Mārjāra-Mūshika Saṃvāda

The Mārjāra-Mūshika Saṃvāda is the dialogue of the cat (mārjāra) and the mouse (mūshika). Bhīshma tells it to Yudhishṭhira in the Āpaddharma Parva of the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata. It is about Lomaśa the cat and Palita the mouse. They are natural enemies, yet each faces more powerful enemies, and so they make a short alliance.

Bhīshma uses this account to teach the full doctrine of sandhi (alliance) and vigraha (active opposition) as tools of rājadharma, the duty of a king.

The setting

Lomaśa was a cat who made a great tree his home. He lived there for many years and fed on birds and small animals. Palita was a mouse who lived at the root of the same tree, in a comfortable burrow with a hundred exits. The two were natural enemies. Lomaśa would eat Palita if he could catch him, and Palita feared Lomaśa all the time and lived on guard.

One day danger came to both of them together. A caṇḍāla hunter named Pārigha came to the tree with a net and set his traps all around the root. Lomaśa the cat was caught completely. At the same moment a mongoose named Harika came near Palita’s burrow looking for prey, and an owl settled in the branches above and shut off Palita’s other ways of escape. Palita was surrounded. Lomaśa lay in the net before him, Harika was at the burrow entrance, and the owl was above.

Palita’s reasoning

Palita was trapped between deadly dangers on every side, and he weighed them with care. He thought: the greatest danger at this moment is the mongoose, who is closest and quickest in the chase. The owl threatens from above but has not struck yet. The cat is in the net and cannot harm anyone for now. My only way is to join my natural enemy the cat, because the mongoose and the owl will not dare to come near him.

So Palita went to Lomaśa’s side and said: “Lomaśa! We are enemies by nature but friends by need. I have the teeth to gnaw through your net. If you protect me from Harika and the owl, I will set you free. Let us make a short alliance so that both of us may live.”

Lomaśa saw the sense in this. He had no other way out, and he agreed. He folded in his claws, held back his hunting nature, and kept Harika the mongoose away by his presence. Palita stayed close in Lomaśa’s shadow. Harika and the owl saw the cat, even tied in a net, as a strong danger, and they drew back and waited at a distance.

The terms of the alliance

The alliance was clear, and both understood it. Each knew the true nature of the other. Palita knew that once the net was fully cut, Lomaśa’s thanks would not hold back his hunting nature. Lomaśa knew that Palita would disappear into his burrow the moment he was free. Neither of them had any false hope about the other.

In the morning Pārigha the hunter came to collect the cat in the net. Palita purposely waited before cutting the last strands. He waited until the hunter could be seen coming from a distance. Only when Pārigha’s footsteps could be heard, and Lomaśa’s fear was real, did Palita cut the last cords quickly. Both ran off in opposite directions before the hunter arrived. Neither was caught.

After the danger

When he was free, Lomaśa called out to Palita in a warm voice. He spoke of the bond between them and of the strange alliance they had shared, and he asked Palita to trust him and come closer. Palita answered from a safe distance and explained clearly why the alliance was over:

“O Lomaśa, do not speak of lasting friendship between us. An alliance made under pressure is not true friendship. The common danger has passed. What bound us was the moment, not our nature. Your nature is to eat me, and mine is to fear you. Now each of us has got what he needed from the other, and the wise course is to part. We owe thanks, but thanks must not turn into foolishness. One who trusts his enemy more than he should, even out of thanks, comes to grief.”

Lomaśa pressed him further, but Palita did not change his mind. He went all the way back into his burrow. He had thanked Lomaśa for his help, but he did not give way to misplaced trust.

Bhīshma’s teaching

From this account Bhīshma draws the main points of the teaching on sandhi and vigraha:

  • Sandhi (alliance) with an enemy is right and wise when a greater common danger threatens both sides. A man who refuses an alliance out of pride in the middle of a crisis destroys himself.
  • Timing decides when an alliance should end. One who breaks it too early loses its benefit. One who keeps it too long loses his life to his former enemy.
  • An ally who was once an enemy remains an enemy once the common danger is gone. Feeling must not take the place of watchfulness.
  • Both sāma (conciliation) and bheda (division) must come before daṇḍa (force). A wise king never goes to open conflict before he has tried the other ways.
  • The smaller and weaker side gains the most from a planned alliance during a crisis. After the crisis, the weaker side must withdraw with equal care. It does so not from ingratitude but to protect itself.

The account of the cat and the mouse thus becomes a lesson in statecraft for hard times. In āpaddharma, the duty in times of danger, a king must make alliances that would be unthinkable in normal times. He must end them with equal care when times become normal again.

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Āpaddharma Parva, Chapters 131–138
  • Chapters 131–132: the setting
  • Chapters 132–133: Palita’s reasoning and the alliance
  • Chapters 134–136: the terms of the alliance and the net-cutting
  • Chapters 136–137: after the danger
  • Chapter 138: Bhīshma’s teaching