Gāṇḍīva Tyāga

The Gāṇḍīva Tyāga is an episode of the Karṇa Parva of the Mahābhārata. On the seventeenth day of the Kurukshetra war, Yudhishṭhira, wounded and resting in camp, spoke to Arjuna in rage and told him to give his bow Gāṇḍīva to someone worthier. Arjuna had a secret vow to kill anyone who insulted the Gāṇḍīva, and he drew his sword against his own elder brother. Kṛshṇa stopped him and showed him a way to keep his vow without killing Yudhishṭhira.

The seventeenth day

On the seventeenth day Karṇa’s arrows had badly wounded Yudhishṭhira. He could not go on fighting and went back to camp in great pain. Arjuna and Kṛshṇa heard that he had left the battle and came to the camp. They found the dharmarāja (king of dharma) lying wounded on a golden cot.

At first Yudhishṭhira was warm. He rose, embraced them and was glad. He asked about Karṇa: “Is Karṇa dead? Tell me! That was my one torment.”

Arjuna answered that Karṇa was alive and still fighting. Yudhishṭhira’s mood broke. He had been in pain all day. He was wounded, he carried the weight of the whole war, and he could not fight at full strength. This news ended his restraint.

Yudhishṭhira’s krodha-vākya

Yudhishṭhira then spoke a krodha-vākya (a speech of anger). He accused Arjuna of cowardice, of failing in his work, and of not doing the duties he had sworn to do. He listed all that the Pāṇḍavas had suffered: the gambling, the exile, the insults and the great losses of the war. He blamed Arjuna’s claim to greatness for promising more than it had given. His last words were the sharpest:

“Give your Gāṇḍīva bow to someone who can actually use it. Give it to someone worthier.”

The Gāṇḍīva was more than a weapon. It was a gift of the devas, given by Agni through Varuṇa, and it marked Arjuna as a divine warrior. For Arjuna the Gāṇḍīva was part of his very self as a fighter. And Arjuna held a secret vow: he would kill any person who insulted the Gāṇḍīva. The vow was absolute and sacred.

Arjuna draws his sword

When Arjuna heard Yudhishṭhira say “give your Gāṇḍīva away”, he felt the vow wake within him. He later described it as if a force moved through his hand: he drew his sword. He was about to keep the vow.

Bhīmasena watched in horror and caught Arjuna’s arm. “What are you doing? This is our eldest brother!”

Arjuna explained the vow. Anyone who told him to give up the Gāṇḍīva had to be killed by him. He said he had no choice, because the vow was already made and binding. If he did not kill Yudhishṭhira now, the vow itself would be broken, and he could not stand before the world as a man who made a vow and did not keep it.

At this moment Kṛshṇa stepped in with full force.

Kṛshṇa’s teaching

Kṛshṇa first spoke to the heart of the matter. He taught that dharma is not a set of fixed rules to be followed whatever the result. The vow to kill anyone who insulted the Gāṇḍīva existed to protect honour. To kill his own elder brother, the dharmarāja and eldest of the Pāṇḍava line, only to keep the vow to the letter, would destroy honour and not protect it. It would be the very mistake of the brāhmaṇa Kauśika, who kept to the letter of truth-telling and led innocent people to their deaths.

Kṛshṇa then told two accounts.

• The Balāka-ākhyāna. A hunter killed a being that threatened innocent people and went to svarga (heaven). His killing was dharma even though it looked like harm.
• The Kauśika-ākhyāna. A brāhmaṇa told robbers where innocent people were hiding, because he was bound to truth, and went to naraka (hell). His truth-telling was adharma even though it looked like dharma.

The teaching is that the worth of an act lies not in its outward form but in its purpose and its results. To kill Yudhishṭhira to keep a vow of honour would be adharma in its substance.

The way out

Kṛshṇa then gave Arjuna a way to keep the vow without killing his brother. He said that in the dharmaśāstras a severe public dishonouring is equal to killing, in the harm it does to a person’s dignity and standing. Speaking to someone with the informal, disrespectful word “tvam” instead of the respectful “bhavatā” is such a dishonouring. Yudhishṭhira was a dharmarāja of the highest dignity. To be called “tvam” by his younger brother before all the witnesses would be a deep dishonour. It would meet the purpose of the vow without destroying him in body.

Arjuna’s harsh speech, Chapter 70

Following Kṛshṇa, Arjuna spoke to Yudhishṭhira throughout with the disrespectful “tvam”. This was a great break from the usual way brothers speak, especially to an elder. He spoke harshly. He blamed Yudhishṭhira for gambling away the kingdom, for sending the brothers into exile, for staying in camp instead of fighting, and for claiming to be a king while others bled.

The speech was meant to dishonour, to keep the spirit of Arjuna’s vow without killing his brother.

But when he finished, Arjuna at once felt deep regret. He had spoken so harshly to his elder brother that he felt he had done a great wrong. He drew his sword again, this time to kill himself and not Yudhishṭhira.

Kṛshṇa stopped him again. “No. Now praise yourself. In the śāstras, praising oneself before elders breaks proper conduct. It counts as a kind of self-killing in prestige and standing in dharma. Do this, and the account is settled.”

Arjuna then praised himself and listed his deeds as a warrior. In that moment this also told Yudhishṭhira how much Arjuna had been doing for him.

The brothers make peace, Chapter 71

After this the brothers made peace. Yudhishṭhira’s anger had passed. He saw in Arjuna’s harsh words a mirror of his own unfair charges, and he embraced his brother. Both brothers wept. Yudhishṭhira admitted that his speech had been unjust, born of pain and fear and not of clear judgement.

Arjuna then took an oath before all who were there. He would kill Karṇa before the sun set, or die trying. If neither happened, he would kill himself.

In this chapter Dāruka, Kṛshṇa’s charioteer, is named in the text for the first time. With Kṛshṇa’s encouragement the Pāṇḍavas decided to go back to the battle.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Karṇa Parva, Chapters 65–71