Itihāsa / Mahābhārata chronicle / Vana · 22 of 50
22. The lake and the questions
Vana (वन)
A brahmin's fire-sticks are carried off by a deer, and the brothers chase the deer until they are dying of thirst. They find a lake. A voice, a yakṣa's, says that the water is his, and that a man must answer before he drinks. One by one the younger brothers drink anyway, and one by one they fall, looking dead. Yudhiṣṭhira comes last and does not drink.
He answers. The questions are riddles about the world, and then they are moral, and the four that the tradition holds still are simple. What is heavier than the earth. A mother. What is higher than the sky. A father. What is faster than the wind. The mind. What is more numerous than the blades of grass. The cares of the living. The Sanskrit of the whole examination is not sat on this page. It is sat nowhere on this shelf yet. The map of the scene is the Yakṣa's questions.
The yakṣa offers one brother's life, and tells him to choose. He chooses Nakula. The reason is the sentence that makes him a king and not only a brother: Kuntī has a son alive, himself, and Mādrī should have a son alive as well. The yakṣa restores all four, and shows himself. He is Dharma, Yudhiṣṭhira's father, and the examination was a father's. The years of the forest are nearly over. The thirteenth year, the year of hiding, is about to begin, and the god who is his father has just asked whether he can prefer a fairness to a favorite.
नेपालीमा
एउटा मृगले ब्राह्मणका अग्निहोत्रका काठ लग्यो। दाजुभाइ तिर्खाउँदै तालमा पुगे। यक्षको आवाजले भन्यो, उत्तर नदिई नपिऊ। कान्छाहरूले पिए, र ढले। सबैभन्दा पछि आइपुगेका युधिष्ठिरले पिएनन्। उनले उत्तर दिए: माता पृथ्वीभन्दा भारी हुनुहुन्छ, पिता आकाशभन्दा उच्च हुनुहुन्छ, मन वायुभन्दा तीव्र हुन्छ, र जीवित मान्छेका चिन्ता घाँसका पातभन्दा धेरै हुन्छन्। सबै प्रश्नको संस्कृत यो पृष्ठमा समावेश गरिएको छैन। यो दृश्यको नक्सा यक्षप्रश्न हो। यक्षले एक भाइको जीवन दिन चाहँदा युधिष्ठिरले नकुललाई रोजे, किनकि कुन्तीको एउटा छोरा आफू बाँचेकै छ, माद्रीको पनि एउटा छोरा बाँचोस्। यक्षले चारै भाइलाई बचाइदिए, र आफ्नो रूप देखाए। यक्ष धर्म थिए, युधिष्ठिरका पिता।