Itihāsa / Mahābhārata chronicle / Sabhā · 14 of 50
14. The game
Sabhā (सभा)
The invitation is courteous and it is a trap, and Yudhiṣṭhira knows enough to fear it and not enough to refuse it. He comes to Hāstinapura. The die is in Śakuni's hand. Call it skill, as the poem sometimes does, or loaded luck, as the losers will. The shelf does not need the mechanism. Yudhiṣṭhira loses.
He loses wealth. He loses the kingdom. He loses his brothers, one by one, because a man who is losing tells himself the next throw will restore the last. He loses himself. Vidura is saying, aloud, that the game should stop, that a stake of a person is already past dharma. Dhṛtarāṣṭra does not stop his son. Bhīṣma does not find a sentence that will stop the hall. The elders are present. Their presence is not protection.
Then the stake is Draupadī. He names her after he has already lost the right to own anything, including, if her question is right, the right to name her. The dice fall. Śakuni announces the result as if a wife were a piece of the treasury. The game, as a game, is over. What the hall does next is not a game.
नेपालीमा
निमन्त्रणा शिष्ट थियो, तर त्यो पासो थियो। युधिष्ठिरले त्यसलाई डराउन पुग्ने बुझे, तर अस्वीकार गर्न पुग्ने बुझेनन्। उनी हस्तिनापुर आए। पासा शकुनिको हातमा थियो। त्यसलाई कविताले कहिलेकाहीँ सीप भन्छ, र हार्नेहरूले छली भाग्य भन्छन्। यो खण्डले त्यो विधि खोज्दैन। युधिष्ठिर हारे। उनले धन हारे। राज्य हारे। भाइहरूलाई एक एक गरी हारे, किनकि हार्दै गएको मानिसले अर्को पासाले अघिल्लो फर्काउँछ भनी आफैँलाई भन्छ। उनले आफैँलाई हारे। विदुरले खेल रोक्नुपर्छ, कुनै व्यक्तिलाई दाउमा राख्नु पहिल्यै धर्मभन्दा बाहिर हो भनेर ठूलो स्वरमा भने। धृतराष्ट्रले छोरालाई रोकेनन्। भीष्मले सभालाई रोक्ने वाक्य फेला पारेनन्। गुरुजन उपस्थित थिए, तर उनीहरूको उपस्थिति रक्षा थिएन। त्यसपछि दाउ द्रौपदी भइन्। उनलाई दाउमा राख्दा युधिष्ठिरले कुनै कुरा राख्ने अधिकार नै गुमाइसकेका थिए, द्रौपदीको प्रश्न ठीक भए उनको नाम लिने अधिकार पनि। पासा खस्यो। शकुनिले पत्नीलाई खजानाको एउटा सामानजस्तै गरी नतिजा सुनाए। खेलका रूपमा खेल सकियो। त्यसपछि सभाले जे गर्यो, त्यो खेल थिएन।