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जतुगृहपर्वन् (jatugRhaparvan)

 
Monier Williams Cologne
English
जतु—गृह—पर्वन्
n.
N.
 of
MBh.
 i, ch. 141-151.
Mahabharata
English
[Jatugṛhaparvan]
(“the section relating to the lac-house, ” the 8th of the minor parvans of Mhbhr.). (Cf. Jatuveśmākhya[ṃ parva].) § 213: Vaiśampāyana briefly related the plan of Saubala, Duryodhana, Duḥśāsana, Karṇa, and Dhṛtarāshṭra to burn the Pāṇḍavas and Kuntī in a lac-house, and their escape. Asked by Janamejaya, he then began to relate it more fully. The Pāṇḍavas frustrated all the plans of murdering them laid by Duryodhana, etc., without speaking of them, in obedience to the counsels of Vidura. People began to speak in all public places of installing Yudhishṭhira on the throne instead of Dhṛtarāshṭra. Duryodhana represented to Dhṛtarāshṭra that this would for ever exclude himself and his brothers from the throne (I, 141). Duryodhana, Karṇa, Śakuni, and Duḥśāsana held a consultation together, and Duryodhana prevailed upon Dhṛtarāshṭra to exile the Pāṇḍavas to Vāraṇāvata (“Aśvatthāman is on my side
with him follow Droṇa and Kṛpa
Vidura is dependent on us for his means of life, though he is covertly with the foe”) (I, 142). Duryodhana and his brothers began gradually to win over the people to their side by grants of wealth and honours, while Dhṛtarāshṭra suggested to the Pāṇḍavas to visit the festival of Paśupati at Vāraṇāvata. Fully understanding the motives of Dhṛtarāshtra, Yudhishṭhira let Bhīshma, Vidura, Droṇa, Bāhlīka, Somadatta, Kṛpa, Aśvatthāman, Bhūriśravas, Gāndhārī, etc., give them their benedictions, and the Pāṇḍavas having performed propitiatory rites in order to obtain the kingdom, set out for Vāraṇāvata (I, 143). Duryodhana prevailed upon Purocana to reach Vāraṇāvata that very day upon a swift chariot, and to construct a house of inflammable materials and burn the Pāṇḍavas and Kuntī (I, 144). The people, who were distressed by the departure of the Pāṇḍavas, and angry with Dhṛtarāshṭra, were calmed by Yudhishṭhira. Vidura, in obscure words (cf. Mlecchavācā, v. 5803), warned Yudhishṭhira, who explained the meaning to Kuntī. They set out on the 8th day of the month of Phālguna when Rohiṇī was ascendant (I, 145). They were received with great honours by the citizens of Vāraṇāvata and installed by Purocana first in a palace that had been built for them, and after ten days in the lac-house called Śiva (Śivākhyaṃ). Yudhishṭhira scented the smell of fat, etc., and told it to Bhīma, but resolved to seem unsuspicious (I, 146). A miner, sent by Vidura, told Yudhishṭhira that Purocana would put fire to the house on the fourteenth night of the dark lunation, and made a large subterranean passage (I, 147). They lived there for a year. Then on a certain night Kuntī fed a large number of brahmans
and there came also a Nishāda woman with her five sons, who became intoxicated and lay down in the house to sleep. The Pāṇḍavas then set fire to the house and burnt Purocana and the Nishādas, while they themselves escaped through the subterranean passage and fled in haste, Bhīma carrying his mother and brothers (cf. III, v. 546 foll.). The citizens thought they had been burnt to death (I, 148). A person sent by Vidura took the Pāṇḍavas and Kuntī to the other side of the Gaṅgā in a boat (I, 149). The miner had covered the hole he had dug with ashes, and the townspeople thought that the Nishāda woman with her five sons were Kuntī and the Pāṇḍavas, and sent to Dhṛtarāshṭra to inform him that they had been burnt to death together with Purocana. Dhṛtarāshṭra wept in deep sorrow, and caused the funeral rites to be performed. Meanwhile the Pāṇḍavas having crossed the Gaṅgā proceeded in the darkness to the south and reached a dense forest. Yudhishṭhira then prevailed upon Bhīma to carry Kuntī and his brothers (I, 150). The motion of Bhīma's legs raised a wind like that of the months of Śuci and Śukra, while he trod down the trees and swam across streams. Towards evening they sat down in a terrible forest under a banyan-tree. Kuntī was thirsty, and Bhīma proceeded to a pool at a distance of a gavyūti, and brought water by soaking his upper garments. When he found them sleeping from fatigue, he lamented that Yudhishṭhira would not yet allow him to slay Duryodhana, etc., and sat there awake keeping watch over them (I, 151).