The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Yoni
784
Navaratri, the festival of the “nine
nights” that are sacred to the Goddess in
her varying forms.
Yoni
Although in modern Hindi this has
become a vulgar word for female
genitalia, its most literal meaning is
“womb,” both in a literal sense as the
place of gestation and in a metaphorical
sense as any place of origin, source, or
generative power.
Yudhishthira
(“firm in battle”) In the Mahabharata,
the later of the two great Hindu epics,
Yudhishthira is the eldest of the
Pandava brothers who are the epic’s
protagonists. Yudhishthira is magically
born when his mother, Kunti, uses a
powerful mantra to have a son by
Dharma, the god of righteousness.
Yudhishthira is in all ways his father’s
son; he is described in the epic as the
manifestation of Dharma on earth. He
is proverbial for his strict adherence to
the truth, is courteous to all, and is
committed to righteousness. His only
personal flaw is a love of gambling, a
love matched only by his complete lack
of gaming skill, and this flaw has major
repercussions.
Because of his virtues, Yudhishthira
is selected as heir to the throne by his
uncle, Dhrtarashtra. This choice raises
the jealousy of Dhrtarashtra’s son,
Duryodhana. He first tries to kill the
Pandavas by building the flammable
house of lac. The house is burned, but
the Pandavas are able to escape
unharmed. Some time later, Duryodhana
decides to win Yudhishthira’s rights to
the kingship in a game of dice. Here
Yudhishthira’s love for gambling gets the
better of his judgment, for he is playing
against Duryodhana’s maternal uncle,
Shakuni, who is very skilled. As Yudhishthira
begins to lose, he keeps betting
bigger and bigger stakes, in an effort to
win back what he has lost. After losing
their kingdom and all their possessions,
Yudhishthira wagers himself and
his brothers. After losing this bet, he
wagers and loses the Pandava brothers’
common wife, Draupadi. This loss
leads to Draupadi’s humiliation, in
which she is paraded through the
assembly hall by Duryodhana and his
brother, Duhshasana, her clothes
stained with her menstrual blood. This
event sharpens the already strong enmities
between the two groups. Shocked at
such treatment, Duryodhana’s father,
King Dhrtarashtra, gives the Pandavas
back their freedom, but because of the
loss in the game of dice, the Pandavas
agree to go into exile for twelve years
and live incognito for the thirteenth,
with the condition that if they are
discovered in the thirteenth year the
cycle will begin anew.
Yudhishthira and his brothers peacefully
pass their twelve years in exile.
During the thirteenth year, they live in the
court of King Virata, where they remain
undiscovered, despite frantic searching
by Duryodhana’s spies. When the thirteen
years have passed, Yudhishthira and
his brothers return to claim their part of
the kingdom. Yudhishthira hopes for
some sort of peaceful settlement and
sends a message to Duryodhana saying
that they will be satisfied with a mere five
villages, one for each brother. When
Duryodhana responds that they will not
get as much land as could fit under the
point of a needle, Yudhishthira realizes
that they will not get their rights without
a battle. He reluctantly mobilizes his
brothers for war. He fights valiantly in
the great war and is crowned the king
after their victory.
After ruling for many years,
Yudhishthira sets out with his brothers
and their wife, Draupadi, for the
Himalayas, followed by a small dog. As
they climb the mountains Draupadi and
his brothers die one by one, but the dog
remains with Yudhishthira. At the top of
the Himalayas Yudhishthira finds the
god Indra, the king of heaven, waiting
for him in a golden chariot. Indra tells
Yudhishthira that he will take him to
heaven but that Yudhishthira will have