The Blind King Counts the Odds

"Those feats of Pritha's son were certainly marvellous," said Janamejaya, breaking in on the recitation. "He fought Sthanu himself in the guise of a hunter and was embraced for it. He went up to heaven in Indra's own car with Matali holding the reins. He sat on half of the throne of the king of the gods. O brahmana, what did Dhritarashtra of great wisdom say when he heard of that?"

"He heard it from Dwaipayana," said Vaishampayana. "Vyasa came to Hastinapura and told him plainly where Arjuna was living and what he was there to get. And when the sage had gone, the son of Ambika sent for his charioteer."

The hall at Hastinapura was not full. It was the hour when a king who cannot see sits with one man and asks him what the room looks like.

Five years of the twelve had gone. In that time the court had learned to speak of the exiles the way one speaks of a debt that is not yet due: rarely, and in the passive voice. Duryodhana had the revenues of two kingdoms and had grown easy in them. Karna went about being praised. Shakuni had gone quiet, as gamblers do when the throw has landed. Only two men in Hastinapura still did arithmetic about the forest, and one of them was blind.

"O charioteer," said Dhritarashtra, "do you know in detail the acts of the intelligent Arjuna, of which I have now heard from beginning to end?"

"I know them, O king."

"Then sit," said the king, "and let us count."

Sanjaya sat. He had done this before, on other evenings, and he knew the shape of what was coming: the old man would lay out the whole disaster in order, name every piece of it correctly, arrive at the right conclusion, and then do nothing. It was the most reliable thing in the kingdom.

"My wretched and sinful son is even now engaged in a policy of the most vulgar kind," the king began. "Of wicked soul, he will certainly depopulate the earth. And on the other side there is a man whose words are true even when he speaks them in jest, and that man has Dhananjaya to fight for him. He is sure to win the three worlds. Who is beyond the influence of death and decay, that he will be able to stand before Arjuna when he scatters his barbed and sharp-pointed arrows whetted on stone? My sons, who have to fight with the invincible Pandavas, are doomed, all of them.

"Reflecting day and night, O Sanjaya, I do not see the warrior among us who is able to stay in battle before the wielder of the Gandiva."

He was silent a moment, and then he said the sentence that Sanjaya remembered afterwards for the rest of his life, because it was said quietly, like a man reading out a measurement.

"The thunderbolt, falling on a mountain top, leaves a portion of it unconsumed. But the shafts that are shot by Kiritin leave not a rack behind. As the rays of the sun heat this mobile and immobile universe, so will the shafts shot by Arjuna's hands scorch my sons.

"It seems to me that the divisions of the Bharatas, terrified at the mere clatter of his chariot wheels, are already broken through in every direction. Vidhatri has created Arjuna as an all-consuming Destroyer. He stands in battle as a foe, vomiting and scattering swarms of arrows. Who is there that will defeat him?"

Then the blind king audited his own army out loud, which no herald would have dared to do in that hall in daylight.

"If Drona, or Karna, or even Bhishma advance against him in battle, a great calamity is likely to befall the earth. But even in that case I do not see the way to our success."

He held up one finger at a time, as if there were three counters on the arm of his chair.

"Karna is kind and forgetful. Drona is old, and he is the boy's preceptor besides. Arjuna is wrathful, and strong, and proud, and of firm and steady prowess. All of these are invincible, and so a terrible fight will take place between them, and all of them are heroes skilled in weapons and of great reputation.

"And mark this, charioteer, for it is the worst of it. Not one of them would wish for the sovereignty of the world if it had to be purchased by defeat. Peace will be restored only on the death of these, or of Phalguna. And the slayer of Arjuna does not exist, nor does anyone who can vanquish him."

"Then the king already knows the sum," said Sanjaya.

"The king knows the sum." Dhritarashtra put his hand flat on the arm of the chair. "Oh, how shall that wrath of his be pacified, which has myself for its object? Equal to the chief of the celestials, he gratified Agni at Khandava. He vanquished all the monarchs of the earth on the occasion of the great Rajasuya. And now he has been five years in the house of the king of the gods, learning what a mortal is not meant to learn. You have heard me say that Karna is kind. It is not praise. It is the report of a man weighing a shield and finding it thin."

"That which has been uttered by you, O king, with respect to Duryodhana, is all true," said Sanjaya. "Nothing that you have said, O lord of the earth, is untrue.

"The Pandavas of immeasurable energy were filled with rage at the sight of Krishna, their wedded wife of pure fame, brought into the midst of the assembly. Hearing also those cruel words of Dussasana and of Karna, they were so incensed, O king, that they will not forgive the Kurus on my account or on anyone's.

"I have heard how Arjuna gratified in battle, by means of his bow, the god of gods, Sthanu of eleven forms. The illustrious lord of all the gods, desirous of testing Phalguna, fought with him in the guise of a Kirata. And there it was that the guardians of the worlds, in order to give away their weapons to that bull of the Kuru race, showed themselves to him in their own forms. What other man on earth would strive to have a sight of those gods as they are? And who is there that will weaken in battle a man who could not be weakened by Maheswara himself?

"Your sons, having dragged Draupadi, and having thereby incensed the sons of Pandu, have brought this frightful calamity upon themselves. When Duryodhana bared his thigh and showed it to her, Bhima said, with lips that would not stay still, 'Wretch, those thighs of yours I will smash with my fierce descending mace on the expiration of thirteen years.' All the sons of Pandu are the foremost of smiters. All of them are of immeasurable energy. All of them are versed in every kind of weapon, and for that reason they cannot be vanquished even by the gods. Incensed at the insult offered to their wedded wife, and urged by wrath, they will slay every one of your sons in battle."

"What mischief has been done to the sons of Pandu by Karna, uttering those cruel words," said Dhritarashtra. "Was the enmity not sufficient that was provoked by bringing Krishna into the assembly? How can my wicked sons live, whose eldest brother and preceptor does not walk in the path of righteousness?

"Seeing me void of eyesight and incapable of exerting myself actively, my wretched son believes me to be a fool, O charioteer, and does not listen to my words. And those wretches who are his counsellors, Karna and Suvala's son and the rest, always pander to his vices, since he is incapable of understanding things rightly.

"The shafts that Arjuna of immeasurable prowess may shoot lightly are capable of consuming all my sons. Leave alone those that he will shoot impelled by anger. The arrows urged by the might of his arms, shot from that large bow and inspired with mantras that convert them into celestial weapons, can chastise the celestials themselves.

"And there is worse than his arms. He who has for his counsellor and his protector and his friend that smiter of sinful men, the lord of the three worlds, Hari himself, encounters nothing at all that he cannot conquer. This is the most marvellous thing about Arjuna, that, as we have heard, he has been clasped by Mahadeva in his arms. And what Phalguna did of old, assisted by Damodara, in helping Agni to the conflagration of Khandava, was witnessed by all the world. When Bhima and Partha and Vasudeva of the Satwata race become enraged together, my sons, along with their friends and the sons of Suvala, are all unequal to fighting them."

He had now named, in order and without error, every element of his own destruction. Then he called for lamps to be lit, which he did not need, and the evening ended as those evenings always ended, with nothing done.

"Having sent the heroic sons of Pandu into exile," said Janamejaya, "these lamentations of Dhritarashtra were perfectly futile. Why did the king permit his foolish son Duryodhana to incense those mighty warriors so? And tell me this, O brahmana, for I have wanted to ask it: what was the food of the sons of Pandu while they lived in the woods? Was it of the wilderness, or was it the produce of cultivation?"

"Of the wilderness," said Vaishampayana, "and it fed more mouths than you would think.

"Those bulls among men gathered the produce of the wild and killed deer with pure arrows, and they first dedicated a portion of the food to the brahmanas and afterwards ate the rest themselves. For while those heroes lived in the woods they were followed by brahmanas of both classes, those who worship with fire and those who worship without it, and there were ten thousand illustrious Snataka brahmanas, all conversant with the means of salvation, whom Yudhishthira supported in the forest. Killing rurus and black deer and other clean animals of the wilderness, he gave the meat to them.

"And no one who lived with Yudhishthira looked pale, or ill, or was lean or weak, or was melancholy or terrified. The chief of the Kurus maintained his brothers as if they had been his sons, and his relatives as if they had been his uterine brothers. And Draupadi of pure fame fed her husbands and the brahmanas as if she were their mother, and last of all took her own food.

"The king himself hunted toward the east, and Bhima toward the south, and the twins toward the west and the north, and each of them daily killed the deer of the forest with the bow in his hand, for the sake of meat. In this way the Pandavas lived five years in the woods of Kamyaka, in anxiety at the absence of Arjuna, and engaged all the while in study and prayers and sacrifices."

That way of life, so far above the way of men, was reported to Hastinapura as everything was reported to Hastinapura, and when the son of Ambika had heard it he was filled with anxiety and grief. He sighed hot and long, and sent again for his charioteer.

"A moment's peace I have not, O Sanjaya, either during the day or during the night. I think of the terrible misbehaviour of my sons that came out of that gambling, and I think of the heroism of the sons of Pandu, and their patience, and their high intelligence, and their unbearable prowess, and the extraordinary love they bear one another.

"Consider only the two youngest. Nakula and Sahadeva, of celestial origin, equal to the chief of the celestials himself in splendour, are invincible in battle. They are firm in the wielding of weapons. They shoot at a long distance. They are resolute, of remarkable lightness of hand, of a wrath that is not easily quelled, possessed of great steadiness and endued with activity. Possessed of the prowess of lions, unbearable as the Ashvins themselves, they will come onto the field with Bhima and Arjuna in front of them, and I see, O Sanjaya, that my soldiers will all be slain without a remnant.

"Add to them the mighty warriors of the Vrishnis, and the Panchalas of great energy, and the sons of Pritha themselves, led by Vasudeva of unbaffled prowess. All the warriors on my side assembled together are not competent to bear the impetus of the Vrishnis alone, when the Vrishnis are commanded by Rama and Krishna. And among them will move Bhima of terrible prowess, with his iron mace held high, capable of slaying every hero. And high above the din will be heard the twang of the Gandiva, loud as the thunder of heaven.

"It is then, O Sanjaya, obedient as I have been to the voice of Duryodhana, that I shall have to call back the rejected counsels of my friends. Counsels I should have attended to in time."

"This has been your great fault, O king," said Sanjaya, "that though you were capable, you did not, from affection, prevent your son from doing what he has done."

He said it without raising his voice and without any of the ornament a courtier uses to take the edge off a thing, and then he went straight on, because the king had asked for the report of the spies and the report was ready.

"The slayer of Madhu, hearing that the Pandavas had been defeated at dice, went to the woods of Kamyaka and consoled them there. Draupadi's sons came, headed by Dhrishtadyumna, and Virata came, and Dhrishtaketu, and the Kekayas, all of them mighty warriors. When Krishna met the Pandavas they asked him to become the charioteer of Phalguna in battle, and Hari, so requested, answered them, 'So be it.'

"And Krishna, beholding the sons of Pritha dressed in deerskins, was filled with rage, and said to Yudhishthira: 'That prosperity which you had acquired at Indraprastha, which no other king could obtain, which I saw with my own eyes at the Rajasuya where the rulers of the Vangas and the Angas and the Paundras and the Cholas and the Dravidas, and the kings of the west by hundreds, and the Kiratas and the Yavanas and the men of Kashmira all stood in obedience to your invitation performing offices, that prosperity, so unstable, now waits upon your foe. I shall restore it to you, and deprive that foe of his very life. Assisted by Rama and Bhima and Arjuna and the twins, and by Akrura and Gada and Samba and Pradyumna and Ahuka and Dhrishtadyumna, I shall slay in the course of a single day Duryodhana and Karna and Dussasana and the son of Suvala and all who fight beside them, and you shall live at Hastinapura and rule this earth.'

"And Yudhishthira answered him, before all those heroes: 'O Janardana, I accept these words of yours as truth. But slay my enemies on the expiry of thirteen years. Promise me that truly, O Kesava. I promised in the presence of the king to live in the forest, and I am living in it.'"

"And there was more said in that camp," Sanjaya went on. "They spoke to Draupadi of pure deeds, in the hearing of Vasudeva himself. 'O lady, in consequence of your anger Duryodhana shall lay down his life. We promise it. Therefore grieve no more. Those that mocked you when they beheld you won at dice shall reap the fruit of that act. Beasts of prey and birds shall eat their flesh, and jackals and vultures shall drink their blood. You shall behold the bodies of those wretches who dragged you by the hair lying prostrate on the earth. They that gave you pain and disregarded you shall lie on the ground without their heads, and the earth herself shall drink their blood.'

"These and other speeches of that kind were made there, O king, by those bulls of the Bharata race, and all of them are endued with energy and bravery and marked with the marks of battle. On the expiration of the thirteenth year those warriors, chosen by Yudhishthira and headed by Vasudeva, will come to the field. Rama and Krishna and Dhananjaya, Pradyumna and Samba and Yuyudhana, Bhima and the sons of Madri, the Kekaya princes and the Panchala princes, accompanied by the king of the Matsyas, all of them illustrious and celebrated and invincible, will come with their followers and their troops. Who is there, desiring to live, who will encounter these in battle, resembling angry lions of erect manes?"

The king did not answer that for a long time. When he did, he was not talking to Sanjaya at all.

"What Vidura told me at the time of the game at dice," he said. "'If you seek, O king, to vanquish the Pandavas at dice, then certainly a terrible bloodshed, ending in the destruction of all the Kurus, will be the result.' I think it is about to be realised. As Vidura told me of old, without doubt a terrible battle will take place as soon as the pledged period of the Pandavas expires."

And that, said Vaishampayana to the king at the sacrifice, is what Dhritarashtra of great wisdom said when he heard of the feats of Pritha's son. He said all of it correctly. He was the only man in the kingdom with the authority to act on any of it, and he sat in his chair and named the disaster to a charioteer, year after year, until it arrived.