96 The Mahabharata : A Criticism.
moral excellencies. Several incidents in the life of the
Pandavas related in the Mahabharata, however, do not
fit in with this theory. For instance, the five brothers
are related to have married one and the same woman.
Now polygamy was not practised or rather countenanced
by the Aryans of India at any time. The Vedic Rishis
said uas one sacrificial cord cannot go round many
sacrificial posts one woman cannot marry many men,"
though one man, in their opinion, could marry more
than one woman as many sacrificial cords could be tied
round one post. How then were these later personifica-
tions of virtue represented to have done an act entirely
opposed to Aryan notions of good behaviour ? Even the
Mahabharata itself admits the unusual character of this
proceeding and we plainly see in the Epic different at-
tempts made at different times to explain this seemingly
inconsistent conduct of its heroes. Again Bhima is said
to have drunk the blood of Duhshasana when he killed
him in battle in order to mark the revenge he had taken
on him for his dastardly action in ill-treating Draupadi.
This barbarous act too is offensive to the sense of right
conduct in every man and cannot be supposed to have
been predicated of ideal heroes conceived in later times.
In fact the Mahabharata here also makes an attempt in a
subsequent chapter, evidently an interpolation of later
dvyst to exculpate Bhima by stating that Bhima only
made a show of drinking the blood and did not actually
drink it. These and other minor actions to our mind
Show that the Pandavas were real beings and not ima-
ginary heroes. It may perhaps be urged that these
conceptions belong to a time when polygamy may have