3 Review(s)

My source of the story of King Nal and his queen Damyanti originally appears in the Mahabharat of the sage poet maharshi Vedavyas. There would be only counted few in India who have not heard this story in one form or other. It has been told and retold as mythological romance for a few millennia; I’d venture to say, for the listening interest and pleasure of people of all ages and genders. Yet Vedavyas categorises it under histories or ‘itihas’, as he calls such tales that occasionally come up as illustration or to emphasise an idea, a situation or a character’s conduct in the context of the narrative of his epic; and sometimes just as an extended simile with an ingrained moral implication. The present story or an ancient tale was told by the journeying pilgrim saint, maharshi Brihadashwa, to the senior Pandav prince Yudhishthir, the eldest of Pandav brothers, when they sojourned in the Kamyakvan during their stake imposed exile. In the Epic it appears in the Canto called Van-parva. King Yudhishthir lost all his possessions, in what was supposed to have begun as friendly, but competitive game of dice between cousins. Duryodhan on the sly had designs of grabbing the grudgingly given Indraprasth to Pandavs, as their share of kingdom, by hook or by crook. In the frenzy and extremity of the ongoing match Yudhishthir staked and lost his brothers and above all, Draupadi their queen to the wily uncle, Shakuni, of the Kauravs. Shakuni played them not only with loaded dice but also used his sleight of hand that was a part of his repertoire of gambling cunning. He was in fact touting in behalf of Duryodhan the eldest Kaurav, who though a strong and trained mace duellist, had always grudged his cousins’ flourishing prosperity in their small kingdom, Khandavprasth, later named, Indraprasth. He was hell-bent on depriving the Pandavas and grabbing and destroying their wealth and glory, even if he had to use unfair means of cheating at the game.