A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

THE MAHABHARATA. 511marry one .wife in common. It still exists in some parts ofa district in southern India. Now that was evidently aglimpse of the polyandroue stage, behind. ^So they Were married ;and the king, Draupada, hadto reconcile himself to this polyandrous marriage. Theydeclared that such a thingis custouXamong princes andthes% princes having been brought up there, it was allowablefor them. Anyway,it was there.J&& then, when the other party found that thesehad returned strong and heroic, they made peace with<iem,and gave them half of the kingdom at first ;andthen, the five brothers, tney conquered the whole of Indiaand the eldest, Yudhistthira, was declared Emperor of allAnd then they held a rajasuya sacrifice, whenc allkings came and declared one king as their Emperor.In that sacrifice kings had to do manual service. If hedid not, he had to fight.So all these kings came and rendered homage to the eldest brother. And the cousins, whohad been their torment, and their children, theyto come and do the same service.also hadBut there was the sowing of the future feud. Theycould not bear that, and they worked out a plan. Thisking, Yudhisthira, was challenged to play at dice. In ancientIndia, if a man of the military caste was challenged to fight,he must turn back and fight, even if his own father challenged him he must fight and if he was :challenged to playat dice, it was equally honorable to play and dishonorablenot to accept the challenge. And this King, the epic says,Yudhisthira, who was an incarnation of all virtues, even hethe great sage king had to accept the challenge. And theother party, they had made false dices. One after the other,everything went away, till he got from him his kingdom