Sañjaya's embassy to the Pāṇḍavas, and the five villages

Classical

Once the Pāṇḍavas had settled at Upaplavya with their allies and the priest sent by Drupada had pleaded their case in the Kuru court, Dhṛtarāṣṭra grew uneasy. He sent Sañjaya, his charioteer and trusted minister, to see them. He told Sañjaya to greet Yudhiṣṭhira warmly, to say that it was good fortune that they had come out of the forest into such a city, and to speak gently to everyone. Privately the old king admitted a great deal. He said that he had never found a fault in the Pāṇḍavas, that they had won their own wealth by their own valour, and that only the stubborn Duryodhana, and the still meaner Karṇa, hated them. He knew that Arjuna alone could devastate the world.

Sañjaya reached the Pāṇḍava camp and delivered the greetings and the king's message in the presence of Kṛṣṇa, Virāṭa, Sātyaki and the rest. He pleaded for peace. Yudhiṣṭhira's answer was that he had never wanted anything else. Peace was far better than war, and no sane man would choose to fight if he could have what he wanted without it. But the sorrows of his family had been caused by Dhṛtarāṣṭra himself, who had followed his wicked son and ignored the words of Vidura. Sañjaya replied with a long appeal to virtue, saying that it would be better for Yudhiṣṭhira to live on alms among the Andhakas and Vṛṣṇis than to win a kingdom through a slaughter of kin that would leave him with an ill name.

Yudhiṣṭhira asked Sañjaya to judge his actions by dharma and not by pity: was he acting rightly or wrongly in asking for what was his? Then Kṛṣṇa spoke. He said he wished for peace between the two families and for the prosperity of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's many sons, but that Yudhiṣṭhira had always followed the duty of a warrior and a householder, and that action done in accordance with the scriptures was not sin. If Dhṛtarāṣṭra gave back the kingdom, Kṛṣṇa would be glad. If he did not, he would accept that the sons of Pāṇḍu would have to fight. Sañjaya asked for leave to go, offering respectful farewells to Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma and Kṛṣṇa.

Before he left, Yudhiṣṭhira gave him a message for the Kauravas. The Pāṇḍavas did not want the destruction of the Bharatas. If they could not have the whole kingdom, let Duryodhana at least give them five villages, one for each brother. He named them: Kuśasthala, Vṛkasthala, Mākandī, Vāraṇāvata, and for the fifth any place Duryodhana liked. This modest gift would end the quarrel. Let brothers follow brothers, let fathers be united with sons, let the Pañcālas laugh again with the Kurus. He wanted to see the Kurus and the Pañcālas safe and whole.

Sañjaya carried this back to Hastināpura and delivered it to the court. When Kṛṣṇa came to Hastināpura himself and repeated the plea, Duryodhana said bluntly that he would not give up even as much land as the point of a needle could cover. This is why the five villages are remembered through the rest of the epic. Yudhiṣṭhira later cites them to Kṛṣṇa as proof of how little he had asked, Draupadī cites them as proof that Duryodhana wanted war, and Kṛṣṇa cites them to Karṇa and Duryodhana alike. The Pāṇḍavas had gone down from a kingdom to five villages, and were refused even that.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Sañjaya, Yudhiṣṭhira, Kṛṣṇa, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Duryodhana, Bhīma

Bound to

Sanjaya's divine sight mirror

Kṛṣṇa sets out as peace envoy: the Pāṇḍava councils origin

Vidura-nīti mirror

Places: Upaplavya, Hastināpura, Kuśasthala, Vṛkasthala, Mākandī, Vāraṇāvata

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (read via archive.org copy of the sacred-texts text) Udyoga Parva, Sections XXII–XXXII (the five-villages message is in Section XXXI)

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