01Second of the hundred
Duhshasana was the second of Gandhari’s hundred sons, and from boyhood he stood wherever Duryodhana stood. With Karna and Shakuni he made up the small council that planned against the Pandavas, the lac house, the dice, the refusal of peace. Where Duryodhana schemed, Duhshasana did what he was told, and did it roughly. In the Sabha Parva he is the one sent when the others hesitate, and the one who jeers loudest when the Pandavas put on deerskins for the forest. Of all the hundred, Bhima’s anger fixed on him.
02In the hall
When the usher came back twice without Draupadi, Duryodhana sent his brother. Duhshasana went into the women’s quarters, caught her by her long hair as she ran towards the old king’s women, and dragged her into the assembly in her single garment. There, at Karna’s word, he began to pull it off her. Another garment like it appeared beneath, and another, until a heap lay on the floor and he sat down, the text says, worn out and ashamed. As the Pandavas left for the forest he danced around Bhima crying “Cow! Cow!”, and Bhima swore again to drink his blood.
03The seventeenth day
On the second day of Karna’s command, the seventeenth of the war, Bhima found Duhshasana on the field, broke his chariot, threw him to the ground with a blow of the mace, and then, while both armies watched, stood on his throat, drew his sword, cut open his chest and drank, roaring that it was sweeter than his mother’s milk or honey. The Kauravas fled in terror at the sight. Afterwards Bhima told Gandhari that the blood had gone no further than his lips and teeth. The katha that Draupadi washed her hair in Duhshasana’s blood before tying it is best known from the drama Venisamhara and later tellings, not from the Critical Edition.