Appears in
- The Rajasuya sacrifice — Yudhishthira's consecration as emperor — the height of the Pandavas' fortune, and the sight that decides Duryodhana to act.
- The game of dice — A king who cannot refuse a challenge plays against a loaded opponent, and stakes his brothers, his wife and himself.
Embodies
- Dice and dispossession — A kingdom, a wife and a man's own self staked on a rigged game — and an assembly that let the wager stand.
- Kinship and enmity — The war is a family quarrel: across the field stand cousins, teachers and elders, all owed reverence.
Questions to explore
- Does the epic give Shakuni a motive of his own, or is the revenge-for-Gandhari backstory a later retelling?
- The dice game is legal in every respect and ruinous in every respect — what is the text saying about rules?
