"Extra Credit" Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Part B

 

The Pandavas: Wikipedia

Dhritarashtra discovers that the Pandavas are still alive; however, he does not hate them. His sons do hate them though. Bhishma and Vidura tell Dhritarashtra that he should try to make peace while Karna tells him that they are all traitors. In the end, he decides to make peace by giving them a piece of his lands.

After given the lands, the Pandavas decide to build a great city: Indraprastha. One day, they are visited by a sage who warns them of potential conflicts due to sharing a wife. One conflict that does occur is Arjuna walks in on Yudhishthira and the wife making love and thus he is exiled for 12 years. During this 12 year exile, he marries a naga princess as well as the sister of Krishna.

During this time, Yudhishthira is crowned to become king. Since he was to have a coronation, Duryodhana, one of Dhritarashtra's sons,  decided to go. Duryodhana, is deeply jealous of the kingdom. Shakuni, his maternal uncle, begs him not to mess with the Pandavas, as they possess great power and weapons. However, he ignores him and goes to confront them.  What he did not know was that the assembly hall was full of optical illusions and thus is fooled. The Pandavas and their wife laugh at him, which enrages him further.

Seeing his rage, Shakuni suggests that Duryodhana challenge the Pandavas in a game of dice, as he was greatly gifted for the game while Yudhishthira possessed no talent. He then goes back to his home and convinces his father to build his own assembly hall, which he calls the Crystal Palace, to challenge the Pandavas. Once the hall was built, the Pandavas were invited to come play a game of dice, which they accept.

As Shakuni predicted, Yudhishthira is horrible at dice. He gambles away everything he owns, his brothers, and himself. He then decides to gamble his wife, Draupadi. She is furious and has to be dragged by her hair into the hall. Karna then orders the Pandavas to take off their princely robes. Then, Duryodhana orders Draupadi to undress. In desperation, she closes her eyes and asks Krishna for help. As her sari is being pulled off, it is replaced by another. For this, Bhima swears he will get revenge on Duryodhana. Dhritarashtra then allows Draupadi to make wishes, which she does to free her husbands. He then gives them back all of their belongings and sends them back to Indraprastha in peace.

Duryodhana is furious and begs his father to invite the Pandavas back for a rematch. The Pandavas accept and lose, again.  They gain 13 years of exile which include 12 years of living in poverty and then one year in disguise. The Pandavas go to the Ganga river where Yudhishthira prays to the sun god. He is given a copper bowl that has endless food so that they will never go hungry. Then, they go live as hermits in the wilderness.

During this exile, Krishna comes and finds Yudhishthira and promises that their enemies will be punished. Vyasa then teaches Yudhishthira a great manta that will allow him to get weapons from the gods so that when a battle between them and their enemies occur, they will be ready. He then teaches Arjuna the manta as well. Arjuna then goes out for five years and gains weapons from gods. When he returns, the Pandavas are delighted to see all of the weapons he brings.

Bibliography:  Narayan, R K. The Mahabharata. The University of Chicago Press, 1978.