39. Dhritarashtra and Bhisma

Bhisma understood Dhritarashtra's desire for expansion of his kingdom. But he well knew this was no easy matter, but could happen if only the King was judicious especially with regard to making the choice of his successor. He thus put forth his views:

 

‘But there’s a necessary condition to make this happen. You have to make a statesman’s choice when selecting the crown prince – the one who will succeed you. He can make or mar things.’

At this rejoinder, the blind king again sank into whirlpool of thoughts. He loved his sons dearly and more so Duryodhan. He always longed to see him as his successor. At the same time, he knew Yudhisthir was more competent to shoulder the responsibility. Bhisma, Dronacharya, Kripacharya and other elders and the citizens of Hastinapur were in praise of the eldest son of Kunti and not Duryodhan. As he thought more and more his discomfort only aggravated. So he decided to wind up the session and retire to the palace to share his anxiety with Gandhari.

6. No bullying of my brothers, Bhim warns Duryodhan

The next day however brought in cloud and storm. As the five brothers were about to move out, Kunti asked Yudhisthir to take particular care of Sahadev. Yudhisthir, being sensible and mature, understood the mother’s concern well. In fact he was carefully monitoring relations between the cousins. But that day, despite his vigil and best efforts, a quarrel broke out between Bhim and many of the Kaurava brothers. It started with the teasing of Sahadev by his numerous Kaurava cousins prompting Bhim to come to his youngest brother’s rescue.  Soon he was surrounded by scores of Kaurava brothers. An enraged Bhim launched a fierce assault. His cousins did not expect such aggression, quickly fled and reported the tiff to Duryodhan who was some distance away. Duryodhan was greatly angered to hear the matter and arrived at the scene of the quarrel and shouted at Bhim:

‘How dare you lay hands on my brothers? You must remember you would be loitering in the forest but for us – we have given you shelter. You should behave that way, or else…’

The words were not finished when Bhim’s heavy hands fell on his shoulder pushing him hard. A scuffle ensued which almost turned bloody. Some of the scared princes went running to Bhisma and brought him to the scene.

The grandfather scolded both for the unbecoming conducts and said he would not like to see a repeat of it.

The matter was settled for the time being but the fire of revenge was lit in Duryodhan.

As days passed the quarrels became more frequent. Often these led to physical fights in which Bhim always won over the Kaurava brothers. Sometimes, he would catch two of his rival cousins by hair and hit one head against the other. While swimming in a lake, he would drown few of them forcibly and not allow them to resurface till they were fully exhausted. On a number of occasions the cousins were badly thrashed. Duryodhan would intervene at times but even he was beaten up.  These were not breaking out in open for fear of Bhisma but news regularly reached Gandhari, Dhritarashtra and Kunti. Dhritarashtra had earlier feared that the arrival of his nephews might have adverse impact on the bringing up of his sons. Now these reports were confirming his fears. At the same time, he could hardly do anything - these were children issues and the elders could not take sides. But anger kept building in his heart – particularly against Bhim. Both Gandhari and Kunti were more considerate and felt these would disappear on their own as the children grew up.

2 Co-existence begins

So astounding and shocking was the conduct of Duryodhan that none could speak for a while. Then a profound voice broke the silence. It was of Bhisma, the grand father. An admonishment, affectionate but firm, was distinctly heard:

‘Son, isn’t what you said unbecoming of a prince? Is that what your parents and us tried to teach you all these years? Try to be worthy of the glorious Kuru lineage and I’m sure you would know how to welcome your brothers.’
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These words seemed to have some sobering effects. In the brief interlude that followed Bhisma’s utterances, Gandhari extended both her arms to reach for Duryodhan and Yudhisthir. Two cousins came closer and Duryodhan seemed to be preparing for co-existence in days ahead.

Dhritarashtra did not allow the moments of temporary truce go waste. He said:

‘Gandhari, Kunti and children must be very tired. Wouldn’t you take them to their mansion? It’s time they take food and relax for some time.’

Gandhari rose – a couple of palace maids came running. Taking leave of Bhisma and Dhritarashtra, Kunti followed her sister in law along with the children. They were ushered in to a mansion annexed to the main palace. The rooms were big, neat and clean – the beds were nicely done. After the family was settled, Gandhari left for the royal kitchen. Soon the food arrived. The children enjoyed the food and then jumped to their beds. They were exhausted and slept like dead. But their mother was not that fortunate. Even before they left Kurujangal for Hastinapur, she was a worried person. The initial encounter between the cousins made her more worried. She repeatedly prayed to the almighty for the welfare of both families. After some time, the tire and fatigue overtook and she too fell asleep.

On the following day, half a dozen sentries came to take the five princes to the study room. The road to it went through huge courtyards. After a mile or so, there were imperial flower gardens on both sides. At the end of the road stood a big building about six feet above the ground. There were two flights of stairs on the north and western sides converging on the marble floor of the portico. On reaching the stairs, the Pandava brothers could hear humming of children voices. On reaching the portico, the adjacent room came within their sight. As they stood at the main door waiting for permission to enter, they found it was a huge room, with lots of books stacked in shelves. One hundred and one Kaurava princes sat there facing a teacher. A highly learned scholar was giving them lessons on Vedic scriptures. As Yudhisthir and his brothers were ushered in, they saw grandfather Bhisma seated in another corner. They saluted both the teacher and the grandfather and received their blessings Then Bhisma introduced the cousins to each other and left the place telling that he would meet them again at the ‘arms lesson’ class.

As the teacher asked his pupils to recite from the scriptures one by one, the princes complied with varying degrees of proficiencies. As the Pandava brothers were new entrants, they were given the option to begin their presentations from the next day. But Yudhisthir sought the teacher’s permission to recite from the day’s lesson. Pleasantly surprised, he acquiesced. What followed pleased him immensely. The rendition – words, accent, pronunciation- was an embodiment of perfection. As soon as the class ended, there were curiosity and many of the Kaurava princes gathered around Yudhisthir with mixed feelings of appreciation and jealousy.

Before assembling for the arms class, the students had free time and they talked. Yudhisthir was the centre of attraction. Duryodhan however was not happy to notice the bonhomie. Dushashan too was not happy and gave his elder brother company. Both had some strange and hostile feelings towards their cousins and considered them as unwelcome addition to the palace.

The grandfather himself was present in the arms class. Kripacharya, the famous Guru of the land, was in the overall charge of the class. The princes were taught archery, handling of various other arms like narach, kshrupra, mace, spear, etc and also riding on horses and elephants. Bhisma keenly observed the orientations of the Pandava brothers in handling of arms. He was happy that despite not having any formal training till then, each of them showed promises. In particular, he was greatly impressed by Arjun and Bhim and decided to hold discussions with Kripacharya about prince-specific training schedules.