Damayanti Sends Sudeva with False Svayamvara Message

Brihadashva said: "O Yudhishthira! Then Damayanti summoned that brahmana again." Sudeva had already been chosen. He was the one Damayanti had asked her mother to send — the brahmana who would carry her message to Ayodhya. But now she needed more than a simple summons. She needed a ruse so compelling that it would force Nala — disguised as Bahuka, the deformed charioteer — to act. In her mother's presence, engulfed by misery and sorrow, Damayanti spoke to Sudeva. "O Sudeva! Go to King Rituparna who lives in the city of Ayodhya and tell him: 'Bhima's daughter Damayanti wishes for a husband again and will again hold a svayamvara. All the kings and the princes are going there. Having computed the time, this will be held tomorrow. O destroyer of enemies! If it is possible, go there quickly. She will choose a second husband at the time of sunrise, because it is not known whether the valiant Nala is dead or alive.'" It was a lie. There was no second svayamvara. Damayanti had no intention of choosing another husband. But the lie was carefully constructed: it would reach Rituparna, who loved gambling and beautiful women, and he would want to attend. And if he attended, he would bring his charioteer — Bahuka — to drive him there. And Bahuka, upon hearing that Damayanti was about to marry another man, would have to reveal himself. It was a cruel plan. It forced Nala to choose between his disguise and his wife. But Damayanti had been abandoned, humiliated, and left to wonder for years whether her husband was alive or dead. She had earned the right to be cruel. "O great king!" Brihadashva concluded. "As he had been instructed, the brahmana Sudeva then went to King Rituparna and told him what he had been asked to." The deception was in motion. The false svayamvara would be announced at sunrise. And Nala — if he was truly Bahuka — would have no choice but to come.