Studies in the Mahabharata. Wilfried Huchzermeyer
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Название: Studies in the Mahabharata

Автор: Wilfried Huchzermeyer

Издательство: Автор

Жанр: Языкознание

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isbn: 9783931172442

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СКАЧАТЬ silence and imperfect pallor passed

      Into her heart and in herself she grew

      Prescient of grey realities. Rising,

      She gazed afraid into the opening world.

      Then Urjoon felt his mighty clasp a void

      Empty of her he loved and, through the grey

      Unwilling darkness that disclosed her face,

      Sought out Chitrangada. “Why doest thou stand

      In the grey light, like one from joy cast down,

      O thou whose bliss is sure? Leave that grey space,

      Come hither.” So she came and leaning down,

      With that strange sorrow in her eyes, replied:

      “Great, doubtless, is thy love, thy very sleep

      Impatient of this brief divorce. And yet

      How easily that void will soon be filled:

      For thou wilt run thy splendid fiery race

      Through cities and through regions like a star.

      Men’s worship, women’s hearts inevitably

      Will turn to follow, as the planets move

      Arjuna knows very well that it is quite true what Citrāṅgadā says in her mood of soul-stirring melancholy. No word of his can efface the truth dawning on her; he can only ask her not to yield to her unhappy thoughts and so he tries to cheer her up. But Citrāṅgadā cannot forget any more what she has seen in that silent moment of grey dawn. She has got a sense of his cosmic personality, his greater purposes, and knows that she is but one small link in the huge chain of events in his life. She realizes that she cannot hold him back, that she must not claim him for herself. Hers is a deep, true love which finds fulfilment in itself, not in the holding of its object:

      … It helps me not

      To bind thee for a moment to my joy.

      The impulse of thy mighty life will come

      Upon thee like a wind and drive thee forth

      To toil and battle and disastrous deeds

      And all the giant anguish that preserves

      Our world. Thou as resistlessly wast born

      To these things as the leopard’s leap to strength

      And beauty and fierceness, as resistlessly

      As women are to love, - even though they know

      Citrāṅgadā knows that her spring is over. She has cherished every moment in Arjuna’s presence, drunk in his love, given herself with all her heart. Now she lets him go with gratitude, allowing him to follow his great destiny.

      As the abduction is a risky undertaking, Yudhiṣṭhira as the head of the family is consulted first by messengers. He gives his consent whereupon Arjuna abducts Subhadrā at an appropriate moment when she returns to Dvārakā from a pilgrimage. Taking her into his chariot par force, he speeds away while the armed escort looks on helplessly. The Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas are outraged at this unexpected move of Arjuna’s and want to pursue the offender. Kṛṣṇa, however, manages to convince his kinsmen of the futility of such action. Arjuna is a worthy partner after all; therefore he should be welcomed by everyone. Thus this third marriage of Arjuna in exile is finally accepted.

      Arjuna’s marriage with Subhadrā is the most important during the exile. Not only are close ties established to the Vṛṣṇi clan, but also a son, Abhimanyu, was born to the couple whose son Parikṣit (by Uttarā) survived the Great War and became the only male successor in the dynasty. Arjuna’s first meeting with Subhadrā has been further embellished in some editions of the epic. Thus Arjuna is reported to have come to see her in the disguise of an ascetic who is attended by Subhadrā etc., adding some more romantic moments to this well-known episode which has been rendered here according to the text of the Critical Edition.

      The subject of this chapter was Arjuna in his private capacity, a hero attractive to women, himself a man readily responding with passion to longing, but always with an eye on dharma, on appropriate action. Properly speaking, he is the soul of the Pāṇḍavas, perhaps not as handsome as Nakula and Sahadeva but yet well-looking, not as ostentatiously strong as Bhīma and yet immensely powerful, not as sattvic in nature as Yudhisṭhira but well-balanced in his passion. Clearly, he was also the favourite lover of Draupadī, wife of the five Pāṇḍavas. Once when during the period of his family’s exile in the forest he had gone out for some purpose and stayed away for a long while, Draupadī became very unhappy:

      Mbhr. 1.182.1-2

      Another name of Draupadī.

      Mbhr. 1.205.2-3

      Mbhr. 2.61.35-36

      Mbhr. 1.205.15

      Mbhr. СКАЧАТЬ