The story

The Pandavas were given a wilderness as their half of the kingdom, and before they were finished with it, it had been burned to the ground.

After the svayamvara, Vidura brought the brothers, their mother and Draupadi back to Hastinapura, and Dhritarashtra offered a settlement. So that there would be no more quarrelling, he said, take half the kingdom and go and live in Khandavaprastha. With Krishna leading them, and with Vyasa directing the measuring of the ground, they built a city there, with moats like the sea, white walls, and markets that drew traders from every direction. They called it Indraprastha.

Then the sage Narada visited, and while Draupadi was out of the room he gave them a warning. Five brothers, one wife: you must make a rule, he said, or she will divide you. He told them of the demon brothers Sunda and Upasunda, who killed each other over one woman. So the Pandavas agreed among themselves that if any of them intruded on another who was with Draupadi, he would live twelve years in the forest as a brahmacharin, a celibate student.

The rule was broken by the brother least likely to break it, and for the best reason. Thieves stole a brahmana's cattle, and the man stood at the gate crying out for the Pandavas to protect him. Arjuna's weapons were in the room where Yudhishthira was sitting with Draupadi. Arjuna weighed it: if he ignored the brahmana, the brothers' whole claim to protect their people would be empty; if he went in, he must go into exile. He went in, took his bow, routed the thieves, and returned the cattle. Then he asked for his sentence. Yudhishthira tried to release him. A younger brother coming in on an elder is no offence, he said, and I forgive it completely. Arjuna refused. One must not practise dharma by way of a pretext, he said, and he left.

Arjuna met the serpent princess Ulupi, who persuaded him that his vow concerned Draupadi alone, and he married Chitrangada of Manalura, whose son would stay to carry on her father's line. At Prabhasa he met Krishna and came to Dvaraka, where he saw Krishna's sister Subhadra at a festival on Mount Raivataka and fell in love. Krishna told him that a svayamvara was a gamble and that carrying off a bride by force was a lawful kshatriya way to marry, so with Yudhishthira's permission Arjuna took her up into his chariot. The Vrishni warriors rose in arms and Balarama raged, but Krishna argued that Arjuna had honoured their family rather than insulted it, and they brought him back for a proper wedding. When the twelve years were over he went home. Draupadi met him with a sharp line about a second knot loosening the first, and Subhadra, sent in dressed as a cowherd girl, bowed to her and said, I am your servant. Draupadi embraced her. In time Subhadra bore Abhimanyu.

One hot day Arjuna and Krishna went to the Yamuna with their friends for a day of feasting and play, and the two of them sat apart near the Khandava forest. A tall, golden-skinned brahmana approached them and asked for one meal, saying he was a great eater. When they asked what food would satisfy him, he revealed himself as Agni, the god of fire. He wanted the Khandava forest. Indra protected it because his friend Takshaka, the serpent king, lived there, and whenever Agni blazed up Indra put him out with rain.

Arjuna said he had the weapons but lacked a bow strong enough for his arms, inexhaustible arrows, and a chariot to carry them. So Agni called on Varuna, lord of the waters, who gave Arjuna the bow Gandiva, two quivers that never emptied, and a chariot drawn by white horses with a monkey on its banner. Agni gave Krishna a discus that would return to his hand after every throw, and Varuna added a mace, Kaumodaki. Then Agni surrounded the forest.

What follows is one of the hardest passages in the epic, and the text does not look away. The two of them circled the burning forest in their chariots so that nothing could escape. Creatures ran with their bodies on fire; some clung to their children or parents and burned together. Whatever flew up, Arjuna cut down and sent back into the flames. Indra came with storm clouds, but the rain dried up in the heat before it reached the fire. A serpent mother tried to carry her son Ashvasena out by swallowing him; Arjuna cut off her head, and Indra confused him with a gust of wind long enough for the son to escape. The gods themselves came to fight and were driven off. Then a voice from the sky told Indra to stop. Takshaka was not even there, it said; he had gone to Kurukshetra. These two were the ancient sages Nara and Narayana, and the forest's destruction was ordained. Indra went home.

Only six were spared: Ashvasena, four young sharngaka birds whose father had once asked Agni for mercy, and an asura named Maya, who ran from Takshaka's house with Krishna's discus raised over him and Agni at his heels. He cried out to Arjuna, and Arjuna told him not to be afraid. Krishna lowered the discus, and the fire let him pass. When Agni was satisfied, Indra came down and offered boons. Arjuna asked for Indra's weapons, and was told he would have them when he had pleased Shiva. Krishna asked for lasting friendship with Arjuna.

The fire at Khandava arms the two friends for everything that follows. Arjuna leaves it with Gandiva and his chariot, Krishna with his discus. Maya will repay his life by building the Pandavas a hall so wonderful that it becomes the envy of their cousins. And the serpent who lost his mother there will come back on the day of Karna's last duel with Arjuna, riding Karna's arrow, to settle the account.

Who appears, and what it argues

• 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.
• Krishna — Cousin, envoy and charioteer — the one who shapes the war's course without ever lifting a weapon in it.
• Yudhishthira — The eldest Pandava, called the king of dharma, who gambles away his brothers, his wife and himself without anyone forcing his hand.
• Draupadi — Won in a contest she had no say in, married to five men on a careless word, and the only person in the hall who asks a question of law.
• Theme: The binding vow
• Theme: Divine counsel

Elsewhere in this parva

• The serpent sacrifice — The Mahabharata is first recited at a king's rite of revenge, while snakes fall into the fire for his father's death.
• Shakuntala and Dushyanta — A king who remembers his forest marriage perfectly well says he does not, until a voice from the sky names his son Bharata.
• The birth of the Kuru princes — A blind heir, a pale one and a renunciant's vow leave the succession contested before any of the cousins can walk.
• The tournament of arms — Drona trains the princes to settle his own grudge, takes Ekalavya's thumb, and watches Karna crowned in Arjuna's arena.
• The house of lac — A guest house built to burn: the first attempt on the Pandavas' lives, and the escape that lets them be thought dead.
• Hidimba and Baka — Bhima kills two man-eaters and wins a rakshasi wife, and Kunti offers her own son to a demon to repay a host's kindness.
• Draupadi's svayamvara — An archery test won by a supposed dead man in disguise, and a mother's careless word that binds five brothers to one wife.

Questions to explore

• Why did Arjuna go into exile for twelve years when Yudhishthira forgave him?
• Why did Agni want to burn the Khandava forest?
• Who survived the burning of Khandava?