O Shalya! I will tell you that saying. Listen. In the assemblies of the kings, this is what the brahmanas also recounted earlier. O foolish one! Listen attentively to this and then forgive me, or render a reply. A Madraka is always one who hates those who are his friends. One who always hates, is a Madraka. There are no good feelings in a Madraka. He is inferior in words and is the worst among men. A Madraka is always inferior in his soul. He always lies and is never straight. We have heard it said that wickedness exists among Madrakas. Fathers, mothers, sons, mothers-in-law, fathers-in-law, maternal uncles, sons-in-law, daughters, brothers, grandsons, kin, friends, others who have arrived, male servants and female servants mingle together. Noble women, according to their own wishes, mingle with men, known and unknown. In their homes, even the better ones always eat coarse grain and other undesirable food. They drink liquor,384 eat the flesh of cows and dance and laugh. The songs don’t have proper rhymes. They indulge in satisfying desire. They speak to each other, incoherent in desire. How can there be dharma there? Among those who have been ruined, the Madrakas are known as the performers of wicked deeds. It is said that one should have neither enmity, nor friendship, with Madrakas. One should not mix with Madrakas, because Madrakas are always fickle. Contact with Madrakas is futile, like purity among those from Gandhara, just as oblations proffered at a sacrifice are destroyed if the king is himself both the sacrificer and the priest. A brahmana who performs ceremonies385 for shudras confronts destruction. Like that, one who hates brahmanas always confronts destruction. One who mixes with Madrakas is also destroyed, as if from the poison of a scorpion. I have pacified everything with mantras from the Atharva Veda. Wise ones who have been stung by a scorpion and have been afflicted by different types of poison, resort to medicines in this way.386 This is seen to be the truth. O learned one! Keep quiet and listen to more of my words. Women who are intoxicated by liquor cast off their clothes and dance around. They do not follow restraints and indulge in sexual intercourse, following the dictates of desire. O Madraka! You are the son of one such. How can you talk about dharma? There are inferior women who urinate like camels and buffaloes. They are devoid of shame, and shamelessly do this everywhere. You are the son of one such person. How can you talk about dharma? If asked for collyrium, a Madraka woman scratches her buttocks and unwilling to give it, speaks these terrible words. “No. I will not give any collyrium. I would rather give my beloved instead. On every occasion, I will give up my son. But I will not give the collyrium.” Madraka women are ignoble. They are large. They are without modesty and are hairy. They eat a lot and are without any purity. That is what is generally heard. I, and others, are capable of recounting many such things about them, from the ends of their hair to the tips of their toes. How can the Madrakas and the Sindhu-Souviras know about dharma? They have been born in a wicked country. They are mlecchas. They do not know anything about dharma. The most important dharma for a kshatriya is that he should be slain and should lie down on the ground, honoured by the virtuous. That is what we have heard. It is my prime wish that, in this release and clash of weapons, I should be killed and should go to heaven. I am also the beloved friend of Dhritarashtra’s intelligent son. My life and the riches that I posssess are for him. O one who has been born in a wicked country! It is evident that you have been bought by the Pandavas. That explains your action towards us, always like that of an enemy. Like a person who is knowledgeable about dharma cannot be dissuaded by an atheist, I am headed towards this battle and cannot be dissuaded by hundreds of people like you. Like a deer that is sweating, you are welcome to lament or thirst. But I am established in the conduct of kshatriyas and you are incapable of frightening me. My preceptor, Rama,387 had earlier told me about the ends obtained by the lions among men who gave up their lives and did not retreat from battle. I remember that. I am ready to save those on our side and kill the enemy. Know that I am established in this conduct, like the supreme Pururava. O Madraka! I do not see anyone in the three worlds who is capable of dissuading me from that objective. That is my view. Knowing this, why have you spoken such a lot, trying to terrify me? O worst of the Madrakas! I will not slay you now and give your body to predatory creatures. O Shalya! That is because of my friendship with Dhritarashtra’s son, to avoid censure and because I am patient. Those are the three reasons that you are still alive. O king of Madra! But if you speak such words yet again, I will bring down your head with this club, which is like a vajra. O one who has been born in a wicked country! Today, people will hear and see either that Karna has killed the two Krishnas, or that Karna has been slain by them.’ O lord of the earth! Having spoken these words, Radheya again fearlessly addressed the king of Madra, asking him to proceed.” ’

  Chapter 1178(28)

  ‘Sanjaya said, “O venerable one! On hearing the words of Adhiratha’s son, who delighted himself in battle, Shalya again spoke to Karna, citing an example. ‘You seem to be like one who is intoxicated with liquor. But whether you are like that or not, and irrespective of your intoxication, as a well-wisher, I will try to cure you. O Karna! I will tell you about the story of the crow. Listen to me. O wicked one! O worst of the lineage! On hearing this, do what you wish. O Karna! O mighty-armed one! I do not recollect a single taint in me, as a result of which you wish to kill an unblemished one like me. Had you known what was good for you, you would certainly have listened to my words, especially because I am your charioteer and the king’s388 well-wisher. The even and uneven terrain, the strengths and weaknesses of the chariot, the fatigue and perspiration of the horses and the charioteer, the knowledge of the weapons, the cries of animals and birds, what is burdensome and what is extremely burdensome,389 antidotes to wounds from weapons, the use of different weapons in battle and knowledge of portents—all of these are known to me. And I am familiar with this chariot. O Karna! Therefore, let me recount the example to you once more. On the other side of the ocean, there lived a vaishya and he possessed a lot of riches and foodgrains. He performed sacrifices, was generous and quiet and established in the deeds he ought to perform.390 He was pure. He had many sons whom he loved and he was compassionate towards all beings. Without any fear, he dwelt in the kingdom of a king who obs
erved dharma. His illustrious sons were young. There was a crow that lived there and it subsisted on many kinds of leftover food. The young sons of the vaishya always gave it meat, curds, milk, payasam,391 honey and butter. The crow subsisted on the leftovers that were given by the young sons of the vaishya. It became insolent and showed no respect to birds that were its equal or superior. Once, it so happened that swans descended on the other side of the ocean. They were cheerful in their hearts and could go anywhere at will. Their speed was like that of Garuda. On seeing the swans, the young boys spoke to the crow. “O bird! You are superior to all the winged birds.” The one who was born from an egg was thus addressed by those who were of limited intelligence. Because of his stupidity and insolence, he regarded those words to be true. He asked those who could travel long distances392 who among them was the swiftest in speed. The swans could travel long distances. But because of insolence and evil intelligence, the crow that fed on leftovers challenged that bird to a test of flight. On hearing these words of the crow, the swans that had assembled there, powerful and supreme birds, began to laugh. Those birds, which could go anywhere at will, spoke these words to the crow. “We are swans that roam the earth. We live in Lake Manasa. Among birds, we are always revered as those that can travel long distances. A swan is powerful. Its limbs are like a vajra. It can travel a great distance. O evil-minded one! You are a crow. How can you issue such a challenge? O crow! How will you fly with us?” They laughed and told him that. Because of the limited intelligence of its species, the stupid crow repeatedly questioned the words of the swans. Eventually, it replied, “There is no doubt that I will fly in one hundred and one different kinds of ways. I will fly each span of a hundred yojanas in a beautiful and varied way. I will rise up and swoop down. I will circle and fly straight. I will fly slowly and I will fly fast. I will fly diagonally. I will traverse slowly. I will whirl around. I will move gently and fast. I will then fly extremely fast and even faster than that. I will swoop down and rise up again. Forward, backwards and sideways, I will show many techniques of flight. I will show all these to you. Behold my strength.” Having been thus addressed by the crow, one of the swans laughed. The swan spoke these words to the crow. “Listen to me. O crow! There is no doubt that you will fly in one hundred and one different kinds of ways. I will however fly in the only way that all the birds know. O crow! That is the way I will fly, because I do not know any other. O red-eyed one! You fly in whichever way you think appropriate.” At this, the crows who had assembled there began to laugh. “How will the swan fly in only one kind of way and defeat flight in one hundred different ways?” They began to fly, one in one technique, and the other used one hundred and one flying techniques. Powerful and swift in strength, the swan and the crow flew. The swan and the crow flew, rivalling each other. The one that could fly anywhere393 flew. The crow also flew. Each flew so as to cause wonder in the rival and praised his own deeds. The crow flew in a myriad and colourful ways. On seeing this, the assembled crows were delighted and started to caw loudly. The swans laughed at them and uttered many unpleasant words. From one instant to another, they394 repeatedly rose up and swooped down. Descending and ascending, they were on the tops of trees and on the ground. They uttered many kinds of noises, signifying their victory. O venerable one! With that single and gentle motion, the valiant swan continued to fly and for an instant, it seemed as if it had been defeated by the crow. Slighting the swans, the crows spoke these words. “The swan that rose up into the sky is clearly being defeated.” On hearing these words, the swan flew in a westward direction. It increased its speed and flew over the ocean, Varuna’s abode. At this, fear penetrated the crow and it lost its senses. It did not see any islands or trees, where it could descend and rest, when it was tired. “When I am tired, where will I descend in this ocean of water? This ocean is the abode of a large number of beings and is intolerable. There are many large beings that reside here and it is superior to the sky.”395 O worst of your lineage! The ocean is superior to everything in depth. O Karna! It is as limitless as the sky. The ocean is impossible to conquer. O Karna! Given its extremely long distance, what could a crow do? In a short while, the swan travelled a long distance. It could not leave the crow behind and glanced back at it. Having overtaken the crow, the one that could travel anywhere at will glanced back at it.396 Seeing that it was exhausted, the swan wished to rescue the one who was sinking and remembered the vows observed by righteous people. It said, “You repeatedly spoke about many different kinds of flight. You should not speak about these techniques of flight. They are a mystery to us. O crow! What is the name of this pattern of flight that you are now being forced to fly? Your wings and your beak are repeatedly touching the water. You are touching the waters of the ocean with your wings and your beak. O crow! You are extremely exhausted and you will suddenly fall down.”