Itihāsa / Mahābhārata chronicle / Ādi · 10 of 50
10. A city of their own
Ādi (आदि)
The dead cousins walk back into Hāstinapura alive, with a wife and an alliance to Pañcāla. Dhṛtarāṣṭra embraces them and is afraid. The kingdom is divided so that a war is postponed. The Kurus keep Hāstinapura. The Pāṇḍavas are given a tract of wilderness, Khāṇḍavaprastha, which they raise into Indraprastha. For a while there are two courts, and Yudhiṣṭhira rules one of them as if justice were a style of life.
The marriage has a law, made to keep five husbands from tearing the house. Nārada advises it. A brother who intrudes on another while he is alone with Draupadī goes to the forest for twelve years. Arjuna intrudes, to fetch weapons for a brahmin whose cattle are being stolen. He has broken the law for a reason the law itself would praise, and he accepts the exile the law requires. Duty against duty: the poem's favorite knot, tied here in a domestic doorway.
He goes out for twelve years. On that road he marries, and he abducts Subhadrā, Kṛṣṇa's sister, with Kṛṣṇa's consent and against her family's first anger. The Yādavas and the Pāṇḍavas become one kinship. Subhadrā's son will be Abhimanyu. The wilderness they were given is no longer empty. Fire is invited in.
नेपालीमा
मरेका भनिएका चचेरा दाजुभाइ जीवित भएर, पत्नी र पाञ्चालसँगको मित्रता लिएर हस्तिनापुर फर्के। धृतराष्ट्रले उनीहरूलाई अँगालो मारे, र डराए। युद्ध ढिलो होस् भनेर राज्य बाँडियो। कुरुहरूले हस्तिनापुर राखे। पाण्डवहरूलाई खाण्डवप्रस्थ नामको उजाड भूमि दिइयो, जसलाई उनीहरूले इन्द्रप्रस्थ बनाए। केही समय दुई दरबार रहे, र युधिष्ठिरले न्याय नै जीवनशैली हो भन्ने गरी एउटा दरबार चलाए। नारदको सल्लाहमा विवाहको एउटा नियम बन्यो, पाँच पतिले घर नतोडून् भनेर: कुनै भाइले द्रौपदीसँग एक्लै रहेको अर्को भाइलाई बाधा पारे उसले बाह्र वर्ष वनवास जानुपर्छ। अर्जुनले एक ब्राह्मणका गाई चोरिँदै गर्दा हतियार ल्याउन बाधा पारे। उनले नियम आफैँले प्रशंसा गर्ने कारणले नियम तोडे, र नियमले माग गरेको वनवास स्वीकारे। कर्तव्यविरुद्ध कर्तव्य: कविताको मन पर्ने गाँठो, यहाँ घरको ढोकामा बाँधिएको। बाटोमा उनले सुभद्रा, कृष्णकी बहिनी, लगे, कृष्णको सहमतिमा, र परिवारको पहिलो रिसका बीच। यादव र पाण्डव एउटै नातामा बाँधिए। सुभद्राका छोरा अभिमन्यु हुनेछन्। उनीहरूलाई दिइएको उजाड अब खाली रहेन। आगोलाई निम्तो दिइएको छ।