Kīcaka

Kīcaka was the senāpati (commander-in-chief) of the army of King Virāṭa of Matsya. He was the brother of Queen Sudeshṇā and the leader of 105 warrior-brothers called the Upakīcakas. His military strength was the base of Virāṭa’s power, and his fame spread through the kingdoms of Bhārata.

In the Virāṭa Parva of the Mahābhārata, Kīcaka was killed by Bhīmasena after he troubled Draupadī again and again. Draupadī was living in disguise as the handmaid Sairandhrī during the ajñātavāsa, the year the Pāṇḍavas had to spend unrecognised. The killing of Kīcaka by the strongest of the Pāṇḍavas is one of the main events of that year.

Role and standing

Kīcaka held the post of senāpati in King Virāṭa’s kingdom of Matsya. He was in effect the pillar of Virāṭa’s military power. His courage and command had made Matsya strong and had brought the neighbouring kingdoms under it. He was the elder of 105 brothers, the Upakīcakas, who all served as warriors under him. His standing in the kingdom was so high that Virāṭa could not easily overrule or punish him. This is what made Draupadī’s position dangerous during the ajñātavāsa. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 14)

His desire for Sairandhrī

Draupadī came to Virāṭanagara in disguise as the handmaid Sairandhrī, in the service of Queen Sudeshṇā. Kīcaka saw her and was at once overcome with desire. Her great beauty, her bearing so unlike that of an ordinary woman, and her calm struck him hard. He went to his sister Sudeshṇā and asked her to arrange a meeting with Sairandhrī. He said he wished to take her as his wife.

Sudeshṇā warned him that Sairandhrī was guarded by mighty Gandharva husbands, who would destroy anyone who wronged her. Kīcaka would not listen. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 14)

He then went to Draupadī herself. He spoke with flattery and promised great wealth and rank if she would leave her work as a handmaid and come to him. Draupadī refused firmly. She warned him that her Gandharva husbands were watching and that he was walking toward his own destruction. Kīcaka was not turned away. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 14)

The harassment and the incident in the court

The trouble grew when Sudeshṇā, pressed by her brother, sent Sairandhrī to Kīcaka’s rooms on the excuse of fetching wine. Kīcaka had used his sister to arrange a private meeting. Draupadī resisted and ran to the king’s hall. Kīcaka caught up with her. She asked the court for protection, but Kīcaka seized her in front of the court and kicked her to the ground. It was a deep public insult, done before King Virāṭa, the courtiers and Yudhishṭhira, who was there in disguise as Kaṅka Bhaṭṭa.

Yudhishṭhira held back his anger so that the ajñātavāsa would not be broken. Draupadī was left without help in that court. Kīcaka’s power made him safe from any action in Virāṭa’s assembly. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 16)

His death

Draupadī made a plan with Bhīmasena. She would ask Kīcaka to come to a secret meeting at night in the nāṭyaśālā (dance hall). Kīcaka agreed eagerly. He came to the nāṭyaśālā at night, his heart full of hope. Instead he found Bhīmasena, the strongest warrior alive and the son of Vāyu, waiting for him in the dark.

The two fought a fierce fight with bare hands. Kīcaka was not a weak man, and he fought with all his strength. But he could not win against Bhīma, who had the strength of ten thousand elephants.

Bhīma killed Kīcaka and rolled his body into a shapeless ball of flesh with no wound from any weapon. When the body was found, the death would seem the work of beings beyond the human, not of any warrior. The body showed no clear wound. Kīcaka’s bones were crushed inward and his form had collapsed completely. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 19)

The next morning Draupadī told the door-keepers that the Gandharvas had come in the night and dealt with Kīcaka. The news of his death spread through Virāṭanagara with wonder and fear.

The Upakīcakas

The 105 Upakīcaka brothers learned of Kīcaka’s death and were full of grief and rage. They blamed Sairandhrī and decided to burn her alive on Kīcaka’s funeral pyre. They seized her and dragged her toward the śmaśāna (cremation ground). Bhīma followed in disguise, pulled up a great tree, and in the confusion at the cremation ground he destroyed all 105 Upakīcakas. The whole line of Kīcaka died at Bhīma’s hands in one night. Virāṭa’s military power was left much weaker. (Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapter 20)

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Virāṭa Parva, Chapters 14, 16, 19 and 20