Ulūka
Ulūka was the son of Śakuni, the king of Gāndhāra. He was therefore the nephew of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and the cousin of Duryodhana. The Mahābhārata shows him in one clear role. Duryodhana sent him as a messenger to the Pāṇḍava camp on the eve of the Kurukṣetra war, to deliver insulting words.
His father Śakuni had planned the dice game that ruined the Pāṇḍavas. Ulūka now carried the same enmity into the last days before the war.
The mission
Messengers were protected by the customs of war that follow dharma. Duryodhana used this protection. A messenger could say to each Pāṇḍava hero words that Duryodhana could not say himself without drawing an instant reply.
Ulūka came to the Pāṇḍava camp and gave Duryodhana’s messages to each of the main leaders. The taunts were aimed at each person.
- To Yudhiṣṭhira: a reminder that he had given in to the shame of the dice game and the exile. It challenged his sense of authority in dharma.
- To Bhīma: a dare aimed at the warrior’s pride and at his well-known boasts about his strength.
- To Arjuna: a challenge about whether his bow Gāṇḍīva and his divine weapons would match his fame in real battle.
- To Kṛṣṇa: a small insult. It said that Kṛṣṇa had come to the war as an unarmed charioteer, as if he had stepped back from the front.
- To Virāṭa, Drupada, Dhṛṣṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍī: personal taunts about the role and the pride of each man.
Each hero answered calmly. Each one said again that dharma was his guide and that he was ready for the war. None of them stooped to Duryodhana’s kind of insult. Together their answers made one statement. They had been wronged, they had tried every peaceful way, and now they would fight with full conviction.
After the mission
The parva that carries his name is the Ulūka-Dūtāgamana Parva, “the parva of Ulūka’s coming as a messenger”. It is named for the task he did.
Ulūka does not appear to have had a large part in the battle itself. He is not counted among the great warriors listed in the Rathātiratha-Saṃkhyāna, the count of the warriors of the army by rank.
Sahadeva killed Śakuni on the eighteenth day of the war. Sahadeva also killed Ulūka on the same day. The son followed his father in death at the hands of the same man.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva, Chapters 160–163 (Ulūka-Dūtāgamana Parva)
- Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapter 18
- Rathātiratha-Saṃkhyāna (named in the account; no chapter number given)