Sumitrā, Haihaya King

Sumitrā was a king of the Haihaya dynasty. He is the king who listens in the Ṛṣabha Gītā, a teaching in the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata. He had lost his kingdom. He wandered in the forest, kept alive only by āśā (hope) that it would be given back to him. In the forest he met a very thin muni named Kṛśa, who was also Ṛṣabha. The muni taught him about āśā and about the most wretched kind of life, which is to place hope in a person who is utterly unworthy.

The condition of Sumitrā

Sumitrā had lost his kingdom. The account does not say how. He wandered without a throne, without an army and without allies. Only āśā held him up. He hoped that his kingdom would be restored, that things would change, and that someone or something would bring him back to rule.

The meeting with the thin muni

In the forest, Sumitrā met a muni who was extremely thin. He was so wasted that the king at once asked what had caused it. The muni answered that āśā had caused it. He had placed his hope in people who proved unworthy and who betrayed the trust placed in them.

This muni is Ṛṣabha of the Nara-Nārāyaṇa āśrama (hermitage). He appears here as Kṛśa, “the thin one”. He is also described as an alternate form of the muni Ṛṣabha. He teaches Sumitrā through a story within a story. It is the account of King Vīradyumna, who searched for his lost son Bhūridyumna. In it the kinds of āśā are set out.

The teaching Sumitrā received

The main teaching is this. The quality of āśā depends entirely on the quality of the person in whom hope is placed.

• Hope in a noble, capable and willing person who is only delayed or in difficulty is the least bad kind of āśā.
• Hope in a person of low nature (nīca), who is cruel, ungrateful and unable to honour those who trusted him, is the most wretched kind of life. That hope not only fails. It wastes away the one who hopes, again and again, with each round of expectation and betrayal.

The teaching does not tell Sumitrā to give up all hope. It separates the right object of hope from the wrong one. To place āśā in the right person and on the right path is reasonable and in line with dharma. To place it in a person who cannot be redeemed is to harm oneself.

Why Bhīṣma tells it

Bhīṣma tells the Ṛṣabha Gītā in answer to the grief of Yudhiṣṭhira. Yudhiṣṭhira had hoped again and again in Duryodhana. He had believed that Duryodhana might give way, return the kingdom, or act with simple decency. Sumitrā is a king who goes about with nothing but hope, like Yudhiṣṭhira in his grief.

The Haihaya dynasty

Sumitrā belongs to the Haihaya dynasty, a well-known dynasty of kṣatriyas (the warrior and ruling class). Kings of this dynasty appear many times in the stories of the Śānti Parva.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva (Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva), Chapters 125–128, the Ṛṣabha Gītā