Kundina in a Single Day

Damayanti had a false swayamvara announced, knowing that only one charioteer on the whole earth could cover that distance in a single day

Brahmins sent to search

King Bhima sent brahmins in every direction to search for his daughter and son-in-law. One of them, Sudeva, wandering about, reached Chedi, and recognised Damayanti hidden there as Sairandhri — by certain marks on her body.

Sudeva brought her back to Kundina. But there was no trace of Nala anywhere.

Parnada's news

King Bhima sent brahmins out again, in different directions. Damayanti gave them a message to repeat in every court and assembly — calling out to the man who had cut his sleeping wife's garment in half and left her in the forest.

Some time later, a brahmin named Parnada returned from Ayodhya. He reported that in King Rituparna's court, only one person had answered that message — a strange, ugly charioteer named Bahuka — and his words sounded as though he knew, from within, what had passed between Nala and Damayanti.

Damayanti now suspected that Bahuka might be Nala himself.

A clever test

To test that very suspicion, Damayanti devised a plan. She sent Sudeva to Ayodhya once again, to spread word that Damayanti was to hold a second swayamvara — the very next morning.

This was entirely false. But Damayanti knew that in so short a time, only a charioteer capable of covering that distance in a single day could possibly reach there — and there was only one such charioteer in the world.

On hearing the news, Rituparna told Bahuka to ready the chariot — "We must reach Kundina in a single day."

The vibhitaka tree

Along the way, the chariot's speed was extraordinary. Varshneya, riding beside them, began to suspect this charioteer was no ordinary man. Rituparna's cloth fell along the way, but there was no time to stop.

Then a vibhitaka tree appeared. Without counting, Rituparna said — "This tree has exactly this many leaves and this many fruits." On counting, the number proved exactly right.

Bahuka was astonished, and asked the secret of this remarkable calculation. Rituparna explained that he knew the science of numbers and of dice, and at that very moment taught Bahuka the secret of dice — akshahridaya. In return Bahuka promised to give him his own mastery of horses; that mastery was handed over in full only later, after the reunion.

The moment he received the secret of dice, Kali burst out of Nala's body — spewing out Karkotaka's venom, and still suffering from Damayanti's curse. He begged Nala not to curse him. Nala let him go, and Kali entered that very vibhitaka tree standing nearby. The story says this is why the vibhitaka tree came to be regarded as inauspicious.

Note: This episode marks the beginning of Nala's release in the Nalopakhyana. The brahmin Parnada's report — that in Ayodhya only Bahuka had answered Damayanti's message — is, in the text, the very foundation of Damayanti's suspicion; without it, it is not clear why her suspicion turned to Ayodhya at all. Rituparna's counting at the vibhitaka tree is given at length in the text, with large numbers; only the event itself is kept here, not the exact figures. Akshahridaya — the secret of dice — is taught, at the very end of the story, by Brihadashva himself to Yudhishthira, exactly as Rituparna taught it to Nala. The English dialogue lines are flowing paraphrases of the Sanskrit verses, not word-for-word translations.

Source: Mahabharata, Vana Parva — Nalopakhyana, Kundina in a Single Day