Mausala Parva

The Mausala Parva is the sixteenth of the eighteen books (parvas) of the Mahābhārata, with eight chapters. It tells of the destruction of the Yādava clans, the Vṛshṇis, Andhakas and Bhojas, through a śāpa (curse) of brāhmaṇas that gave rise to a fierce iron mushala (pestle); the slaughter of the warriors by one another at Prabhāsa; the departure of Balarāma and Kṛshṇa from their bodies; the sinking of Dvārakā beneath the sea; and the humbling of Arjuna, whose divine astras and the bow Gāṇḍīva failed him at Pañcanada.

The parva closes with Vyāsa’s teaching on Kāla (Time) and looks ahead to the Pāṇḍavas’ own great departure. Vaiśampāyana tells the narrative to King Janamejaya.

Place in the Mahābhārata

The Mausala Parva is the sixteenth parva of the Mahābhārata. It follows the great narratives of dharma, the war, and the teachings on moksha that came after it. Its very name comes from the mushala, the iron pestle whose birth through a brāhmaṇa’s śāpa seals the doom of the Yādavas. It leads on to the Pāṇḍavas’ mahāprasthāna (great departure).

The events unfold in the thirty-sixth year of Yudhishṭhira’s reign, the hour foretold by Gāndhārī’s śāpa and by the omens that Yudhishṭhira himself had once seen. Vaiśampāyana tells the whole to King Janamejaya, answering his questions about how the Bhojas, Andhakas and Vṛshṇis perished even as Vāsudeva looked on.

The narrative, chapter by chapter

Chapter 1: The birth of the mushala. In Yudhishṭhira’s thirty-sixth year dreadful omens appear across the land. At Dvārakā, Vṛshṇi youths led by Sāraṇa dress Sāmba, son of Kṛshṇa, as a pregnant woman and mockingly ask the visiting ṛshis Viśvāmitra, Kaṇva and Nārada to foretell what “she” will bear. Angered at the deceit, the ṛshis declare that Sāmba will bring forth a fierce iron mushala that will destroy the Vṛshṇis and Andhakas, that Balarāma will cast off his body into the sea, and that Kṛshṇa will be struck down by a hunter. Kṛshṇa accepts what is destined. The next day Sāmba brings forth the iron pestle. King Āhuka has it ground to powder and cast into the sea, and a total ban on liquor is proclaimed.

Chapter 2: The vision of portents. Kāla, in the form of Yama, roams the houses of the Vṛshṇis every day in fearsome shapes that no archer can strike. Rats multiply and gnaw the hair and nails of sleepers, animals bear unnatural young, and people grow shameless and hostile to brāhmaṇas, pitṛs (ancestors) and devas. Agni burns with lurid flames turning to the left, worms appear in cooked food, and the conch Pāñcajanya wails of its own accord. An eclipse of the sun falls on the thirteenth day of the dark fortnight, as it had at the Bhārata war. Kṛshṇa sees that the hour has come and orders a festival of tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage) to the seashore at Prabhāsa.

Chapter 3: The slaughter of Kṛtavarma and the others by one another. The Sudarśana Cakra flies up to svarga (heaven), and the divine banners are carried off by apsarās. At the drinking festival at Prabhāsa, food set apart for brāhmaṇas is defiled and fed to monkeys. Drunk, Sātyaki taunts Kṛtavarma over the night attack on the sleeping warriors. A quarrel over the Syamantaka gem flares up. Sātyaki beheads Kṛtavarma, and he and Pradyumna are slain by the swarming Bhojas and Andhakas. Enraged, Kṛshṇa seizes a handful of eraka grass, which becomes the iron mushala, and in every hand the grass turns into a pestle. Father slays son and son slays father until the clan is destroyed.

Chapter 4: Kṛshṇa’s ascent to his own realm. Kṛshṇa sends Dāruka to the Kurus and Babhru to guard the women, but a fragment of the pestle lodged in a hunter’s club kills Babhru. Kṛshṇa bids Vasudeva guard the women until Arjuna comes. Then he returns to find a white serpent with a thousand hoods issuing from Balarāma’s mouth into the sea, welcomed by Samudra (the Ocean), by the divine serpents and by King Varuṇa. Kṛshṇa enters mahāyoga and lies down. The hunter Jara mistakes his foot for a deer and shoots him, and Kṛshṇa ascends to his supreme abode.

Chapter 5: The arrival of Arjuna. Dāruka tells the Pāṇḍavas. Arjuna comes to Dvārakā, which is now like a widow. The sixteen thousand wives of Kṛshṇa weep, and Dvārakā seems to him like a river that is doomed. Satyabhāmā and Rukmiṇī cling to him in grief, and he consoles them.

Chapter 6: The dialogue of Arjuna and Vasudeva. The grief-stricken Vasudeva embraces Arjuna and tells how the rashness of Pradyumna and Sātyaki sparked the ruin, though the brāhmaṇas’ śāpa is the true cause. He speaks of the greatness of Kṛshṇa, who all the same let the clan perish. He gives Kṛshṇa’s last message: Arjuna will perform the last rites and lead the survivors, Dvārakā will be swallowed by the sea, and Vasudeva will end his life by yoga.

Chapter 7: The bringing of the Vṛshṇi women. Arjuna resolves to lead the survivors to Indraprastha and make Vajra king. At dawn Vasudeva dies by yoga, and his wives Devakī, Bhadrā, Rohiṇī and Madirā mount the pyre. Arjuna performs the funeral rites and the exodus begins. The sea engulfs Dvārakā. At Pañcanada, Ābhīra cowherd-robbers attack. Arjuna can barely string the Gāṇḍīva, his astras fail and his strength deserts him, and many Vṛshṇi women are carried off. He settles the survivors in new homes and crowns Vajra.

Chapter 8: The dialogue of Vyāsa and Arjuna. At Vyāsa’s āśrama, Arjuna tells all that happened and his shame at the failure of the Gāṇḍīva. Vyāsa consoles him. The Vṛshṇis perished by the brāhmaṇas’ śāpa, which Kṛshṇa could have turned aside but did not. Kṛshṇa is the ancient ṛshi Nārāyaṇa, who removed the burden of the earth and returned to his abode. Kāla is the seed and cause of all: by Kāla the strong become weak and the weak become strong. The astras, their work done, have returned to their source. The time for the Pāṇḍavas’ mahāprasthāna has come.

Chapters

The eight chapters of the Mausala Parva are narrated by Vaiśampāyana to King Janamejaya. The parva recounts the destruction of the Vṛshṇi, Andhaka, and Bhoja clans, the departure of Kṛshṇa and Balarāma, the submersion of Dvārakā, and the events leading toward the Pāṇḍavas’ great departure.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, chapters 1–8