Picture courtesy: Artha, YouTube
After Mahabharata war we come across Dussala in Aswamedha parva.
Dussala, the sister of 100 brothers , was the only sister to Yuyutsu and Pandavas also. Thus she had 106 brothers in all all living in one place. She was the only daughter of ruling king Dhritarashtra and was married to Jayadradha , the king of Sindhu and Suaveera kingdoms. As we all know, Jayadradha was killed in the war of Mahabharata and Dussala became a widow.
Soon after Mahabharata war was over, Yudhistara had decided to perform Aswamedha Yaga. Enormous money was required to perform the Yaga and please brahmins , befitting a new emperor. Pandavas fetch gold and daimonds of King Maruth of a bye-gone era, as advised by Veda Vyasa and Arjuna embarks on Aswamedha.
The holy horse visits so many kingdoms accompanied by Arjuna and his army and whoever captures the horse as a gesture of defiance were tackled by Arjuna. Post Mahabharata war, most of the kingdoms were being ruled by the next generation of young kings whose fathers and seniors died in MB war. As advised by Yudhistara not to kill these kings who were already mourning for their dead fathers and relatives but gently persuade them to concede defeats , Arjuna dealt with each of them softly keeping the killing to bare minimum.
When the horse reached the kingdom of Sindhu, the kings of Sindhu captured the horse and gave Arjuna handful of battle, though Suradha, the son of Jayadradha was not to be seen in the battle field. They were particularly severe because they wanted to take revenge for Arjuna’s killing of Jayadradha.Arjuna tried to advise them to stop the war, but they don’t budge. So, Arjuna had to step up the tempo and started to kill them in good number.
That was when Dussala arrived with her very young grandson and pleaded with Arjuna to stop further battle.
She informed that her son and the father of her grand child, Suradha, died the moment he heard Arjuna was coming with a Aswamedha horse. He was already reeling under the grief with regard to losing his father and Arjuna’s arrival was too much for him to cope with. The life drained out of him the movement he heard Arjuna was coming there too.
Dussala told her brother that , though his grandfather may have done wrong to Pandavas, the boy was innocent and let the war be stopped atleast now. Dussala also asked the Sindhu warriors to withdraw.
Arjuna embraced his sister, consoled her and and declared stopping of the offence and left to proceed to other kingdoms.
Thus Dussala remained as the Queen of Sindhu , being the guardian of her grand son.
( image courtesy YouTube) Dussala post Mahabharata war, lost 100 brothers, her husband slain by her brother, son died on hearing the news of Arjuna’s arrival alongwith Aswamedha horse. She had to beg for clemancy to her grandson which the brother had immediately accepted.