In this episode of Mahabharata, Dhritharashtra must choose a Crown Prince between Duryodhan and Yudhistir.
Also, Jarasandh stinging from his defeat at the hands of Krishna and his inability to conquer Dwarka, starts making alliances to be used to conquer Dwarka . He successfully forms an alliance with the Chedi kingdom and its Crown Prince Shishupal, who is Krishna’s first cousin yet hates him. Jarasandh then plans to form a stronger alliance with the kingdom of Vidharba by arranging Shishupal’s wedding to Rukmini, the princess of Vidharba.
Tropes found here are
- Altar Diplomacy: Jarasandh hopes to cement a stronger alliance between Magadh, Chedi and Vidharba kingdoms by having Chedi’s crown prince Shishupal marry Vidharba’s princess Rukmini.
- The Chosen One: Yudhistir is crowned heir apparent to the throne of Hastinapur.
- Persecution Flip: Yudhistir doles out sentences in increasing length based on how high the criminal’s caste is. A shudra gets the shortest sentence, the trader gets a longer one, the soldier gets the longest one. The Brahmin is deemed to have his fate decided only by another Brahmin.
- Sarcasm Mode: Shakuni says of Yudhistir giving four murderers different sentences based on their caste, “Brilliant! Four sentences for one crime! What kind of justice is this!”
- Self-Immolation: The Brahmin murderer offers to do this as his penance.
- Type Caste: Yudhistir calls a shudra “illiterate”, calls a vaishya trader only more literate than a shudra, lectures a Kshatriya soldier about his duty as a guardian, and says that only a Brahmin may judge another Brahmin.
