Kīcaka Vadha
Kīcaka Vadha is the central episode of the Virāṭa Parva of the Mahābhārata. It tells how Kīcaka, the commander of King Virāṭa’s army in Matsya, was killed by Bhīmasena. The Pāṇḍavas were then living in hiding, and Bhīma was posing as the cook Vallava.
Kīcaka had troubled Draupadī again and again. Draupadī was serving as the maid Sairandhrī. Kīcaka had also kicked her in front of the whole royal assembly. Bhīma’s killing of Kīcaka and of the 105 Upakīcakas is one of the great acts of dharmic punishment in the Mahābhārata.
Kīcaka’s desire
Kīcaka was the foremost warrior in King Virāṭa’s service. He was the senāpati (commander) and the real source of Virāṭa’s military strength. He was the brother of Queen Sudeshṇā, born of the same mother. He led 105 brothers of his family line, who were together called the Upakīcakas. His courage had made the Matsya kingdom strong and had made its enemies afraid.
Sudeshṇā sent Draupadī, living as the maid Sairandhrī, to Kīcaka’s rooms with wine. Kīcaka saw her and was at once overcome with desire. He was struck by her great beauty and by her bearing, which was unlike that of any ordinary woman. He went to Sudeshṇā and asked her to arrange a meeting with Sairandhrī. He said he wished to make her his wife.
Sudeshṇā tried to hold him back. She warned him that Sairandhrī said she was guarded by Gandharva husbands, who would kill anyone who approached her wrongly. But Kīcaka’s desire was stronger than all caution. He went to Sairandhrī himself and spoke to her with flattery and promises of wealth. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 14)
Draupadī’s answer and her appeal to Virāṭa
Draupadī refused Kīcaka with dignity and force. She warned him that her Gandharva husbands were powerful, always watching, and would not forgive an insult. She asked him to stop, for his own safety. Kīcaka was blind with passion and would not listen.
Draupadī then went to King Virāṭa’s court and asked for protection. Virāṭa was in a hard position. Kīcaka was essential to his military power, and he was also his wife’s brother. Virāṭa could not or would not hold him back, and Draupadī left the court without any remedy. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 15)
The insult in the court
Sudeshṇā, persuaded by Kīcaka, sent Sairandhrī to Kīcaka’s house on the excuse of fetching wine. Kīcaka used the chance to harass her and tried to seize her by force. Draupadī escaped and ran to the king’s hall.
Kīcaka ran after her and kicked her in full view of the court. King Virāṭa, the courtiers and the disguised Yudhishṭhira, called Kaṅka, all saw it. Yudhishṭhira saw this act of adharma and was so angry that he nearly rose to strike Kīcaka. But he held himself back with iron will. He knew that any such act would reveal who the Pāṇḍavas were and would send them into another twelve years of forest exile. Bhīmasena also saw the scene and could hardly hold back his fury. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 16)
Draupadī spoke against Kīcaka in the open court. She said that those who had helped her before, her Gandharva husbands, would take revenge for this insult. Then she went away weeping into the night.
Draupadī’s appeal to Bhīma
That night Draupadī went to the royal kitchen, where Bhīma was sleeping, and woke him. She spoke with great pain and righteous anger. She reminded him of all she had suffered. She spoke of her shame before the court while Yudhishṭhira watched and did not rise, and of the humiliation of serving as a maid. She asked Bhīma why she should suffer such treatment when she had a husband like him, one who could destroy the whole Kaurava army.
Bhīma was deeply moved. He admitted her suffering and his own burning shame. He told her that he would kill Kīcaka. Together they made a plan. Draupadī would go to Kīcaka and agree to meet him that night in the nāṭyaśālā, the royal dance hall. Kīcaka was blinded by lust and would not suspect a trick. Bhīma would be waiting there in Draupadī’s place. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapters 17–18)
The killing of Kīcaka
Draupadī went to Kīcaka and told him she would meet him secretly in the nāṭyaśālā late at night. She asked him to come alone. Kīcaka was overjoyed and agreed.
Bhīma reached the nāṭyaśālā before Kīcaka and lay down on the bed in the dark. Kīcaka arrived full of joy and reached out toward the one he thought was Draupadī. Bhīma seized him. A fierce fight followed, hand to hand. Kīcaka was a powerful warrior, and the two struggled with great force. But Bhīma’s strength was greater. He killed Kīcaka and crushed and rolled his body until it had no shape at all. It had no arms, no legs and no neck. It was only a mass of flesh, like a rolled ball of meat. Bhīma did this on purpose, so that the Upakīcakas could not make out what had happened and call it the death of a warrior. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 19)
In the morning Draupadī woke the door-keepers and had them find the body. She announced that her Gandharva husbands had done what they had promised. The news spread through Virāṭanagara, and the people were amazed and afraid.
The death of the Upakīcakas
The 105 Upakīcakas, Kīcaka’s brothers, heard of his death. Their grief turned to rage against Sairandhrī, whom they blamed. They seized Draupadī and took her to the śmaśāna (cremation ground). They said they would burn her alive on Kīcaka’s funeral pyre. As they dragged her, Draupadī cried out loudly, hoping that her Gandharva husbands would hear.
Bhīma heard. He rose from his bed and went to the śmaśāna. He tore up a great tree to use as his weapon and fell upon the Upakīcakas. In the darkness and confusion of the śmaśāna, he killed all 105 brothers of Kīcaka. Sairandhrī was free. The sight of the 105 dead bodies at the burning ground made everyone sure that the Gandharvas who guarded this woman were extremely powerful. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 20)
What followed
The news that the Gandharvas had killed Kīcaka and his 105 brothers spread fast. Virāṭa and the people of Matsya were afraid and amazed. The rumour reached the spies of Duryodhana, and then the Kaurava court: a woman named Sairandhrī, with mighty Gandharva husbands, was living in Virāṭa’s palace. Some in the Kaurava court began to suspect that the woman might be Draupadī and that the killers might be the Pāṇḍavas. This suspicion added to Duryodhana’s decision to send cattle-raiding parties to bring them out of hiding.
Draupadī told Virāṭa that she would leave if the court went on giving her too little protection. Virāṭa feared the unseen Gandharvas and made sure she was safe for the rest of the ajñātavāsa (the year of living unrecognised). (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapters 21–24)
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 14 (Kīcaka’s desire)
- Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 15 (Draupadī’s appeal to Virāṭa)
- Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 16 (the insult in the court)
- Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapters 17–18 (Draupadī and Bhīma’s plan)
- Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 19 (the killing of Kīcaka)
- Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 20 (the death of the Upakīcakas)
- Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapters 21–24 (what followed)