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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Vana

Ashtavakra defeats Bandin at Janaka's court

Classical

The debate won by a twelve-year-old with a twisted body, over drowned Brahmins.

The boy is twelve years old, or ten by the doorkeeper's guess, and his body is bent in eight places. He walks up to the gate of King Janaka's sacrifice, where learned men are arguing, to settle an account for his father. This is told to Yudhishthira by the sage Lomasa, as the Pandavas travel through the forests.

At the gate, Ashtavakra and his uncle Shvetaketu are stopped. Ashtavakra says the road belongs first to the blind, the deaf, women, those carrying loads, and the king, and that when a Brahmana is on the road it belongs to him alone. King Janaka, hearing this, lets him in, remarking that no fire, however small, should be despised. But the gatekeeper says he follows the orders of Vandin and only learned, elderly Brahmanas may enter.

Ashtavakra answers that age is not the test. He says one measures a man by his vows, his service, his self-control and his learning. The gatekeeper says he is just a boy and asks him to say a verse about the Supreme Being in one syllable. Ashtavakra replies that the knots on a Shalmali tree do not tell its age, and that a tree is full-grown when it bears fruit. The gatekeeper says boys learn from elders and grow old in time, and Ashtavakra answers that the sages count age by knowledge, not grey hair. The gatekeeper gives in a little, says he will try to get him admitted, and tells the boy to try as well.

Inside, Ashtavakra praises Janaka and then accuses Vandin of drowning defeated debaters through Janaka's own servants. He says he has come to argue for the oneness of the Supreme Being and asks where Vandin is. Janaka warns him that Vandin's speech is powerful and many learned men have lost to him. Ashtavakra says Vandin has never met anyone like him.

Janaka tests him first with riddles. He describes a wheel with thirty divisions, twelve parts, twenty-four joints and 360 spokes. Ashtavakra counters with a wheel of twenty-four joints, six naves, twelve rims and sixty spokes. Janaka also asks about two beings that go together like yoked mares, and then poses four riddles: what does not close its eyes in sleep, what does not move when produced, what has no heart, what grows by its own speed? The answers are a fish, an egg, a stone and a river. The text does not explain the numbers in the wheel riddles.

Janaka is satisfied. He says Ashtavakra is not a boy but a mature man, and tells him: "There is Vandin."

Ashtavakra now calls Vandin out. He tells him to be silent, declares Janaka the greatest of kings as Indra is of the gods, and has Vandin brought before him. Then comes the contest of numbers. They take turns, giving the things that come in each number. Vandin takes the odd ones, Ashtavakra the even ones.

One: one fire, one sun, Indra the one hero. Two: the Ashvin twins, husband and wife, a chariot's two wheels. Three: the three Vedas, three divine lights. Four: the four stages of life, the four directions. Six: the six seasons, six senses. Seven: seven sages, seven metres. Eight: eight Vasus. Ten: ten directions, ten months of pregnancy. Eleven: eleven Rudras. Twelve: twelve months, twelve Adityas.

Then Vandin begins thirteen. He mentions the auspicious thirteenth day of the lunar fortnight and the thirteen islands of the earth, and stops, because he has nothing more. Ashtavakra finishes the verse for him, with the thirteen sacrifices presided over by Kesi, and the thirteen things swallowed by the longer Vedic metres.

Vandin falls silent, his head bowed. The hall erupts, and the Brahmanas come to honour Ashtavakra with joined palms.

Ashtavakra orders that Vandin be drowned as he drowned others. Vandin says he is a son of Varuna, that Varuna is holding a twelve-year sacrifice at the same time as Janaka's, and that he had sent the defeated Brahmanas there to watch it. They are coming back now. He says he does not fear drowning, and that Ashtavakra will soon see his long-lost father, Kahoda. The Brahmanas rise before Janaka, shining. Kahoda speaks, saying his own failure has been made good by his son. Vandin praises Janaka's sacrifice and, with Janaka's leave, goes into the sea.

Ashtavakra, having worshipped his father, goes home with his uncle. There Kahoda tells him to enter the river Samanga. He does, and his crooked limbs become straight.

Who: Ashtavakra, Bandin, Janaka, Kahoda, Varuna

Bound to

Ashtavakra Gita: the same two, a different book same-story-other-version

Ashtavakra: cursed in the womb causes

Places: Mithila

Where this comes from

See it on the tree · All stories

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