Mahabharata-28

By 

Sankar Mukherjee

 &

Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                                       

 Adi Parva   CHAPTER III
            Aapoda Dhaumya & Veda

Veda is there at the preceptor’s house. He plays the role of an obedient servant. Rather he lives there as an Ox & carries all the loads through winter & summer, in hunger & thirst without any complaint. After a long passage of time the preceptor is satisfied with Veda & blesses him. Veda is now destined to attain omniscience & good fortune.
In the context, the notion of Sudra as portrayed in Manu comes to our mind.A sudra is born to serve the upper cast the Brahman in the main . A sudra is often compared to a beast but here it should be noted that people in ancient India did not look upon a beast as subhuman.They
worshipped the cow & the Ox. And mind you Veda labored heard at the preceptor’s house like an Ox. In other words a person aspiring to omniscience must play the role of a sudra for a time .
After the convocation & when Veda’s studentship ends, Veda goes back home ,at the command of his master. He enters the family life. And he also starts teaching his disciples.The latter live in his household.
He remembers how he had to toil hard at his preceptor’s house. So he does not want his disciples to toil & suffer at his place.
                    Veda & Utanka
In the mean time King Janamejaya & king Paushya appoint Veda as their priest. Consequently Veda has to leave his house for a time to observe the sacrificial rites at a king’s  place.  He engages  one of his disciples Utanka by name to look after his household during his absence. Utanka performs his assignment  with great devotion. Now the ladies of the house come to Utanka & request him to share the bed of his preceptor’s wife in absence of his preceptor .Because the wife of the preceptor is now passing through the phase of physical excitement, which should be gratified by Utanka himself in absence of Veda,the preceptor of Utanka . But Utanka says no to it. After a passage of time Veda returns & Utanka informs his preceptor everything that has happened  during the absence of Veda. Veda is beyond himself in
happiness. He blesses Utanka, so that Utanka gets omniscience & good fortune.Utanka's studentship is over,he can return home leaving the preceptor's house, but he will not. He tells his master that he must give some fees to the master. So he lingers at his teachers house.
Finally Veda asks him to approach Veda’s wife, Utanka should give her what she desires & curiously enough she tells that she wants the ear-rings of the royal wife of King Paushya in four days. So Utanka must set out to get that ear-rings from the queen of King Paushya &
bring it to the wife of preceptor in four days.

Mahabharata –29

By 

Sankar Mukherjee

&

Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                                                                             

Adi Parva   CHAPTER III
                                                      The Adventure’s of Utanka

Utanka & the Ox  -- Utanka sets out for the palace of King Paushya. On the road he finds a bull. The bull is as high as a hillock. And lo ! a titanic human   figure is mounted on the bull. The man riding the bull summons Utanka & asks him to eat the dung of the bull & drink the urine of the bull.At the outset Uttanka is not willing to take the dung & the urine .But the man mounted on the bull tells him that his preceptor Veda took the same in the past.Hearing this Utanka takes the dung of the bull & drinks the urine of the bull. Since he is in a hurry he washes his hands & mouth rather in a haste. Utanka now continues his journey.
There is a legitimation in this episode.Earlier we saw  how Upamanyu tended the cow & attained wisdom. Now it is said that the cow dung & urine of the cow is as sacred as anything. Hindus often use cow dung as well as the urine of the cow to do away  with pollution. They are
taken as medicine sometimes. They disinfect our houses, utensils, our bodies & so on.

Mahabharata –30

By 

Sankar Mukherjee

&

 Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

                                                            

 Adi Parva  

                                                            CHAPTER II

                                                       Utanka & the King

Utanka reaches the palace of Paushya & tells him why he has come to visit him. He seeks the ear – rings of the queen of King Paushya, so that he can give it away to the wife of his preceptor as fees to his preceptor.

In those days the preceptor often asks for costly honorarium from their disciples. The disciples cannot earn that honararium overnight. So they go to the Kings & ask for gifts from the King, so that they can pay the honorarium to the preceptor. The Kings readily agree to offer what the discples want in order to pay the fees to their preceptors. Thus in a way the Kings accrue blessings by way of helping the disciples to pay their fees to their preceptor. On another level the Kings acquire merit by giving away to the preceptor who is a realized soul indirectly through the disciple of the preceptor.

So when asked for the ear-ring of the queen, the King Paushya readily asks Utanka to go inside the palace & ask for the ear-ring from the queen herself. Utanka complies with the King & goes indoor. But alas he does not find the queen anywhere. So he goes back to the King & tells him that he does not find the queen anywhere in the palace.The King in reply tells him that his wife is a very pious lady. She is not visible to people who are not properly clean. Here is a legitimation. We must cleanse ourselves before we visit any god whatever. Utanka remembers that he did not cleanse himself properly after having cow dung & the urine of the cow,because he washed his hands & mouth standing. But one must cleanse himself seated facing the east.So he cleanses himself properly. Now he goes inside the palace. The queen is visible before him. She readily gives away the ear-rings to Utanka. But she warns him that he should take the ear-ring to his preceptor house carefully. Because the great Snake King Takshaka is covetous of these ear-rings.

 Utanka receives the ear-rings of the Queen of Paushya.He tells the King that he is very happy to have received the gift from the queen. Paushya exclaims that after a long time he is meeting an honest person. Therefore he does desire to observe a ritual called Sraddha.Sraddha implies offering food with respect. Utanka tells the King that he is in a hurry. Hence the King should bring eatables if any, ready in the palace. Seeing the food cold & contaminated with hair Utanka flies into rage & curses the King that he will be blind. The King also presently curses Utanka & says Utanka will be without any child. Utanka shows the hair in the food offered to him. Now the King admits that some women with disheveled hair must have served the food. He adds that he did know this. So he is innocent. Thus Utanka pacified, tells the King that his curse will not fail. But the blindness of the King will linger for a short time. However, the King cannot withdraw his curse. The king says in his submission that a Brahman might be harsh in words, but he is mellow at heart. On the other hand a Kshatriya to which caste the King himself belong, might be mellow in his words & stern at heart. So his anger has not yet disappeared. Be that as it may Utanka tells the King that the King’s curse will not affect Utanka. Saying thus he bids farewell to the King & sets out for his preceptor’s house.

There is a legitimation - if hair is found in any food that is served, the food is deemed to be polluted.

Curiously enough at the outset Utanka was deemed to be polluted. During the parting of Utanka from the king Utanka finds the food offered by king as polluted. This is the antithesis in the narration of the present episode.

Mahabharata –31

By

 Sankar Mukherjee

& Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

                                                            

 Adi Parva   CHAPTER III

                                                    Utanka & the Buddist Monk

On his way to the  preceptor’s  house Utanka come accross a Buddihist monk. He is naked. His movements might evoke suspicion. Utanka however does not suspect him. On the way he stops a while & goes for a bath.After having bath he performs his daily rituals. Right at the moment the Buddhiist monk steals the ear-rings from the place where the ear-rings were kept. Utanka runs after the Buddhidist monk. And when he is about to catch the Buddihist monk redhanded the monk turns into the Naga Takshaka. Takshaka wants to escape from the grips of Utanka.So he passes through a small hole in the earth & vanishes. But Utanka will not leave Takshaka at that. So he starts digging the hole,so that it becomes bigger & he can pass through it,into the entrails of the earth.

The episode is significant. On the surfaces, it might seem that a Buddhist monk has been maligned here. But that is not true, because if a monk can be suspected as false, why should Takshaka take his disguise? What seems to be a Buddhist monk could be in fact a Jain monk. Because, Digambara Jains often move about naked. Takshaka took the disguise of a Buddhist monk or a Jain monk because they were definitely venerated during the days of Mahabharata. Or else why should Takshaka take the disguise of a Buddhist or a Jain monk.

Mahabharata –32

By 

Sankar Mukherjee

 &

Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

                                                             

Adi Parva   CHAPTER III

 

                                                    Utanka in the threshold  of Nagaloka

Takshaka went into the entrance of the earth through a very small hole. But Utanka is determined to follow Takshaka into the entrance of the earth. He seeks to make the hole bigger & wider, so that he could go through the same & pursue Takshaka. But that is a difficult job, Indra the King of the heaven summons thunder to work clandestinely on behalf of Utanka. So thunder enters into the tip of the stick with which Utanka tries to dig the hole & make it bigger.In a flash the hole becomes quite wide & Utanka enters into it. And lo ! he is in the  threshold of Nagaloka or the Nether world.

There is a vivid description of the Nagaloka. It has no bounds.It is littered with various Temples, Palaces,mansions of rich people & so on.There are strange places for games &wonderful play grounds. Knowing not what to do,Utanka at his wits’ end,then chants a hyme addressing the Nagas.

                            The Hymn

The hymn chanted by Utanka is very significant. The first sloka of the hymn addresses the serpents the subjects of Airavata the elephant which functions as the mount of Indra the King of heavens. Utanka says that these serpents look elegant when they are in battle aray.They resemble the clouds decked with lightening that bring about rain.Utanka observes that these serpents can don different shapes at their will. They are born in the race of Airavata. Thus Nagas here are not ordinary snakes. They are mythological beings. They are demi gods. Utanka says that other Nagas unless it is Airavata, dare to enter into the army of sun rays & fight with them. This suggests that the Nagas are dark clouds which eclipse the Sun at times. Dhritharastra the brother of Airavata rules the Nagas. Some twenty thousand eight hundred eighty  serpents pull his chariot drawn by horses.Utanka pays his homage to Dhritharastra. He also prays to the serpent king Takshaka who used to live on the banks of Ikkhumati river at Kurukshetra.Utanka also worships Srutasena the brother of Takshaka, who wanted predominance among snakes & worships Sun god to that end.

But alas! Despite this hymn Utanka does not find any trace of the lost ear – rings.