Book 2 of 18 — Critical Edition (Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute)
Sabha Parva — The Book of the Assembly Hall
सभापर्व
A hall of illusions, an emperor's consecration, and a dice game that stakes a kingdom, a queen and five men's freedom.
Episodes in this parva
- 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.
- Draupadi in the assembly — Dragged into a full court, the queen puts a question of law to the elders — and every one of them declines to answer it.
Continue through the epic
- Adi Parva — Book 1 — Two royal lines, a tangle of births and curses, and the boyhood rivalry that ends in a war of extermination.
- Vana Parva — Book 3 — Twelve years of exile spent in pilgrimage and penance, and the celestial weapons Arjuna wins along the way.
