Turīya·Sūtrathe thread to the fourth

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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Ādi

Khāṇḍava-daha

Classical

The Pandavas are settled at Indraprastha, Yudhishthira ruling fairly and kings submitting to him, when Arjuna proposes a summer outing on the banks of the Yamuna with Krishna. They go with friends and with Draupadi and Subhadra, and spend a day of games and music in a pleasant spot. Arjuna and Krishna sit apart, talking of old exploits, when a radiant Brahmin comes up. They rise and wait for his word.

The visitor asks to be fed. Ordinary food will not satisfy him, he says, and then he names himself: Agni. He wants to eat the forest of Khandava, but Indra guards it, and Indra's rains put out his flames each time. Takshaka, a snake and Indra's friend, lives there, and Indra protects all its creatures. Agni asks the two archers to hold off the rain and stop anything from escaping.

Janamejaya asks why Agni needs this, and Vaisampayana tells the story of King Shvetaki. Shvetaki held so many sacrifices that his priests, their eyes ruined by the smoke, refused to serve him any more. He turned to Shiva, who said he would help if Shvetaki poured ghee into the fire for twelve years as a celibate student. Then Shiva sent the sage Durvasa to finish the rite. Agni drank the ghee for twelve years, sickened from it, and lost his colour and strength. Brahma told him he would be cured by eating the fat of creatures in Khandava, and Agni set out to burn it. With Vayu's help he set it on fire, but the creatures fought back, elephants spraying water from their trunks and snakes from their hoods, and he blazed up and was put out seven times. Brahma then told him to ask for the help of Arjuna and Krishna, whom he named as the ancient sages Nara and Narayana.

Arjuna said he had celestial weapons but needed a bow strong enough for his arms, inexhaustible arrows and a chariot to carry them, and Krishna needed a weapon fit for his power. Agni went to Varuna, who gave Arjuna the bow Gandiva, which no weapon can damage, and two quivers that never empty. The chariot, made by Viswakarman, was drawn by silver-white Gandharva horses, with an ape on its flagstaff. Krishna got a fiery discus that returns to his hand, and Varuna gave him the mace Kaumodaki. Agni surrounded the forest with seven flames.

Then the killing began. Arjuna and Krishna took up positions on opposite sides in their chariots and struck down whatever tried to leave, until the two chariots seemed to be one. Creatures died clinging to their children and parents, ponds boiled, fish and tortoises perished, and birds shot out of the air fell back into the flames. The noise sounded like the churning of the ocean. The gods went to Indra and asked whether the world was ending. Indra gathered clouds, but the heat dried the rain in the sky. He gathered denser clouds, and Arjuna answered with a dome of arrows over the whole forest.

Takshaka was away at Kurukshetra, but his son Ashvasena was trapped. His serpent mother tried to save him by swallowing him, and Arjuna cut off her head. Indra raised a wind that stunned Arjuna for a moment, and Ashvasena slipped away. The gods then joined the fight against the two, and were driven back. Indra threw a mountain peak, which Arjuna split into a thousand pieces. Finally an unseen voice told Indra that Krishna and Arjuna were Nara and Narayana and that the burning of Khandava was fated. Indra gave up his anger and went home. Maya, an asura, ran for his life, and Krishna lifted his discus and Agni followed, but Maya called to Arjuna for protection and Arjuna told him not to fear. The fire burned for fifteen days. Only six survived: Ashvasena, Maya, and four Sarngaka birds.

The birds were saved, Vaisampayana says, by their father Mandapala, a sage who had taken bird shape to father children and had prayed to Agni before the fire to spare his unhatched sons. Agni had said so be it.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Arjuna

Bound to

Śārṅgaka origin

Founding of Indraprastha origin

Takshaka's son Aśvasena escapes the Khāṇḍava fire origin

Maya builds the Sabhā for the Pāṇḍavas origin

The Fall of Karṇa: the Sinking Wheel mirror

Death in the Forest Fire mirror

Where this comes from

See it on the tree · All stories

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