Śakuni

Śakuni was the prince of Gāndhāra, the son of Subala and the brother of Gāndhārī. He came to Hastināpura when Gāndhārī was given in marriage to Dhṛtarāshṭra. He stayed at the Kuru court and became the closest adviser of Duryodhana. The Mahābhārata names him as the master of the dice, skilled in aksha-vidyā (the full science of the dice), and as the planner and player of the dice game. That game took the kingdom from the Pāṇḍavas and sent them into thirteen years of exile. Sahadeva swore in the assembly, at the moment of the exile, that he would kill Śakuni.

Origin and arrival at Hastināpura

Śakuni was the son of Subala, king of Gāndhāra. When his sister Gāndhārī was given in marriage to the blind Dhṛtarāshṭra, Śakuni came to Hastināpura with the wedding party. He stayed there and became a lasting presence at the Kuru court. His stay spoke for the interests of the Gāndhāra family through Gāndhārī. In time he became most important as the strategist and adviser of Duryodhana.

His part in the Kaurava plans

Śakuni liked the indirect way. He preferred to win by deceit and by using the weak points of an opponent, rather than by open fighting. The dice game was his greatest work. It destroyed the Pāṇḍavas without one arrow being shot.

Aksha-vidyā, the science of dice

The Dyūta Parva describes Śakuni’s skill with dice as a full science and not only a natural gift. This aksha-vidyā has sixty-four fine points about the dice and the method of guiding how they fall. The commentary of Nīlakaṇṭha speaks of kapaṭa-aksha, dice so prepared that the one who knew the method could control their fall. Śakuni had full command of this knowledge.

No ordinary player, however skilled, could win against one who knew how to steer the dice. The text makes it clear that Yudhishṭhira was not weak at dice. But Śakuni’s mastery meant that the result of every throw was already fixed.

The dice game: how it was played

Duryodhana had seen the Rājasūya at Indraprastha and was overcome by envy. He agreed with Śakuni that the dice game was the only way to ruin the Pāṇḍavas without a battle. Śakuni proposed the plan. He would play for Duryodhana, the stake would be everything the Pāṇḍavas owned, and he would use his aksha-vidyā to fix the result. The invitation was sent through Dhṛtarāshṭra. Yudhishṭhira was bound by kshatriya dharma (the duty of a warrior) to accept any challenge. He came, though he knew that Śakuni’s skill was deceitful.

Śakuni played every throw himself, for Duryodhana. The stakes rose: chariots, horses, the treasury, the kingdom and the brothers themselves. Each time Śakuni won, he said his usual word, “jitam” (I have won), and drew Yudhishṭhira further into staking again and again.

At last Yudhishṭhira staked Draupadī and lost. Vikarṇa protested. Śakuni answered with a dharmic argument: differences in skill between players are part of every contest and are not deceit.

The Anudyūta: the second game and its terms

Dhṛtarāshṭra stepped in and gave back the freedom and possessions of the Pāṇḍavas. Duryodhana then persuaded his father to allow a second dice game. Śakuni set the terms of the Anudyūta. There would be a single stake. The loser would live twelve years in the forest, dressed in deerskin, and one more year in hiding among people in a settlement. If he was found in the thirteenth year, the whole round would start again. The Pāṇḍavas accepted. Śakuni threw and won. By that one throw, thirteen years of exile were fixed on the Pāṇḍavas.

Sahadeva’s oath

When the Pāṇḍavas left Hastināpura, Sahadeva was seen covering his face in anger and dust. In the Anudyūta Parva he swore openly that he would kill Śakuni in battle. This was a direct and personal oath against the man most responsible for the ruin of the Pāṇḍava house by fraud. The oath was fulfilled on the eighteenth day of the war at Kurukshetra.

Death in the Śalya Parva

Sahadeva killed Śakuni, just as he had sworn in the Anudyūta Parva. On the eighteenth day of the war at Kurukshetra, the Kaurava army had been cut to pieces, but Śakuni fought on. Sahadeva killed him and so kept the oath he had taken thirteen years before.

The Strī Parva: Gāndhārī’s lament

In the Strī Vilāpa Parva, Gāndhārī mourned Śakuni among the fallen warriors she saw on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. He was her brother. He was also the maker of the dice game that began the chain of events ending in the fall of the Kuru line, and all her own sons died in it. He lay on the field at Kurukshetra, killed by Sahadeva as Sahadeva had sworn.

The Aśvamedhika Parva: his son’s fight with Arjuna

The old enmity lived on after Śakuni’s death. The Pāṇḍava Aśvamedha horse, guarded by Arjuna, came into Gāndhāra. Śakuni’s son could not forgive his father’s death at the hands of Sahadeva. He met Arjuna with a large army and seized the horse, and he refused every offer of peace.

Arjuna cut down many of the attacking warriors. But Yudhishṭhira had ordered him not to kill kings, so he spared Śakuni’s son. When the prince pressed the attack in anger, Arjuna cut away only his helmet, with an ardhacandra-bāṇa (a crescent-headed arrow). The queen mother of Gāndhāra came onto the field and calmed her son. Arjuna told the prince plainly that he lived only because Gāndhārī was dear to Arjuna’s own mother. He then invited him, as he had invited every other beaten king along the horse’s path, to come to Yudhishṭhira’s Aśvamedha at Hastināpura. (Chapter 84)

The Āśramavāsika Parva: freed of blame as daiva (Chapter 10)

Dhṛtarāshṭra took leave of the people of Kurujāṅgala before he went to the forest. Sāmba, a bahvṛca brāhmaṇa (a brāhmaṇa learned in the Ṛgveda), spoke for the assembly. He told them that the eighteen-day destruction of the Kuru host at Kurukshetra was daiva (fate) working through kshatriyas who were bound to die in battle. He said that neither Śakuni nor Karṇa, even together, had caused it.

The Āśramavāsika Parva: shown to be Dvāpara (Chapters 31–32)

At the Gaṅgā, Vyāsa showed that Śakuni had been Dvāpara himself. Śakuni rose from the holy waters among the host of the fallen. He was young again and free of enmity. He stayed for the one night of reunion and then went back to his loka (world).

The Svargārohaṇa Parva: the end in Dvāpara (Chapter 5)

In the final account of the heroes’ destinies told by Sauti, Śakuni, the son of Subala, had finished his appointed enjoyment and merged into Dvāpara. Dvāpara is the person of the age of the dice, of which Śakuni had been a part. So the master of aksha-vidyā returned at the last to the power of the yuga (age) whose spirit he had carried in the world of mortals.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva
• Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parva, Dyūta Parva and Anudyūta Parva, Chapters 47–81
• Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapters 17–18
• Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapters 16–25
• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 84
• Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 10
• Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 31–32
• Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 5