The Drought Test: Principle Under Pressure
A drought came—not sudden but slow, a gradual drying that turned lush fields to dust and full wells to shallow basins. Water, which had seemed infinite, became finite. The city's reserves would last perhaps two seasons if rationing was strict. Food stores would last longer, but only if trade continued. Fear began its usual work: people hoarded, prices climbed, and the coalition that had receded suddenly whispered from the shadows again—why protect a city that could not protect itself?
Krishna called the assembly and did not offer false hope. "We face a real test," he said plainly. "Rationing will hurt. Some will suffer more than others. The question before us is: who suffers most?" The assembly was silent, understanding the weight of what was being asked.
The decision came quickly and was stunning in its clarity: the wealthy would reduce consumption not by a set percentage but to the level that the poorest would receive. Nobility, merchants, officials—all would eat what the lowest-wage worker ate. Some objected vigorously; others saw immediately that this was the only way to hold the city together. Krishna implemented it without exception, eating with the rationed measure himself and visible to all.
The effect was not immediate relief but immediate clarity of purpose. Rich and poor ate at the same tables in communal halls. The wealthy, for the first time, tasted what scarcity felt like, and in tasting it, understood its weight on those who lived it always. Workers, seeing their oppressors at the same level of hunger, felt not triumph but a strange kind of kinship—all in the same difficulty, all dependent on each other's restraint.
The drought lasted eighteen months. Some people died despite the measures—infants, the very old, the already ill. Dvaraka grieved honestly, not hiding the cost. But the city held. Trade continued because other cities sent aid, believing in a kingdom that would share its hunger equally. When rains returned, the city had changed—not into paradise, but into something closer to a true community.
Merchants later calculated that the equal rationing had cost the wealthy more in ego than in actual resources, and wisdom, once attained, does not let go easily. The city had been tested not by invasion but by scarcity, and it had chosen principle over profit. That choice, made visible and enforced equally, became Dvaraka's greatest strength.