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Nobody is above justice and that includes the person who is entrusted with the sacred responsibility of rendering justice. Mahabharata tells us that even the very Lord of Dharma, Yama - who is called Dharma Raja - is not above justice. The message behind the birth of Vidura tells us just that.

The efforts of Satyavati to perpetuate the Kuru dynasty led to the birth of Dhrthrastra and Pandu. Veda Vyasa, who is the other son of Satyavati, accepted her request to help the continuation of the lineage. It so happened that Ambika, who was horrified at the long bearded and clumsy appearance of Vyasa, shut her eyes tight. ‘She would give birth to a very strong baby, whose strength would equal that of ten thousand elephants. But he would be blind,’ predicted Vyasa. Satyavati was heartbroken because a person with physical disability would be dependent on others for his basic needs and that would affect the effectiveness of a king.

Vyasa then accepted the request of Satyavati and it was now the turn of Ambalika to get a child from him. Ambalika turned pale at the arrival of Vyasa. ‘She would beget an excellent son, strong and wise. But he would be as pale as the mother was. He would be afflicted by Pandu - leucoderma,’ Vyasa foretold. 

The children were born and a year passed. Satyavati summoned Vyasa again and once again requested him for blessing Ambika with a child who is wise, brave and handsome. Vyasa accepted her request for a third time and said that that would be the last time that he accepted the request of his mother. Ambika was, however, reluctant and sent her maid-servant instead and Vidura was born to her. Dhrthrastra could not rule the kingdom directly; Vidura could not be the King because he was not born of the royalty and so Pandu became the king.

‘He was the very embodiment of Righteousness. Nothing in this kingdom moved without his advice, though his wise counsel was not listened to at important moments. He was the bulwark of the Kuru dynasty. He had authored the much respected and celebrated Vidura Neethi. He was an authority on the spiritual and political sciences. You say that he was none other than Dharma Raja, who was cursed to be born to a maid-servant. What caused this? Why the very Lord of Dharma should be cursed?’ asked Janamejaya, the great grandson of Arjuna. 

‘There was a great sage by name Mandavya,’ answered Vaisampayana. ‘He was performing askesis and was in trance. A number of soldiers, who were chasing a thief that had run away with the jewels which belonged to the king, came that way and enquired Mandavya about the thief, who was seen moving that side. The thief had actually entered the hermitage of Mandavya and dropped the jewels there before vanishing from that place. Mandavya was not aware of anything since he was in blissful trance.’

‘Mandavya did not answer the soldiers, as he did not hear that question in the first place, since he was in trance. The soldiers were annoyed and mistook his silence. They moved about in the hermitage and found the missing jewels there and took Mandavya to the Court of the King. The king, going by circumstantial evidence, quickly decreed that he be impaled on the stake. Known as aani or kazhu maram, the stake was something similar to a giant nail, buried in the ground with the sharp edge projecting out, some five or six feet above ground level. The person who was to suffer the punishment would be made to sit on the stake. The sharp edge of the stake that had entered his body through the anus would emerge from somewhere close to the nape of the neck, thus killing the person. But that is a very slow process and would take even a day or two.

Mandavya found himself impaled on the stake when he came out of the trance. He could not understand as to why this had happened to him. By that time a large crowd had gathered around him and he was soon recognised by the wise in the crowd. They immediately rushed to the king and informed him about the person who was impaled on the stake. The king realised his mistake, released Mandavya from the stake - who was subsequently came to be known as Ani Mandavya - and begged for his forgiveness.

Mandavya was not at all annoyed at the king. He wanted to know the reason why this happened to him and therefore went to Dharma Raja. ‘Sage, you played cruel games when you were a boy,’ replied Dharma. ‘You used to catch dragonflies, cut the edge of their tails, insert sharp twigs attached to strings and used to hold the string in your hand while the poor insects tried to fly away; but were stopped by the tether by which they were held. The punishment you suffered was a direct result of your cruel games, when you were a boy,’ he said.

‘Your sense of proportion is off-balance,’ said Mandavya. ‘The quantum of an error, or a mistake or crime should be measured with due respect to other factors like age and intelligence. What I did was something when I was ignorant and was not trained. You should have taken cognisance of this fact. You failed in your duty. I curse you to suffer what I underwent this day. You would be born to a maidservant and would go through humiliation a thousand times greater than that I suffered.’

And thus was Vidura born. If the Pandavas were strong because of the fact that Dharmaputra - the son of Dharma - was with them, the Kauravas were stronger, because the very Dharma himself was with them. It was due to this fact that Krishna played his trick, made Vidura suffer humiliation of the worst kind at the hands of Duryodhana, which led Vidura to decide about his non-participation in the war.

Hari Krishnan
harikrishnan@vsnl.net