Arjuna's Gāṇḍīva Vow and the Near-Killing of Yudhishthira

Classical

On the seventeenth day Karṇa breaks Yudhiṣṭhira's armour and chariot in front of the whole army. The king flees wounded to his camp. Karṇa catches up with him and could seize him, but remembers Kuntī's request and Śalya's warning, mocks him for running, and lets him go. In the camp Yudhiṣṭhira lies on his bed, burning with arrow wounds and shame.

Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa come to see him, and Yudhiṣṭhira assumes they have come to announce that Karṇa is dead. When he learns that Arjuna has left Bhīma to the Kauravas and has not killed Karṇa, his grief turns to fury. He says that Arjuna has shamed his mother's womb, that he would have done better to hand the Gāṇḍīva to Kṛṣṇa, and that Kṛṣṇa could have won the war on his own.

Arjuna has a vow that anyone who tells him to give his bow to another must die. He draws his sword to kill his eldest brother. Kṛṣṇa steps in and asks who he has to fight in this tent. Arjuna explains the vow and says that to keep it he will kill the king and then atone. Kṛṣṇa tells him that he is confused about dharma: he has been faithful to a vow made in foolishness, and a righteous man does not kill his elder over a word.

The reproof is practical. Kṛṣṇa says an elder is killed by being addressed insultingly, as 'tu', so Arjuna can keep his vow by speaking harshly to Yudhiṣṭhira. Arjuna, who is already sick with remorse, says all he has bitterly stored up: that Yudhiṣṭhira lies safe in bed while others fight, and that it was his dice-play that ruined them all. It is a small sin, but he feels it terribly and puts his sword to himself, which Kṛṣṇa also stops.

The king rises, calls himself the worst of men and offers to go to the forest, leaving the kingdom to Bhīma. Kṛṣṇa explains that the whole scene was staged for truth's sake, and that Karṇa will die that day. Arjuna falls at his brother's feet, and the two weep and embrace. Yudhiṣṭhira then asks him to kill Karṇa, and Arjuna swears to do it or die trying.

Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra

Who: Arjuna, Yudhiṣṭhira, Kṛṣṇa, Karṇa, Bhīma

Bound to

Gandiva: from Brahma to the sea mirror

The Fall of Karṇa: the Sinking Wheel origin

Kunti's mantra and Karna's birth mirror

Places: Pāṇḍava camp, Kurukṣetra

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (text as scanned on archive.org; mahabharataonline.com section pages could not be opened from the working environment) Karna Parva, Sections XLIX (Karna spares Yudhishthira) and LXVII-LXXI (the quarrel and reconciliation)

See it on the tree · All stories

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