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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Śalya
The Mace Duel: Duryodhana's Thighs Broken
Classical
Yudhiṣṭhira tells Duryodhana that if he can beat one of the Pāṇḍavas he will keep his kingdom. Duryodhana chooses Bhīma and the mace. Balarāma arrives to watch, having been on pilgrimage, and the two stand ready in the field of Kurukṣetra. Arjuna asks Kṛṣṇa who will win. Kṛṣṇa answers that the training was equal, Bhīma is stronger but Duryodhana more skilled and practised.
He adds that Bhīma will win only by deception, and that Yudhiṣṭhira has made the whole war depend on one fight, which was reckless. He reminds Arjuna of the oath in the dice-hall, that Bhīma would break Duryodhana's thighs. At this Arjuna strikes his own left thigh in view of Bhīma, and Bhīma understands.
The fight is long and fierce. They circle in all the patterns of mace fighting, and the maces clash with sparks. Each is bloodied, and each rests and begins again. Duryodhana strikes Bhīma so hard that he is briefly dazed, but he does not follow up, believing Bhīma unhurt. When Duryodhana jumps up to avoid the next blow, Bhīma roars and hurls his mace at his thighs. It shatters both and Duryodhana falls with a crash.
Bhīma then kicks the fallen king on the head, again calling out the old insult of 'cow, cow' in return, and boasts of Draupadī's vengeance. Yudhiṣṭhira stops him: Duryodhana is a king and a kinsman who has lost everything, and to put a foot on him is wrong. He then tells Duryodhana that the fault lay in his own greed and that his death is enviable, while the Pāṇḍavas must live on in grief.
Balarāma lifts his plough and rushes at Bhīma, crying that a blow below the navel is forbidden. Kṛṣṇa holds him back and says that the Pāṇḍavas are their kin, that Bhīma had vowed to do this, and that the sage Maitreya had cursed Duryodhana to just this end. Balarāma, still unhappy about the breach of the rule, declares that dharma is damaged and goes away to Dvārakā, leaving the Pāṇḍavas to the victory.
Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra
Who: Bhīma, Duryodhana, Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Arjuna, Yudhiṣṭhira
Bound to
Duryodhana's thigh: Maitreya's curse and the Danava armour curse
Gandhari's blindfold, and the gaze that almost made Duryodhana invulnerable mirror
Duryodhana Hides in the Dvaipāyana Lake origin
Bhīma Kills Duḥśāsana mirror
Places: Kurukṣetra (Syamantapañcaka)
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) Salya Parva, Sections LVII-LX