Bhima and Duhshasana

Shakuni has already won Yudhishthira's wealth. He asks if the Pandava has anything left to gamble. Compelled by the game, Yudhishthira begins to stake what remains: his kingdom, his brothers, himself, and finally his wife Draupadi. Each time, Shakuni casts the dice and declares victory.

When the attendant is too afraid to lay hands on Draupadi, Duryodhana orders his brother Duhshasana to bring her by force. Duhshasana grabs her by her long, blue hair—hair once sanctified at a royal sacrifice—and drags her into the sabha as she protests her state and her dignity.

As Duhshasana tries to strip Draupadi, a miracle preserves her modesty — and Bhima finds his voice. Kneading his hands, trembling with rage, he swears an oath so terrible it delights the heavens: to tear open Duhshasana’s chest and drink his blood.

Enraged by Vikarna’s defense and the assembly’s approval, Karna delivers a brutal rebuttal. He declares Draupadi lawfully won and, because she has five husbands, a courtesan. He orders Duhshasana to strip the Pandavas and Draupadi.

Provoked by Duhshasana's mockery and Duryodhana's cruel imitation of his walk, Bhima publicly swears to kill Duryodhana with a club, drink Duhshasana's blood, and assigns the deaths of Karna and Shakuni to his brothers.

As the defeated Pandavas dress in deerskins for exile, Duhshasana publicly taunts them for their poverty and urges Draupadi to abandon her impotent husbands and choose a new one from among the prosperous Kurus.

Draupadi approaches Krishna and begins to recount everything — the poisoning of Bhima, the burning of the lac house, the killing of Hidimba and Baka, her own svayamvara. She censures the Pandavas for tolerating her molestation, names each of her five sons, and declares that her grief over Karna's laughter will never be pacified.

Seated in the forest with her husbands, Draupadi watches them suffer in silence while Duryodhana celebrates in the city. She turns to Yudhishthira and begins to speak — not to console, but to question why a king who can destroy his enemies feels no anger at seeing his brothers and his wife reduced to rags and mud.

Dhritarashtra finishes his lament. Sanjaya confirms everything the king said is true — then recounts the causes of the Pandavas' wrath: Draupadi brought into the assembly hall, Duhshasana's and Karna's terrible words, Arjuna's encounter with Sthanu in the hunter's disguise, and Bhima's vow to smash Duryodhana's thighs. The Parthas, he concludes, are invincible even to the gods.

Sanjaya reports to Dhritarashtra that after the Pandavas' defeat at dice, Krishna and their allies visited them in Kamyaka forest. Krishna vowed to kill Duryodhana and his allies, but Yudhishthira insisted on keeping his thirteen-year vow. The assembled warriors then pledged to Draupadi that her oppressors would be destroyed when the time came.

Dhritarashtra, hearing the brahmana's report, is overcome with grief and self-reproach. He describes each Pandava's suffering in detail — Yudhishthira sleeping on bare ground, Bhima's restrained rage, Arjuna's sleepless anger, the twins' wretchedness — and reflects on the inevitability of destiny and the futility of deeds. His words are secretly overheard by Duryodhana, Shakuni, and Karna, who become disturbed and unhappy.

Duhshasana sends a messenger to Dvaitavana to invite the exiled Pandavas to Duryodhana's sacrifice. Yudhishthira politely declines, citing their oath of thirteen years. But Bhima's answer is different: they will come, he says, only when Duryodhana himself is offered as an oblation in the fire of war.