The story

Two cousins reached Dvaraka on the same day, and found the man they had both come for asleep.

The thirteenth year was over. The Pandavas had come out of hiding, Arjuna's son Abhimanyu had married the princess Uttara at Virata's court, and the kings gathered there had argued about what to do next. Krishna and his elder brother Balarama had gone home to Dvaraka. Duryodhana's spies told him so, and he set out at once with a small escort. On the same day Arjuna set out for the same city.

They came into Krishna's chamber one after the other. Duryodhana entered first and sat down on a fine seat at the head of the bed. Arjuna came in after him and stood at the foot, bowing, with his hands joined. When Krishna woke, the first person he saw was Arjuna.

He welcomed them both and asked why they had come. Duryodhana answered with a smile. There will be a war, he said, and you should help me. Your friendship with me and with Arjuna is the same, and so is your kinship with both of us. I came first, and good men favour the one who comes first.

Krishna did not dispute it. You did come first, he said. But I saw Arjuna first. So I will help both of you. And because tradition says the younger should be offered the first choice, Arjuna chooses first. Then he set out the two choices. On one side stood a vast army of cowherds, as strong in body as Krishna himself, called the Narayanas, every one of them a fighter. On the other side stood Krishna alone, who would not fight and would lay down his weapons.

Arjuna chose Krishna, unarmed.

Duryodhana took the army, and the text says he was delighted. He had a million warriors, and Krishna would not be fighting. Then he went to Balarama and told him everything. Balarama's answer stands apart in the epic. He reminded Duryodhana of what he had said at Virata's court: he had told Krishna again and again that their kinship with the Kurus was equal on both sides. Krishna had not listened. And Balarama said he could not stand apart from Krishna for even a moment. So he would help neither Arjuna nor Duryodhana. Go and fight by the dharma of a kshatriya, he told Duryodhana; you were born into a great line. Duryodhana embraced him and left, sure that the war was as good as won. Then the Yadava leader Kritavarman gave him a full army of his own. Balarama keeps to this line to the end. Just before the war he leaves on a pilgrimage along the Sarasvati, saying that Bhima and Duryodhana are both his pupils in the mace and that he cannot watch the Kurus destroyed.

Alone with Arjuna, Krishna asked the obvious question. Why choose a man who will not fight? Arjuna's answer is not the pious one a reader might expect. You could kill all of them yourself, he said, and so could I, alone. But you are famous, and fame goes wherever you go. I want fame too. So I chose you. And I have long wanted you to drive my chariot. Krishna said it was fitting that Arjuna should want to compete with him, and he agreed to be his charioteer.

The same contest of courtesies decided a second king. Shalya, king of the Madras, was the brother of Madri and the uncle of the twins. The Pandavas' messengers had summoned him, and he marched towards them with his sons and an army so large that its camp stretched for a yojana and a half. Duryodhana heard of it and went out to meet him. Along Shalya's road he had jewelled halls built in pleasant places, and his ministers received the king at every one of them with every kind of luxury. Shalya was so well treated that, the text says, he thought himself greater than Indra. At last he asked the servants which of Yudhishthira's men had built these halls, because he wanted to reward them.

Duryodhana had been watching from hiding, and now he came forward. Shalya saw what had been done for him, embraced him, and told him to ask for whatever he wished. Duryodhana asked him to keep his word and lead his army. Shalya said it was done.

Then Shalya rode on to the Pandavas' camp at Upaplavya and told Yudhishthira the whole story. Yudhishthira did not reproach him. He said Shalya had done right to keep his promise. But he asked one favour. When Karna and Arjuna meet in single combat, he said, you will be Karna's charioteer, because you are Krishna's equal. Protect Arjuna then, and break Karna's spirit, even though it is not a thing that should be done. Shalya promised. He would drive Karna's chariot, and he would talk to Karna against him until his pride and his fire were gone.

This is the episode that sets the war's two great chariots in place. Arjuna's driver will be Krishna, who will not lift a weapon and who will speak the Gita from that seat. Karna's driver will be Shalya, who has promised the enemy to undermine him with words. Both arrangements were made at a bedside and in a row of roadside halls, through courtesy and rules of precedence. Kurukshetra was assembled in places like these before anyone reached the field.

Who appears, and what it argues

• Krishna — Cousin, envoy and charioteer — the one who shapes the war's course without ever lifting a weapon in it.
• Arjuna — The archer the whole war is arranged around, who arrives at its opening unable to lift his bow because of who is standing on the other side.
• Duryodhana — The eldest Kaurava, who never disputes that the kingdom is contested and never concedes that this makes the Pandavas' claim equal to his.
• Balarama — Krishna's elder brother, who taught both Bhima and Duryodhana the mace, took no side, and raged at the blow that ended the war.
• Shalya — The Pandava twins' uncle, won to the Kaurava side by hospitality on the road, who drives Karna's chariot and talks him toward defeat.
• Yudhishthira — The eldest Pandava, called the king of dharma, who gambles away his brothers, his wife and himself without anyone forcing his hand.
• Theme: Divine counsel
• Theme: Kinship and enmity

Elsewhere in this parva

• Vidura's counsel on a sleepless night — A king who cannot sleep sends for the half-brother he has ignored all his life, and is told exactly what to do while there is time to do it
• Krishna's embassy to Hastinapura — Krishna goes to Hastinapura to ask for peace, is refused even a needle's point of land, and shows the hall who he is
• Krishna and Karna — Krishna offers Karna the throne as Kunti's eldest son, and Karna turns it down for the charioteer's wife who raised him
• The story of Amba — Bhishma explains why he will not fight Shikhandi and, in telling Amba's story, names the one way he can fall

Questions to explore

• Why did Arjuna choose Krishna without weapons over an entire army?
• Why did Balarama refuse to fight for either side in the Kurukshetra war?
• How did Duryodhana win Shalya, the Pandavas' own uncle, to his side?