Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mahabharata, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dharma
Pursuing Enlightenment
Heroism and Warfare
Grief, Loss, and Mourning
Stories and Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
THE FOREST. Vaiśampayana continues his story of the Pandavas, who head into the forest to begin their exile. Vidura continues to advise Dhritarashtra to end the exile of the Pandavas, so Dhritarashtra eventually dismisses him, and Vidura goes off to join the five brothers. But he soon regrets his actions and invites Vidura back, and so Vidura returns.
Once again, Dhritarashtra makes a decision and then immediately regrets it. At this early stage, he is still able to reverse many of his decisions, but as the poem goes on, this will stop being the case, showing the dangers of prioritizing short-term emotional considerations over dharma.
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THE KILLING OF KIRMIRA. Dhritarashtra hears a story about how Bhima killed a Rakshasa called Kirmira. He asks Vidura to tell him the story. Kirmira wanted to kill Bhima for killing his brother Baka, but Bhima defeated him and killed him in a wrestling match.
Bhima continues to establish his violent personality. What is dharma for Bhima would not necessarily be dharma for the more reserved Yudhishthira, and so Bhima’s dharma takes into consideration how he balances out the personalities of his brothers.
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THE MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS. The Pandavas’ allies, including Krishna, come to visit them in the forest. THE KILLING OF THE LORD SAUBHA. Krishna has been away for a while. When Yudhishthira asks why, Krishna explains he had to go destroy the city of Saubha. The city was ruled by a demonic lord, but after a long battle, Krishna managed to defeat him.
Krishna is both one of the most important figures in the entire narrative, but he’s also a supporting character, going off on his own adventures and destroying whole cities while the Pandavas are occupied with their own matters. This reflects how Krishna is the incarnation of the god and how the gods have their own motivations that don’t always make sense to mortals.
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The Pandavas keep traveling. Draupadi scolds Yudhishthira for letting the Pandavas fall into such a miserable state while the Kauravas are back celebrating. Bhima joins Draupadi’s side in the argument, but Yudhishthira keeps insisting that it’s best to be patient and avoid anger.
Draupadi’s dharma involves maintaining dignity at all times, and this is what causes her conflict with Yudhishthira during the Pandavas’ lowly time in exile. Unlike Duryodhana, who commits an error by failing to recognize Yudhishthira’s judgment, Draupadi provides a necessary counterbalance, particularly since in the end she still listens to her husband.
Themes
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One day, Arjuna travels to the summit of Himalaya, where he performs ascetic rituals and meets Śiva. Śiva stakes the form of a mountain man and starts a bow-and-arrow battle with Arjuna. After a tough battle, Śiva wins, but he praises Arjuna’s efforts and offers him a celestial weapon: the Paśupata. Śiva warns Arjuna that if he’s irresponsible with the weapon, he could destroy the entire world.
Śiva entrusts Arjuna with a weapon powerful enough to destroy the entire world, showing how much faith he has in Arjuna’s judgment. Perhaps more than any other figure in the poem, Arjuna shows the connection between religion and warfare, demonstrating how faith both physically and spiritually makes him powerful.
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THE JOURNEY TO INDRA’S WORLD. One day, Indra’s charioteer comes to Arjuna and takes him to Indra’s city. Indra gifts Arjuna a thunderbolt, and Arjuna stays in his city for five years. Meanwhile, the other Pandavas live peacefully in the forest, while Dhritarashtra hears of Arjuna’s trip to Indra and fears he’s becoming invincible. Yudhishthira feels that he’s the unluckiest man in the world, but a seer begins to tell him of a man who was even more unlucky.
Indra is Arjuna’s biological father, which is part of why he and the other gods show such favor to Arjuna. Arjuna’s separation from his brothers demonstrates how the search for enlightenment sometimes requires leaving the familiar behind. The seer at the end of this passage provides another example of how stories have the power both to comfort and to instruct.
Themes
NALA. The seer begins his story to Yudhishthira. Nala is a distinguished king. He wants to marry a young woman named Damayanti, but Damayanti’s father instead holds a svayamvara ceremony to choose Damayanti’s husband. At the svayamvara, Nala manages to win over Damayanti. This angers the god Kali, who possesses Nala and forces him to lose in gambling against his brother. Ruined, Nala decides to leave Damayanti in the night. When Damayanti wakes up to find Nala gone, she wanders around, trying to find him again.
The seer tells this story to Yudhishthira because it clearly has parallels to Yudhishthira’s own misfortune, particularly when it comes to the lost gambling match. Notably, Kali forces Nala to lose at dice by possessing him, suggesting that the gambling was never truly random but an event with a predetermined outcome. This could be the seer’s way of suggesting to Yudhishthira that he should accept his own fate as a predetermined outcome.
Themes
Nala travels widely until finally one day he manages to get Kali out of him. From afar, Damayanti hears news that Nala is finally free. Nala comes back and challenges his brother to another gambling match, but this time he wins on the first throw. He forgives his brother and returns to living happily with Damayanti. After finishing the story, the seer tells Yudhishthira that just hearing about Nala gives the listener good luck.
Although the seer told Yudhishthira initially that he would tell a story about a man with worse luck than him, Nala ends up having good luck. This suggests that it would be wise for Yudhishthira to look at the long-term and to see how his own recent gambling loss might nevertheless lead to a happy outcome.
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THE PILGRIMAGE. Narada comes to the Pandavas in the forest and tells Yudhishthira of the benefits of going on a pilgrimage. Yudhishthira also hears about Arjuna’s recent acquisition of a celestial weapon.
Much of the Pandavas’ exile takes the form of a journey—a sort of pilgrimage—and this coincides with the fact that it is a time of self-discovery for them.
Themes
AGASTYA. Beginning their pilgrimage, the Pandavas travel to the hermitage of Agastya. There, they hear a story about how Agastya killed a demon. The story includes the origin of demons and how, in an earlier age, they were once powerful enough to harass even the gods. The gods asked Agastya for help, and so he drank the ocean dry so that the gods could kill the demons that were hiding there. After hearing this story, Yudhishthira and the others travel onward, arriving at a new holy site near a river.
Over the course of their pilgrimage, the Pandavas hear many self-contained stories at the various places they stop. In John D. Smith’s translation, these stories are often summarized only briefly because they are tangential to the main plot, but they nevertheless help the Mahabharata achieve its goal of being an encyclopedic text and often represent moments of character growth for the Pandavas.
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RIŚYASRINGA. Near the river, Yudhishthira hears the story of Riśyasringa, a great ascetic and the son of an apsara cursed to take the form of a doe. In doe form, she got pregnant after drinking from a river where a (human) man ejaculated. As a result, Riśyasringa has a single deer horn on his head. Meanwhile, a kingdom suffers from lack of rain, so its king decides that perhaps he can make it rain by luring Riśyasringa to his kingdom. He sends women to try to tempt Riśyasringa. One woman in particular succeeds in driving Riśyasringa mad.
Riśyasringa provides a strange example of how humanity and nature can intersect, as he has a human body and a deer horn on his head. Riśyasringa’s story is yet another one that focuses on the concept of sexual purity. A king tries to manipulate Riśyasringa with sex, showing that, for an ascetic like Riśyasringa, sex can be a distraction that leads away from dharma.
Themes
Riśyasringa tells his father about the beautiful woman he saw. His father explains that the woman was probably a Rakshasa. But Riśyasringa doesn’t heed his father, and when the woman returns, she tricks him onto a boat. She takes him back to her king’s kingdom, and it finally starts to rain. In exchange, the king offers one of his daughters to Riśyasringa in marriage, and she serves him faithfully. With the story concluded, Yudhishthira and the other Pandavas travel on to an altar in a forest.
The story of Riśyasringa shows how even great sages can face temptation—this perhaps parallels how Yudhishthira himself gave in to his gambling addiction. Once again, however, Riśyasringa’s story has a happy ending, suggesting that Yudhishthira’s current troubles may nevertheless have a way of working out in the end.
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KARTAVIRYA. Yudhishthira learns that Rama Jamadagnya is coming by soon. He hears a story about how Rama Jamadagnya accidentally decapitated his mother but how a boon from his father allowed him to revive her. Later, King Kartavirya attacked Rama Jamadagnya’s hermitage, wiping it out, and this led Rama Jamadagnya to declare war on all Kshatriya, leading him to wipe out their whole population on 21 separate occasions. After hearing this story, Yudhishthira and the Pandavas travel to a new holy location to continue their pilgrimage.
Rama Jamadagnya’s annihilation of the Kshatriya on 21 different occasions may seem excessive, but this story presents it as justified revenge and a necessary way to bring balance back to the universe. The poem has a complicated relationship with violence, praising nonviolence for some people but also portraying heroic figures who commit seemingly unimaginable acts of violence. Once again, this shows how dharma differs for different individuals.
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SUKANYA. Yudhishthira hears a new story about a man from the Bhrigu line named Cyavana who leads such an ascetic lifestyle that he turns into an anthill. One day, he sees a beautiful woman named Sukanya, but she sees only eyes in an anthill, so she pokes him with a thorn. The ascetic responds by causing trouble for the king, and so the king decrees Sukanya must marry Cyavana. Cyavana regains human form and also his youth, becoming so powerful that he keeps even Indra at bay with a demon called Intoxication. After besting Indra, Cyavana splits Intoxication up into several parts: “liquor, women, dicing, and hunting.”
This story is yet another digression that relates back to Yudhishthira’s current situation, since Yudhishthira’s gambling addiction seems to be a part of the “Intoxication” that Cyavana releases into the world. Cyavana’s Intoxication is one of the few things that can compete with even the powerful god Indra, showing how powerful these temptations are and how they can control human lives.
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MANDHATR. Yudhishthira hears the story of Mandhatri, a child who stays in the womb for 100 years and then suckles from Indra’s pointer finger. JANTU. Yudhishthira hears the story of a man who has 100 wives but just one son, who is named Jantu. The man sacrifices Jantu, and suddenly all his wives become pregnant at the same time.
Fertility and heirs continue to be a major theme in the poem. The story of Jantu involves yet another occurrence in the story of 100 sons—and the fact that this motif resurfaces perhaps gestures toward the Hindu concept of reincarnation, as the Mahabharata itself uses recurring elements.
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THE HAWK AND THE DOVE. Yudhishthira hears the story of a man who has to cut off part of his own flesh equal to the weight of a dove. He keeps cutting, but it is never enough, so at last he puts his whole body on the scale, finally pleasing Indra. ASHTAVAKRA. Yudhishthira hears the story of Ashtavakra, a clever man who excels at riddles.
The story of the man and the dove shows the lengths that humans should be willing to go to in order to please the gods. By putting his whole body on the scale, the man indicates a willingness to sacrifice even his own life for Indra.
Themes
YAVAKRITA. Yudhishthira arrives at the hermitage where Yavakrita died and hears his story. Yavakrita is too proud and gets chased by a Rakshasa. He tries to hide in water, but everything is dry, and so he is caught and killed. After hearing the end of that story, the Pandavas continue their journey, traveling through dangerous, stormy lands where supernatural creatures live. Draupadi begins to tire from so much traveling. Bhima goes to fetch her flowers to cheer her up, but he finds the flowers guarded by Rakshasas.
Yavakrita’s story shows the danger of pride—he literally gets chased by demons, but the message is that perhaps pride can also cause a person’s figurative demons to get the better of them. The Pandavas continue to move across the land, and their progress symbolizes how each story they hear helps bring them a step closer to enlightenment by teaching them a new message.
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THE KILLING OF JATASURA. While Bhima is away, a Rakshasa named Jatasura kidnaps the Pandavas one day. Bhima finally makes it back and kills Jatasura, freeing his brothers.
Bhima once again acts violently, suggesting that violence—at least in the world of the Mahabharata—is sometimes necessary, particularly against demons like Jatasura.
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THE BATTLE AGAINST THE YAKSHAS. The Pandavas return to a hermitage they’ve been to before and settle down there. In the fifth year of Arjuna’s absence while they’re staying at the hermitage, Bhima provokes a war with the Yakshas (a type of celestial being), but when their leader sees how well the Pandavas fight, he gives up the battle and congratulates them. Arjuna finally returns, and he tells his story. In Arjuna’s retelling, Indra gives Arjuna a task—to kill many demons with his new weapons. Arjuna succeeds in wiping out a whole army of demons, pleasing Indra. Indra then gives Arjuna invincible armor and a conch, allowing him to stay in his city for five years.
The battle against the Yakshas is a sort of coronation moment for the Pandavas, as they prove that they’ve reached the point where their skills in battle go beyond those of a regular mortal. The poem has already related Arjuna’s time with Indra in brief, but this section recounts those events, allowing Arjuna to tell everything to his brothers in his own words. The Mahabharata’s status as a holy text helps explain why it includes so many details, since figures like Arjuna are so important that almost everything they do takes on significance.
Themes
THE CONSTRICTOR. With all the Pandavas back together, they spend four more years in the forest, making it a total of 10 years in exile. At one point, Bhima gets captured by a snake, but Yudhishthira saves him by asking the snake questions about the nature of consciousness, which the snake answers correctly, freeing itself from a curse and letting Bhima go.
This passage provides an example of an episode where Bhima’s violence fails, and so instead Yudhishthira has to use his reasoning to save the day. This passage also gives yet another example of a morally ambiguous snake, which seems evil at first but is only acting aggressively due to a curse.
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THE MEETING WITH MARKANDEYA. The Pandavas travel through the rainy season, and Yudhishthira meets an ascetic named Markandeya. Yudhishthira asks about what happens after death, and Markandeya explains reincarnation. He tells other parables to Yudhishthira to show the power of asceticism.
While some stories in the poem have indirect religious implications, others, like this one, address the issue more directly. This helps the Mahabharata fulfill its didactic purpose of teaching people how to better reach enlightenment.
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THE FISH. Markandeya then tells Yudhishthira the story of an ascetic named Manu who suddenly hears a little fish talking to him. The fish asks to be put into increasingly large bodies of water. Finally, the fish reveals that it is Brahma, and he gives Manu instructions for how to create all creatures. Having finished this story, Markandeya explains the different ages and the creation and destruction of worlds.
Animals that turn out to be more than they first seem is a common theme in the poem. This suggests that people should treat all animals with respect because they can never know if an animal is something more. Water is necessary for life, and so it makes sense that the creator god Brahma would appear in the form of a fish.
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THE FROG. Markandeya tells Yudhishthira another story, this one about a king who meets and takes home a beautiful young woman. One day, she disappears into a pool of water. The king drains the pool and finds only a frog. He threatens to kill all frogs, but the frog king comes and reveals that the frog in the water is actually his lover. The king takes her back, and she resumes human form, but the frog king warns them that all her children will be hostile to Brahmins.
The woman who gets turned into a frog is a natural follow-up to the previous story about Brahma disguising himself as a fish. Frog princes and princesses are a common theme in folk tales around the world, and this is one of the earliest recorded versions of that type of tale. The king’s threat to kill all frogs shows a violent attitude toward nature and is perhaps why his children are cursed to be hostile toward Brahmins.
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INDRADYUMNA. Markandeya tells of Indradyumna, an old man who falls from heaven after his fame runs out but who is able to go back to heaven after an old turtle on earth recognizes him.
This short tale demonstrates that it isn’t enough to do one good deed—being virtuous involves constantly taking action.
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DHUNDHUMARA. Markandeya tells Yudhishthira the story of Dhundhumara (“killer of Dhundu”), a king who finds a trick to kill a demon named Dhundu that seemed to be invulnerable to even the gods. THE FAITHFUL WIFE. Yudhishthira and Markandeya discuss how women can achieve dharma by being faithful wives.
Makandeya’s story about killing a demon with trickery foreshadows techniques the Pandavas will use in the Kurukshetra War. Meanwhile, the passage about dharma shows how a woman’s devotion to her family becomes a religious issue connected to her dharma.
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THE BRAHMIN’S CONVERSATION WITH THE HUNTER. Markandeya tells the story of Kauśika, a Brahmin who meets a hunter who used to be a Brahmin in his previous life but who accidentally shot an ascetic with an arrow and so was cursed to be reborn as a hunter. The ascetic showed mercy and allowed the hunter to at least be a virtuous hunter.
This passage provides a demonstration of how reincarnation works and how mistakes in one life—even accidents—can lead to penalties in the next. Kauśika’s punishment has a poetic justice to it: because he made a bad shot in one life, he has to spend his next life constantly taking shots in order to improve.
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ANGIRAS. Yudhishthira asks Markandeya to tell him about the origin of fire, which involves the sage Angiras and the fire god Agni. During a time when Agni is absent, Angiras takes on his role, and from then on, all future fires descend from Angiras.
Fire is so important to human civilization that most religions have their own origin story for it. In this version, fire is associated with a great sage, showing how the power of fire must be used with wisdom.
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DRAUPADI’S CONVERSATIONS WITH SATYABHAMA. Draupadi gives advice to Krishna’s chief queen, Satyabhama, saying she should please her husband not with potions or tricks but with faithful attention.
As a wife to five husbands, Draupadi has a lot of experience in marriage and, thus, a lot of advice to give. This passage again points to a gender divide, since deception and tricks can be praiseworthy when men do them on the battlefield, but deceptive women rarely get positive depictions.
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THE TOUR OF THE CATTLE-STATIONS. Duryodhana contemplates what to do while his enemies, the Pandavas, are still away. He decides to throw a party, then goes out to inspect his cattle as an excuse to get away from Dhritarashtra. But while he’s out, he gets attacked by a rival army. The Pandavas, led by Yudhishthira, have to come save him. Duryodhana goes home more determined than ever to kill the Pandavas.
While Duryodhana’s jealousy of the Pandavas stretches back a long time, one of the biggest turning points is when he embarrasses himself in Yudhishthira’s hall by mistaking glass for water. This passage describes yet another instance of Duryodhana looking foolish in front of the Pandavas (at least in his mind), and so of course it increases his motivation to kill them.
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THE DREAM DEER. Yudhishthira has a mysterious dream about a crying deer. THE BUSHEL OF RICE. Vyasa visits the Pandavas and sees them suffering, so he encourages them not to lose hope by telling a story of a man who lived off nothing but scavenged grains of rice.
Not all of the stories in the poem have clear moral lessons. While it might be possible to draw lessons from the dream of the crying deer or the story of the man who scavenged rice, part of the reason for these stories is that they force the audience to contemplate unusual imagery, perhaps leading them to see the world from a different perspective.
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THE ABDUCTION OF DRAUPADI. One day, King Jayadratha passes by the Pandava camp, becomes infatuated with Draupadi, and tries to convince her to join him. Jayadratha tries to abduct her, but the Pandavas chase him down, kill his followers, and shave his head, leaving behind just five tufts of hair. They let Jayadratha go. He prays to Śiva to be able to defeat the Pandavas, but Śiva says this wish is impossible to grant.
As with Duryodhana and Karna, Jayadratha is someone who holds on to grudges for a long time, and he will play a more important role later in the story. His conversation with Śiva is shocking—even the great destroyer god can’t take down the Pandavas, although perhaps the issue isn’t that Śiva lacks power but simply that exercising this power against the Pandavas would go against fate.
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RAMA. Yudhishthira asks Markandeya if anyone else ever suffered such bad luck as him. Markandeya replies that Rama did. Rama is married to Sita. Rama is a brave warrior, but he suffers many setbacks, including the abduction of his wife, Sita, by the demon-king Ravana. After struggling heroically, including a battle where his only allies are monkeys, he finally defeats Ravana and brings Sita back.
The Rama in this passage isn’t Rama Jamadagnya who killed the Kshatriyas 21 times, but he may still be familiar to many reading the Mahabharata because he is the protagonist of the Ramayana, the other major Sanskrit epic poem of Hinduism. By including this brief mention of Rama (whose own epic poem is much longer than this brief summary), the Mahabharata connects to earlier texts and helps provide the foundation for a unified religious tradition.
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SAVITRI. Yudhishthira asks Markandeya if there’s ever been a woman as noble as Draupadi. He replies that yes, there was a goddess named Savitri. A king showed great loyalty to her, so she rewarded him with a boon. He asks for offspring with the highest dharma. She agrees, and when the king gives birth to a daughter, his priests name the daughter Savitri.
Because only men can inherit property, most boons in the story that provide children give people sons who then serve as potential heirs. The fact that Savitri originates from a boon suggests that she must be an exceptional woman indeed.
Themes
Eventually, Savitri (the daughter) is old enough for a husband. The king thinks he finds a suitable match, a prince named Satyavat, but the seer Narada advises him against it—because her potential future husband will die within a year. Savitri remains committed to her choice. The wedding plans go ahead. Savitri marries Satyavat and lives happily with her husband in a hermitage but can’t forget the prophecy of Narada.
Earlier passages state that a woman’s dharma involves being loyal to her husband, and here, Savitri demonstrates the highest level of loyalty by marrying a man even though she knows he’ll soon die. Savitri is such a noble woman in the poem because her dharma requires a difficult sacrifice, and she accepts it gladly.
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The day before Satyavat’s predicted death, Savitri decides to fast until evening and doesn’t leave her husband’s side. She follows him out into the woods while he splits logs, until all of a sudden, the god of death—Yama—comes and ends Satyavat’s life. Savitri tries to follow him, but Yama urges her to stay away and remain among the living.
Just as Savitri makes a sacrifice by marrying a man doomed to die, she increases her sacrifice by fasting and increasing her diligence. The fact that Yama, the god of death, makes a personal appearance emphasizes the fact that Satyavat’s death is fated. Savitri walks a careful line, staying faithful to her husband and advocating for him without disrespecting Yama’s authority.
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Moved by Savitri’s words, Yama offers her several boons, with the stipulation that she can’t ask for the resurrection of Satyavat. She asks for help for her father-in-law and father to expand where they rule and to help them act according to dharma. Yama keeps offering boons, so she asks for a hundred heroic sons. Finally, on his fifth boon, Yama doesn’t add the stipulation about resurrecting Satyavat. Savitri asks for Satyavat to be revived. Yama brings him back and promises he’ll live with Savitri for 400 years.
In this passage, Savitri proves that her most important virtue is her faithfulness, which allows her to remain persistent throughout her conversation with Yama, never asking him for a boon that’s too great until finally Yama relents and offers to revive her husband. Her story shows how, while it’s impossible to stop fate, sometimes prophecies get fulfilled in unusual ways, showing again how the logic of the gods doesn’t always make sense to mortals.
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Satyavat awakens with a headache—Savitri promises to explain everything to him later. It’s getting late, and Satyavat wants to go back to see his parents. He goes back to the hermitage, and all the Brahmins are shocked to see him still alive. When Savitri gets back, she explains to everyone how she revived Satyavat with one of Yama’s boons. Savitri and Satyavat live together happily and eventually have their 100 sons, all because of what Savitri did—and Markandeya says that Draupadi is like Savitri.
This story provides yet another example of the boon of 100 sons. Although Markandeya begins the story of Savitri by saying that she is even more devoted than Draupadi, he concludes it by saying that Draupadi and Savitri are very similar. The courage that Savitri faces during extreme hardships—such as the literal death of her husband—show the depths of her devotion and, by extension, her commitment to living out her dharma.
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THE TAKING OF THE EARRINGS. Janamejaya asks to hear more about Karna, so Vaiśampayana tells more about him. It’s been 13 years of exile for the Pandavas. Indra wants to get Karna’s earrings (which protect him) on behalf of the Pandavas. The Sun, however, disguises himself as a handsome Brahmin and goes to Karna to warn him that Indra is coming for his earrings and that if he gives away the earrings, he’ll die.
The Hindu gods do not always get along with each other, and in this case, the Sun and Indra clash over the fate of Karna. The fact that each of the gods has different goals connects back to the larger issue of dharma and how it varies for each individual.
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Karna tells the Sun that he will hand over his earrings and armor to Indra anyway—because it will bring him fame, and fame is more important to him than life itself. The Sun pleads with Karna, saying he’ll never beat Arjuna in battle without his earrings. Karna remains stubborn, so the Sun says that if he’s going to hand over the earrings, he should at least try to get a celestial weapon: a special Spear that will kill all his enemies.
This passage has an ambiguous outcome for Karna. On the one hand, Karna makes himself vulnerable by giving away his special armor and earrings. While it is possible to view Karna’s decision as arrogant or impulsive, Karna recognizes that fame can last longer than any mortal life, and his willingness to face his own death is a trait he shares with many of the poem’s most noble figures.
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Indra takes the form of a Brahmin and approaches Karna. He asks for Karna’s earrings and armor, but Karna refuses, telling Indra he knows his identity and has heard all about him from the Sun. Indra seems to have expected this, and he says he’ll give Karna a boon in exchange for the earrings. He offers Karna a celestial weapon: a Spear that can kill hundreds of enemies and then return to his hand in a single throw. Karna only wants to kill one hero (Arjuna), but he accepts the Spear.
Karna’s decision to take a spear to kill Arjuna hints at how everyone is preparing for an upcoming war, even though the Pandavas are still away in exile. Karna accepts fate—that Duryodhana’s insults have caused a permanent rift with the Pandavas—making him one of the most righteous of the Kauravas, but his jealousy toward the Pandavas continues to cloud his judgment.
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Indra warns Karna that he must only use his Spear in times of need, or else it will attack Karna himself. Karna cuts off his armor and earrings, and this is where he earns his title of “Karna the Cutter.” News of Karna’s loss of his earring brings joy to the Pandavas but sadness to the Kauravas.
Indra repeats a common theme in the poem: that the mortals chosen to wield powerful celestial weapons must use them responsibly or else suffer the consequences. The other Kauravas are sad because they don’t have the same sense of perspective as Karna.
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THE FIRESTICKS. A Brahmin whose firesticks have been stolen by a deer, tangled in its antlers, comes up to Yudhishthira. All the Pandavas try to find the deer with no luck. Yudhishthira then sends Nakula out to look for water. Nakula finds a pool, but a voice warns him to answer some questions before drinking. Nakula just drinks right away, and he falls down dead. One by one, the other Pandavas do the same, until only Yudhishthira is left alive.
Many of the stories in the Mahabharata deal with the theme of temptation and how it’s important to resist it, and yet even the strongest and bravest people sometimes succumb to it. This strange scene where the brothers—except Yudhishthira—drop one by one has strong parallels to a similar scene in the second-to-last book of the poem.
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When Yudhishthira gets to the pond, he agrees to listen to the voice and answer questions. The speaker ends up being a Yaksha (type of nature spirit). The Yaksha revives the other four Pandavas and then reveals that it is Dharma, Yudhishthira’s biological father. Dharma gives Yudhishthira three boons: he gets the firesticks back for the Brahmin, the Pandavas will remain unrecognizable in their 13th year of exile, and finally Yudhishthira wishes for a more virtuous character for himself.
The fate of the Pandavas—who come back to life shortly after dying—recalls the story about Savitri and her husband who was fated to die but got revived. By surviving this temporary death, the Yudhishthira’s gain boons that allow them to keep moving forward, and this theme of improving through suffering is a microcosm for the events of the Pandavas’ exile as a whole.
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