Dyūta Parva: The First Dice Game

The Dyūta Parva is the first dice game of the Sabhā Parva, told in Chapters 47-73 of the Mahābhārata. Dyūta means “dice game”. In it Śakuni, a master of loaded dice, plays for Duryodhana against Yudhishṭhira. He takes the Pāṇḍavas’ whole kingdom, their armies, their brothers, Yudhishṭhira himself and finally Draupadī. All the senior elders of the Kuru house are present: Bhīshma, Droṇa, Kṛpa and Vidura. None of them stops it.

The Parva ends with Kṛshṇa’s protection of Draupadī, Dhṛtarāshṭra’s intervention under frightening omens, and a short return of freedom to the Pāṇḍavas. They are then called back for the second dice game of the Anudyūta Parva.

Duryodhana’s grief and the seed of the dice game

The Parva opens with Duryodhana’s return from Indraprastha. He had seen the end of Yudhishṭhira’s Rājasūya (royal consecration yajña) and the great splendour of the Māyā Sabhā (the hall of illusions). The hall had shamed him. He had taken water for solid ground and fallen. He had taken a crystal floor for a pool. Draupadī had laughed at him. He reached Hastināpura so full of grief that it made him ill. His colour faded, his eyes burned with envy, and he could neither eat nor sleep.

Duryodhana confided in his uncle Śakuni. He listed the Pāṇḍavas’ riches: their Māyā Sabhā, their tribute-paying kings, and the great wealth gathered at the Rājasūya. He said that living under such a shadow was not worth enduring. Śakuni is described as the aṃśa (portion) of the Dvāpara age itself. He saw his chance. He proposed a dice game in which he would play for Duryodhana. No one in the three worlds could equal him in akshavidyā (the science of dice), so the result was certain.

Dhṛtarāshṭra wavered when Duryodhana came to him. His love for his son overcame his judgement. Vidura’s warning came at once and was clear: “This will destroy the Kuru dynasty.” Dhṛtarāshṭra overruled him. He ordered a new and splendid sabhā (assembly hall) to be built for the occasion. He commanded Vidura to go to Indraprastha and give Yudhishṭhira a formal invitation to come and play dice.

Vidura’s warning and Yudhishṭhira’s acceptance

Vidura obeyed the king’s order with a heavy heart. He went to Indraprastha and gave the invitation. He also made his own view plain: the game was a trap, it would lead to ruin, and Yudhishṭhira should refuse.

Yudhishṭhira understood the danger well. He answered clearly. He knew Śakuni’s dice were loaded. He knew the game was meant to destroy him. He knew that playing against a skilled and deceitful player was against dharma. Yet he could not refuse. The kshatriya rule was firm: when challenged, a kshatriya does not turn away. “All beings are under the power of fate,” he said. “When called, I cannot refuse.”

He set out from Indraprastha in a great procession with his brothers, Draupadī and the whole royal household.

The assembly and the start of the game

At Hastināpura an assembly of great standing gathered. Bhīshma, Droṇa, Kṛpa, Vidura, Sañjaya, Somadatta, Bhūriśravas, Bāhlīka, Aśvatthāmā, Yuyutsu and Vikarṇa were there, all the senior figures of the Kuru house. The text records that they entered avāṃśyan, unwillingly and without desire, as if driven by fate and not by their own will.

Yudhishṭhira made one last attempt at the start. He reminded Śakuni that gambling with a skilled and deceitful player broke dharma and did not suit a hero. Śakuni answered that a difference in skill is not deceit. Yudhishṭhira said he would not be the one to refuse, and the game began.

The course of the game

The stakes rose step by step. Yudhishṭhira staked and lost, in order:

His treasury, gold and silver beyond measure
His royal chariot with its splendid horses
His thousand dāsī attendants (women servants)
His 100,000 personal servants
His elephants and cavalry
His 60,000 foot soldiers
His brother Nakula
His brother Sahadeva
His brother Arjuna
His brother Bhīmasena
Himself

At each stage Śakuni called out “I have won” (jitam), and the dice (pāśikā) fell in his favour. Yudhishṭhira was held by the duty of the challenge and by the growing force of the game. He kept staking even though he knew the result. The text says that Śakuni knew the whole science of dice, with its 64 fine points and the skill of steering the fall of the dice, and that no ordinary player could win against him.

The elders of the assembly wept inside. Bhīshma, Droṇa, Kṛpa and Vidura sat in anguish. Vidura covered his face. Droṇa and Kṛpa sweated. None of them could rise to stop the game. They were bound by their tie to the throne and by the example of the royal command.

Vidura’s Hitavākya

During the game Vidura gave Dhṛtarāshṭra three chapters of counsel, the Vidura Hitavākya (words for the king’s good). Each time he tried to make the king see the disaster before him.

He gave one parable after another to drive home the same truth. A man at the edge of a cliff, looking for honey, does not see the serpent below him. Duryodhana is a jackal that has entered a house of peacocks, and his cries will soon show what he is. The bamboo that flowers once dies in that very flowering. Each parable held up a mirror to the moment.

Duryodhana answered by insulting Vidura as a dāsīputra (a son of a slave woman), unfit to advise kings. Vidura replied with calm dignity. He had done his duty of dharma by speaking the truth to the king. If the king chose not to listen, that lay between Dhṛtarāshṭra and his fate. Vidura would not be silenced, but he would not repeat counsel that had been refused.

Draupadī staked and lost

After Yudhishṭhira had lost himself, Śakuni proposed one last stake: Draupadī. Yudhishṭhira accepted. He described her beauty at length, her lotus eyes, her scent of blue lotuses, her unmatched virtue, as if speaking of something holy. Then he lost her too.

The assembly broke into uproar. The elders cried out. Bhīshma, Droṇa and Vidura sweated. Karṇa and Duḥśāsana laughed. Kṛtavarman and Bhūriśravas looked down in shame.

Duryodhana ordered his charioteer Prātikāmī to go to the inner rooms and call Draupadī. Vidura warned of the result. Prātikāmī went.

Draupadī’s question

Draupadī would not come at once. Through Prātikāmī she sent back her famous question about dharma, one that no one in the assembly could answer for certain:

Did my husband stake me before or after he had lost himself? If he had already lost his lordship over himself, what right did he have to stake me?

The question was carried back to the assembly. Yudhishṭhira sat silent. Bhīshma, when asked directly, said only that dharma is subtle and he could not answer. The assembly stood helpless.

Duryodhana would not face the question of dharma. He ordered Duḥśāsana to bring her by force. Duḥśāsana dragged Draupadī into the assembly. Kṛshṇa protected her there, and his help is the clearest sign that Bhagavān Kṛshṇa does not abandon those who call on him in their hour of need.

Vikarṇa’s lone defence

In the uproar after Draupadī was dragged into the assembly, one voice rose in her defence. It was Vikarṇa, one of Duryodhana’s own younger brothers. He spoke with clarity and courage. First, Yudhishṭhira had already lost his lordship over himself before he staked Draupadī, so she was not his to stake. Second, Draupadī was the common wife of all five Pāṇḍavas, and Yudhishṭhira alone had no right to stake her. So the stake was not valid, and Draupadī had not been lost.

Karṇa answered at once. A woman with several husbands, he said, is for that reason a person of no special dignity, and the rules that protect other wives do not cover her. He also argued that since the Pāṇḍavas had themselves been stripped and were now dāsas (servants), all their possessions, Draupadī included, belonged to the Kauravas.

The assembly stayed divided and helpless. No one could settle the question.

Dhṛtarāshṭra’s intervention and Draupadī’s varas

In the middle of the crisis, terrible omens appeared. Jackals howled inside Duryodhana’s fire-chamber. Donkeys brayed in answer from every side. Birds cried out. These sounds struck sudden fear into Dhṛtarāshṭra. He stepped in and offered Draupadī varas (boons).

Draupadī asked for three things.

That Yudhishṭhira be freed from dāsatva (servitude). Dhṛtarāshṭra granted it, together with his weapons and his chariot.
That her other four husbands, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, be freed from servitude together with their bows. Dhṛtarāshṭra granted this too.
When offered a third vara, Draupadī refused it. She said it would not be dharma for a kshatriya woman to ask for a third. She knew that a vaiśya woman may ask one vara and a kshatriya woman two, and no more.

Dhṛtarāshṭra then freed all the Pāṇḍavas, gave back their kingdom, and told them to return to Indraprastha. Yudhishṭhira bowed to Bhīshma, Droṇa and the elders, and the Pāṇḍavas left.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parva, Dyūta Parva, Chapters 47-73