Sahadeva

The youngest, and the wisest

Sahadeva and Nakula were born when Kunti lent Madri her mantra once and Madri called on the Ashvins. After Madri died on Pandu's pyre, Kunti raised the twins as her own. Sahadeva became her particular charge. Years later, leaving for the forest, she told Yudhishthira to watch over him, because he was devoted to her and would never say when he was unhappy.

He learned the sword under Drona, but the epic mostly praises his mind. In the dice hall Yudhishthira describes him as the brother who teaches the world its justice. He is remembered as learned in stars and omens. Regional retellings go further and make him a seer who knew how the war would end and was forbidden to say.

Mahishmati and the dice hall

For Yudhishthira's Rajasuya, Sahadeva conquered the south. At Mahishmati, King Nila's city, the fire god Agni himself defended the walls, and Sahadeva won through prayer rather than assault. At the sacrifice, when the first honour went to Krishna, he dared any king who objected to answer to him.

In the dice hall he was staked and lost second, after Nakula. When Draupadi was humiliated, each brother swore a vow. Sahadeva's was against Shakuni, the Gandhara prince whose dice had ruined them.

Tantipala and the war

In the year of hiding he kept King Virata's cattle as Tantipala, and under him the herds grew. At Kurukshetra, on the fourteenth night, Karna beat him, stripped him of his weapons and touched him with the tip of his bow, then let him go for Kunti's sake. On the sixteenth day he fought Dushasana to a standstill and sent him off the field unconscious.

On the eighteenth morning he found Shakuni's son Uluka and killed him in front of his father. Then he killed Shakuni himself, closing the account opened at the dice board thirteen years before.

Pride in wisdom

On the last climb into the Himalaya, Sahadeva was the first of the brothers to fall, after Draupadi. Yudhishthira said his fault was that he thought no one his equal in wisdom. It is the harshest verdict on the mountain, falling on a man who seldom asked for credit. Sahadeva stays a figure of silent foresight: the brother who spoke least, kept his one vow, and was judged for trusting his own judgement too much.