193. Sahadeva
Sahadeva, the twin brother of Nakula and the youngest of the five Pandavas was the son of king Pandu and Madri; the story of his birth is narrated in the story of Arjuna. Besides Draupadi, the common wife of the Pandavas, Sahadeva married Vijaya, who was Sahadeva’s maternal cousin, who chose him in her swayamvar; his sons were Srutakarma (aka Shrutasena) and Suhotra respectively from Draupadi and Vijaya.
He was mild-mannered, bashful, patient, and virtuous in every aspect; he was a great sword figher like his brother Nakula. However, his unique ability was clairvoyance… As per one version, Pandu’s entire knowledge gathered due to years of meditation got passed down to Sahadeva just before the former’s death. Due to the knowledge he inherited, he was able to see the past as well as the future. As a result he was considered as the greatest astrologer during his time!
Nakula, the astrologer
However, Krishna approached him and made him promise that he’d never reveal the entire truth to anyone. When Sahadeva pointed out that this wouldn’t be possible, Krishna told him that he should not reveal more than what was asked for. In return Sahadeva made Krishna promise that he would protect him and his brothers at all costs and that should something happen to any one of them, Krishna too would kill himself. In fact, when Sahadeva was asked if there was any way to avoid the war between Kauravas and Pandavas, he replied that this was possible if Krishna and Shakuni were imprisoned; all the Kauravas and Pandavas were to retire into the forest after Karna is made the king!
Since Sahadeva was very good in astrology, Duryodhana would always ask him about his future and was the most favourite Pandava of Duryodhan. Just before the Kurukshetra battle, on the advice of Shakuni he approached Sahadeva in order to seek the right time to start the Kurukshetra battle so that the Kauravas will be victorious and in exchange he promised to spare the lives of Sahadeva and his twin brother Nakula and also make them as kings after the war. While he declined the offer, he disclosed the auspicious time despite the fact that Kauravas were their enemy, since he was honest in his profession.
During the 13th year of their exile, Sahadeva took up the role of a cowherd who supervised the maintenance and upkeep of all cows in Virata’s kingdom and assumed the name of Tantripal.
During the Kurukshetra battle, Sahadeva slew prominent warriors including 40 brothers of Duryodhana and as also sons of Shakuni and Shalya. On the 14th day though he was defeated by Karna, his life was spared since the latter had made a promise to Kunti that he would only kill Arjuna. Since he took an oath of slaying Shakuni during the gambling loss, Sahadeva killed him on the 14th day.
During the ashwamedha sacrifice Sahadeva was sent in the southern direction by Yudhishthira, because of his expertise with the sword; it was believed the warrior kings from these regions were skilled with sword-fighting in general. Several kingdoms south of Indraprastha were conquered and brought them under Hastinapur’s protection by Sahadeva including Saurashtra, Vidarbha, Pandyan dynasty, Matsya, kings of Lanka (descendants of Vibhishana), Kishkindha, Paurava and territories lying on the banks of the Venwa and on the banks of the Narmada.
During the mahaprashthana (great departure) of the Pandavas, after renouncing the wordly pleasures, all of the Pandavas grew weak and died before reaching heaven one after the other, except Yudhishthira. Sahadeva was the second one to fall after Draupadi. When Bhima asked Yudhishthira why Sahadeva had fallen, Yudhisthira replied that Sahadeva was proud that nobody was his equal in wisdom.