Vidura brings the Pāṇḍavas home; Dhṛtarāṣṭra divides the kingdom

Classical

News that the Pāṇḍavas were alive and married into Pāñcāla's royal house shook Hastināpura. Dhṛtarāṣṭra took it as good luck and wanted them welcomed. Duryodhana and Karṇa, of course, did not, and wanted to strike before Drupada could ally with them. But Bhīṣma advised giving the Pāṇḍavas their share. Droṇa agreed. He suggested sending a diplomatic messenger to Drupada with rich gifts for the bridegrooms and Draupadī, praising the alliance, and asking Drupada's permission to bring them home. Karṇa answered angrily that Bhīṣma and Droṇa lived off Dhṛtarāṣṭra's favour and so their advice could not be trusted. He told a story of a king of Magadha whose minister took everything but could not take the throne, because fate had not given it, and argued that fate would decide the matter whatever anyone did.

Droṇa rebuked him sharply: he was advising wickedly, out of his wish to harm the Pāṇḍavas, and if the Kurus ignored good counsel they would be destroyed. Vidura then spoke for the Pāṇḍavas. He said Bhīṣma and Droṇa were the best friends the king had, because they treated Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas alike. The Pāṇḍavas were the king's sons as much as Duryodhana was. They had Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Satyaki, Drupada and his sons on their side, and the citizens wanted them back. Dhṛtarāṣṭra listened. He declared the Pāṇḍavas his own sons by the law, and sent Vidura to Pāñcāla with jewels for Draupadī, the Pāṇḍavas and Drupada.

Drupada agreed after consulting the Pāṇḍavas and Kṛṣṇa. The Pāṇḍavas, with Kuntī, Draupadī, Kṛṣṇa and Vidura, travelled to Hastināpura. Citizens lined the streets and prayed that the princes would stay. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, however, told them it would be best to avoid conflict by living apart. He gave them half the kingdom, with Arjuna to protect it, and told them to settle at Khāṇḍavaprastha. The Pāṇḍavas accepted, thanked him, and left. It was a barren, overgrown place that Duryodhana's side no doubt regarded as the worse half. The partition looks generous but it is also a trap. By settling the Pāṇḍavas at Khāṇḍavaprastha, Dhṛtarāṣṭra got them out of the capital and onto land that nobody wanted. As the next episodes show, the Pāṇḍavas turned this wasteland into a royal city and took revenge, not in battle but in wealth, which provoked the Kauravas into the plot of the dice.

There is a tension in how the text treats Dhṛtarāṣṭra here. He accepts that the Pāṇḍavas have a claim, says they are his sons, and then makes sure their share is poor land far from the capital. Bhīṣma and Droṇa speak, Vidura speaks, Karṇa speaks against, and the decision ends up the one that pleases the largest number of people without taking anything from his own sons. It is a compromise that satisfies nobody. Duryodhana will feel that his birthright has been shared, and the Pāṇḍavas will feel that the throne their father held has been given to others. Both feelings grow until the dice game.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa, Vidura, Duryodhana, Drupada, Kṛṣṇa, Yudhiṣṭhira

Bound to

Kuntī's careless command and the five-fold marriage origin

Founding of Indraprastha origin

Vidura-nīti mirror

The house of lac and the tunnel origin

Places: Hastināpura, Pāñcāla, Khāṇḍavaprastha

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CCVI (Droṇa and Karṇa debate)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CCVII (Vidura's counsel)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CCVIII (Dhṛtarāṣṭra's decision; Vidura's journey)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CCIX (the return; the division)

See it on the tree · All stories

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