Dūta in the Śiśupālavadha

The king hears the news of the other king from the spy, he let the king know his own news to the other king through the spy.

Śiśupālavadha of Māgha canto two, verse No. 82, this remark has been expressed through the political lession of Uddhava to Śrī-Kṛṣṇa.

vuddhiśastraḥprakṛtyaṅgo ghanasaṃvṛtikañcukaḥ |
cārekṣaṇo dūtamukhaḥ puruṣaḥ ko'pi pārthivaḥ || 2.82 ||^[1]

“The monarch is extraordinary whose intellect is his weapon, whose various parts of his state are his limbs, whose close counsel is his armour, whose spies are his eyes and whose messengers are his mouth.”^[2]

“Ordinary, runs of monarchs are not expected to be praise worthy, paragons of administrative excellence. The King, who strikes down his enemy by dint of his sober intelligence, who identifies the parts of his body such as hands, feet head etc. With the various members of his state such as master, minister, allies etc. i.e. who considers these members of the state to be his veritable limbs wherewith he can move an act. Whose close counsel serves the purpose of a strong armour, who sees not with his own eyes, but with his eye like spies. Who speaks through the mouth of his messengers, is indeed a rich rarity for whom, it is foolish and futile to look for a parallel.”^[3]

With out ambassador the king can not complete or perform all of his work which is possible with speech.

Commntator Mallinātha said—

“sa eva mukhaṃ vāgyasyāsau dūtamukhaḥ | anyathā mukasyeva vāgvyavahārāsiddhau tatsādhyāsādhya kāryya prativandhaḥ syāt iti  bhāvaḥ | evambhūtaḥ parthivaḥ kaapi puruṣaḥ anya evāyaṃ lokavilakṣaṇaḥ pumān ityarthaḥ | ato rajā vuddhādisammannena bhavitavyam | etadeva pramattatvam | anyathā svarūpahāni syāt iti bhāvaḥ |”

Poet Māgha was not only a great poet by definition, but also he had immense knowledge about different branches of ancient Sanskrit literature. His epic is not only enriched with the Sanskrit literature but we can also find the knowledge of Veda, Vedāṅga, philosophy, grammer, music and political scripture in his epic.

Māgha had enough knowledge about the Arthśāstra. We get immense knowledge about Māghas political cripture through his epic. He used relevantly some technical terms of the Arthśāstra like six fold policy, trividha udaya, trividha siddhi and twetve kings etc. One of such technical term of politics is ambassador (dūta). In order to run a kingdom properly, a king must appoints ambassadors. The successful panderism of an ambassador decides the future of a king and his kingdom also. From the title dyūta saṃvāda of the sixteenth canto, it is clear that Māgha had clear conception about the undeniable contribution of ambassador.

Message from messenger

A messenger came to Śrīkṛṣṇa from Śiśupāla and started to use equivocations through the following verse.

praṇataḥ śirasā kariṣyate sakalairetya samaṃ dharādhipaiḥ |
tava śāsanamāśu bhūpatiḥ paravānadya yatastvayaiva saḥ || 16.4 ||^[4]

Lord Kṛṣṇa made out his deception very skilfully and told him that everyone should be aware of such terrible man having the habit of speaking equivocal languages.

prakaṭaṃ mṛdu nāma jalpataḥ paruṣaṃ sūcayato'rthamantarā |
śakunādiva mārgavartibhiḥ paruṣādudvijitavyamīdṛśāt || 16.19 ||^[5]

People having meanness can not tolerate the valour of others. For this reason wise men always abstain themselves from the immodests. ŚrīKṛṣṇa was ready to retort insolent king Śiśupāla.

narakacchidamicchatīkṣituṃ vidhinā yena sa cedibhūpatiḥ |
drutametu na hāpayiṣyate sadṛśaṃ tasya vidhātumuttaram || 16.33 ||^[6]

Mischievousness itself leads to the destruction of a mischievous man. Once again the messenger stated that it is a matter of wonder that unwise persons can not realise even the good advices and they act according to their own will. He also told ŚrīKṛṣṇa that Yudhiṣṭhira had worshipped

Him avoiding the great King Śiśupāla. Purity exists in purity. It can not

pay tribute to purity.

aparādhaśatakṣamaṃ nṛpaḥ kṣamayātyeti bhavantamekayā |
hṛtavatyapi bhīṣmakātmajāṃ tvayi cakṣāmasamartha eva yat || 16.48 ||^[7]

He (dūta) also stated that Śiśupāla was very angry to Kṛṣṇa and he had been sent to call for the Yādavas.

prahitaḥpradhanāya mādhavānahamāpārayituṃ mahībhṛtā ||
na pareṣu mahaujasaśchalādakurvanti malimlacā iva || 16.52 ||^[8]

The informer told that Śiśupāla was always merciful and he defended the surrendered kings all the time. Even he was capable of fighting only by his own strength.

The messenger said that, none could conquer him and his army.

avicālitacārucakrayoranurāgādupagūḍhayoḥ śriyā |
yuvayoridameva bhidyate yadupendrastvamatīndra eva saḥ || 16.70 ||^[9]

He also added that there would be no surprise if Śiśupāla completely abolishes Kṛṣṇa from the earth. The king Śiśupāla was able to invade and subordinate all the kings. After killing Kṛṣṇa Śiśupāla would protect and defend even the children of the enemy and bear the title Śiśupāla.

The Story of the Śiśupālavadha based on Sabhāparvan of the Mahābhārata is about the Killing of wicked Śiśupāla. According to the advice of Uddhava ŚrīKṛṣṇa would attain the Rājasuya sacrifice of Yudhiṣṭhira as a means of preparation for killing of Śiśupāla. By giving the first regards to Kṛṣṇa, Śiśupāla would get angry and declare war against ŚrīKṛṣṇa. Finally it is happened. At the Sacrificial place when ŚrīKṛṣṇa was given the first regards by the advice of Bhīṣma, Śiśupāla being angry started prepairing for war. Then it was seen that Śiśupāla who was willing for fight sent an eloquently speaking ambassador to ŚrīKṛṣṇa and told some agreeable and disagreeable speeches through śleṣa alaṃkāra.

As for agreeable-at that time Śiśupāla was sorry for using some disrespectful speeches and for honouring you shown eagerness to meet you.—

‘abhidhāya tadā tadapriyaṃ śiśupalo'nuśayaṃ paraṃ gataḥ |
bhavato'bhimanāḥ samīhate saruṣaḥ kartumupetya mānanām || 16.2 ||^[10]

As for disagreeable when Śiśupāla fighs other kings, it seems like he plays with them. Such a king Śiśupāla tormenting the Yādavas would destroy ŚrīKṛṣṇa–there is no wonder about it.

For this reason the kings who were supporters of Kṛṣṇa become angry and the war between the two parties became unpreventable. The ambassador of Śiśupāla in the assembly hall of Kṛṣṇa represented Śiśupāl’s massage in his own language. It seems that such type of ambassador is included in the category of nisṛ ṣṭ artha dūta, who has all the qualities of ambassador (like minister).

Because only these type of ambassador can represent his masters message in his own language and the ambassador is successful in his task. Śiśupālas mission was fulfilled. There is no doubt that the ambassador was an Eloquent speaker, had good memory, was fearless and had good personality. It is well known that Māghas Śiśupālavadha is a political epic like Bhāravi’s Kirātarjunīya [Kirātarjunīyam]. But Śiśupālavadha is an epic, not political scripture. Poet Māgha did not have such intention. So, thorugh the description of political scriptures are not expected from his epic. We can realise through the epic of Māghas Śiśupālavadha that Māgha had enough thoughts and ideas of political scriptures. It seems that he gathered knowledge by comparative study of different political scriptures. It is seen about the present topic of ambassador. For the purpose of his epic he gave importance to ambassador. He mainly enriched his epic with stories of Kṛṣṇa accompanied with his political knowledge.

For collecting news from the interior of his vast kingdom a king must appoint spies, similarly for collecting news from other kingdoms, ambassadors are required. For this reason like ancient administrations ambassadors are also relevant in modern administration.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Haridas Siddhantavagisha: Op.cit., p. 85.

[2]:

Sitanath kavyaratna & Madhab Dass Sankhyatirtha, (Ed.): Śiśupālavadha, pp. 234-235.

[3]:

ibid., p. 235.

[4]:

Haridas Siddhantavagisha: Op. cit., p. 663.

[5]:

ibid., p. 672.

[6]:

ibid., p. 679.

[7]:

ibid., p. 686.

[8]:

ibid., p. 688.

[9]:

ibid., p. 697.

[10]:

ibid., p. 661.