INDIA. PART II. away this woman until you have vanquished all her hus- HISTORY OF bands." But the Raja heeded not his words, but placed Draupadi in his own chariot, and drove away, and the old priest followed after him weeping and lamenting. return to their what has oc Then the Pursuit of Jaya dratha. abandons Drau to escape. All this while the Pándavas had been hunting in the forest, but Yudhishthira had seen many evil omens, and before the day was half spent, he persuaded his brethren to return. Now as they approached the hut they did not see The Pandavas Draupadi, but they beheld her little maid lying upon the hut and learn ground and weeping violently; and the maid told them how curred. Raja Jayadratha had carried away Draupadí, like a dog who has seized the sacrificial meat, and she pointed out the way he had gone, and the marks of his chariot-wheels. Pándavas set off in hot haste, and soon approached their enemy, and so discharged their arrows that many of the Chieftains were killed. And the heart of Jayadratha was Jayadratha filled with dismay, and he set down Draupadí from his padi and seeks chariot, and drove with all speed to a thicket which was hard by. Then Bhíma said to Yudhishthira :-"Go home now with Draupadí, and with our brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva: As for me, though Jayadratha fled to the caves beneath the earth, and had Indra himself for his charioteer, he should not escape my hands." Yudhishthira replied:"O my brother, Jayadratha has been very wicked, but he Yudhishthira's has married the sister of Duryodhana, and we may not kill our kinsman." But Draupadi was mad with anger at these Wrath of Drauwords, and cried in a loud voice to Bhíma and Arjuna :"If you have any regard for me you will slay this Jayadratha: He is the worst of Rajas and the vilest of men: The most exalted of all the ancient sages has said that the man who carries off the wife of another in times of peace must be pursued and put to death, even though he desist from his wicked purpose." Draupadi then returned to the hut, Return of Yudaccompanied by Yudhishthira and Nakula and Sahadeva. When Bhima and Arjuna heard the words of Draupadí, their wrath was kindled greatly against Jayadratha, and they pursued him hotly, and taunted him with his prowess in running away with their wife, and called upon him to turn clemency. padí. hishthira with Draupadi, INDIA. PART II. Bhima drags Jayadratha from his chariot a slave. Humiliating submission of Jayadratha. HISTORY OF and fight them; but he was sore afraid, and would not turn lest they should slay him. Then Bhíma ran swiftly after him, and caught him by the hair of his head, and dragged him from his chariot to the ground, and kicked and beat and makes him him until his reason had almost left him, but Arjuna bade his brother to remember the words of Yudhishthira and to spare the life of his kinsman. So Bhíma cut off all the hair of Jayadratha's head excepting five locks, and agreed to spare his life on the condition that he went into the assembly of the Pándavas, and acknowledged himself to be their slave. So Jayadratha yielded, and Bhíma led him to the hut, and brought him into the presence of Yudhishthira, and his mind was well nigh gone. And when Yudhishthira saw his condition he ordered Bhíma to release him; but Bhíma refused unless commanded by Draupadí, because Jayadratha had Draupadi orders become the slave of the Pándavas. Draupadí then came up, and said:" As Jayadratha is become a slave by token of his five locks, I pray you to release him." So Bhíma released him, and he threw himself at the feet of Yudhishthira; and Yudhishthira bade him depart; and he hung down his head with shame and said not a word, but went his way much abashed to his own country. his release. Review of the tradition of rying away Draupadi. The foregoing tradition of the attempt of JayaJayadratha car- dratha to carry away Draupadí bears every impress of being authentic, but yet presents a few difficulties which seem to demand notice. The curious coincidence that Jayadratha should have made the attempt whilst on his way to marry another lady is perhaps sufficiently explained in the narrative, but it does seem remarkable that he should have been already married to Duhsalá; and it will appear hereafter that Duhsalá was still living. But perhaps the most important point of the tradition is the definition of the law of the Kshatriyas in such cases, to which both Draupadí and the priest Dhaumya seem to have appealed. According to Draupadí, the Jayadratha already married to Duhsalá, daughter of Maharaja Dhritarashtra. Laws of the Kshatriyas respecting the carrying away of women. INDIA. PART II. man who carried off the wife of another in time of HISTORY OF peace was to be pursued to the death. According to Dhaumya, no man could rightfully carry away the wife of another unless he had first vanquished her husband or husbands. This subject however has already been discussed in a previous chapter, and it is only necessary to draw attention to the points raised. HISTORY OF INDIA. PART II. CHAPTER IX. SECOND EXILE OF THE PÁNDAVAS—THE THIRTEENTH YEAR IN A CITY. SHORTLY after the attempt of Jayadratha to carry away Draupadi, the period of twelve years' exile in Preparations of the jungle is said to have drawn towards a close. the Pandavas guised in a foreign city during the thirteenth year. reference to the the story. for dwelling dis- Accordingly the Pándavas sent their priest, Dhaumya, to reside in the city of their father-in-law, Raja Drupada; whilst they and their joint wife Draupadí prepared to dwell in some foreign city, so perfectly disguised that the Kauravas should be unable to Difficulties in discover their place of concealment. The romantic authenticity of character of the last stipulation, and the difficulty of reconciling a residence in a foreign city with the ancient condition of the Kshatriyas as Aryan settlers from a distant country, are sufficient to excite suspicions of the story, or at any rate of such portions of the story as refer to the Pándavas. Moreover the disguises assumed by the Pándavas and their joint wife appear to be highly improbable, whilst that of Arjuna is simply impossible. Then, again, the descriptions of battles are wild myths, in which armies are defeated by single-handed heroes, whilst one army falls down insensible at the mere amour between sound of a war shell. At the same time, the main and a waiting incident, which refers to an amour between a mighty warrior and the waiting-maid of a Rání, Story of the a Commander maid, an authentic tradition. INDIA. PART II. Wide difference between the tradition of the traditions of the amour, and the house of Bhárata. conception of appears to be a relic of an ancient and authentic tra- HISTORY OF dition, altogether differing both in civilization and religion from the traditionary history of the house of Bhárata. It belongs to a period long anterior to the rise of Brahmanical ascendancy, but comprises graphic pictures of the palace life of Hindú Rajas, in an age when young Princes were brought up with the women, and when eunuchs taught music and dancing to the young damsels in the zenana. Again, the story of the amour turns upon a dread of ghosts, which finds no expression in the traditions of the house of Bhárata; and it is especially remarkable Difference in the that the Gandharvas, who are generally represented Gandharvas. as a Hill tribe with whom the Kshatriyas at Hastinápur were frequently at war, are introduced in the story as invisible demons, prone to love affairs with mortal women, and capable of wreaking their supernatural wrath upon mortal rivals. Ac- Possible separacordingly an attempt will be made hereafter to amour, from the separate the more authentic tradition, which refers ventures of the to the amour, from the more improbable details ing the thirwhich refer to the Pándavas. But in the first instance it seems necessary to reproduce the entire legend of the thirteenth year, as it appears in the Mahá Bhárata, and which may now be related without any further introduction, as follows: tion of the tra myth of the ad Pandavas dur teenth year. thirteenth year. Now according to the rule of their exile it had been Fiction of the agreed that when the Pándavas had accomplished twelve years of wanderings in the jungle, they should take up their abode in any city they might choose, and remain there for a single year; and if during that year the Kauravas failed Stipulation as to discover them, they were to be restored to their Raj, but guise. if the Kauravas discovered their disguise, they were to go for another twelve years into the jungle, and a thirteenth year in disguise, as before. Accordingly the Pándavas took regards dis |