Duryodhana Describes Yudhishthira's Rajasuya Consecration
Duryodhana returns from Yudhishthira's Rajasuya consecration and describes the scene to his father Dhritarashtra. He details the humiliating spectacle of rival kings serving the Pandavas like attendants, and the unity of their inner circle. The report ends with a confession: witnessing such unmatched prosperity is killing him.
Duryodhana came back from Indraprastha with a vision burned into his mind. He went to his father, Dhritarashtra, and began to speak. His report was not a simple description. It was an inventory of envy, each item a fresh wound.
He started with the kings themselves — the arya kings, devoted to truth, great in their vows, learned and modest. They waited on Yudhishthira. They served him. Duryodhana listed what each one brought or did, turning their royal dignity into a list of servile tasks.
Thousands of wild cows had been brought as dakshina (ritual gift), with brass pots ready for milking. King Bahlika brought a chariot inlaid with gold. Sudakshina of Kamboja yoked it with white horses. The strong King Sunitha fixed the axle. The King of Chedi fixed the flagstaff. The southern king had the armor ready. The King of Magadha brought the garland and headdress. The great archer Vasudana held a sixty-year-old king elephant. Matsya fixed the chariot's sides. Ekalavya held the footwear. The King of Avanti had the many kinds of water required for the final bath. Chekitana gave the quiver. The King of Kashi gave the bow. Shalya gave the sword with a golden hilt and gold-inlaid straps.
The anointing itself was performed by the sages Dhoumya and Vyasa, with Narada and Devala-Asita at the forefront. The great rishis attended the abhisheka (consecration bath) with pleasure. Satyaki, whose valour was truth, held up the royal umbrella. Arjuna and Bhima fanned their brother Yudhishthira.
Then Duryodhana described the conch shell. It was Varuna's conch, constructed in ancient times by Vishvakarma from a thousand pieces of gold, given by Prajapati to Indra. The ocean itself had now brought it for Yudhishthira. And Krishna anointed him with it.
"At this," Duryodhana said, "I felt benumbed."
The ceremony moved to the oceans — western, eastern, southern. They did not go north, which Duryodhana noted was "for the birds." Hundreds of conch shells were blown together. The roar made Duryodhana's hair stand on end. Other kings, deprived of their own energy, fell prostrate on the ground.
But eight men stood firm, valorous and kindly disposed to each other: Dhristadyumna, the five Pandavas, Satyaki, and Krishna. They maintained themselves. And when they saw Duryodhana and the other kings unconscious on the ground, they laughed.
Afterward, Arjuna delightedly gave the principal brahmanas five hundred bullocks with horns plated with gold. Yudhishthira, like the legendary King Harishchandra, accomplished the rajasuya. His prosperity was supreme. Duryodhana claimed that even great kings of myth — Shambara's slayer, Youvanashva, Manu, Prithu, Bhagiratha — could not rival it.
Then he turned from description to confession.
"O lord! Having witnessed Partha's prosperity like that of Harishchandra, how should I see any good in remaining alive?" He used a proverb: a yoke attached by a blind man becomes loose. "The younger ones are prospering, while the older ones are decaying." He, Duryodhana, was the older one. The Pandavas were the younger.
"Having witnessed all this, I find no refuge, whichever way I look. That is the reason I am becoming thin. That is the reason I am pale and miserable."