01Kamyaka and the akshaya patra
Brahmanas followed the Pandavas out of Hastinapura, and Yudhishthira had nothing to feed them. On Dhaumya’s advice he praised Surya with his hundred and eight names, and Surya gave him a copper vessel. Whatever was cooked in it would not run out on any day until Draupadi had eaten. They lived in the Kamyaka forest and in Dvaitavana by a lake. Shri Krishna came with the Vrishnis, heard Draupadi’s grief and promised that the women of her tormentors would weep as she had. Draupadi and Bhima pressed Yudhishthira to fight now; he held to his word of twelve years and one.
02Arjuna and the Kirata
Vyasa came to the forest and gave Yudhishthira a vidya to pass on to Arjuna, so he could go and win divine weapons. Arjuna went alone into the Himalaya to Indrakila and sat in fierce tapas. A boar charged him; he shot it, and at the same instant a hunter, a Kirata, shot it too. They quarrelled over the kill. Arjuna’s arrows vanished into the hunter, his Gandiva was taken from him, and when they wrestled Arjuna fell senseless. Then he knew the Kirata for Bhagwan Shiva, with Mata Parvati beside him in the form of a hunter’s wife. Mahadev was pleased with his courage and gave him the Pashupata astra. The lokapalas gave him their weapons, and Indra’s charioteer Matali took him to Amaravati.
03Tirthas and the rishis’ kathas
Arjuna stayed five years in Indra’s heaven, learning weapons and, from the gandharva Chitrasena, music and dance. When he refused the apsara Urvashi, she cursed him to live a year as a eunuch; Indra turned the curse into a blessing for the year of hiding. Meanwhile the rishi Lomasha led the other brothers on a great tirtha-yatra across Bharat, and at each ford the rishis told its katha. The rishi Brihadashva told of Nala, who lost his kingdom at dice and found Damayanti again. Markandeya, who had lived through pralaya, told of Matsya, of Savitri who followed Yama and won back Satyavan’s life, and the whole Ramopakhyana, the katha of Shri Rama, so Yudhishthira would know that another king had suffered exile and won.
04Bhima meets Hanuman
Near Gandhamadana a wind carried a thousand-petalled saugandhika flower to Draupadi, and she asked Bhima for more. He crashed through the banana groves and found an old monkey lying across the path. Bhima told him to move. The monkey said he was too old; lift my tail and pass. Bhima could not stir it. The monkey was Hanuman, son of Vayu like Bhima himself, his elder brother. Hanuman showed him a glimpse of the form in which he had leapt to Lanka, told him of the yugas, and promised to sit on Arjuna’s banner in the war and roar from it. Bhima reached Kubera’s lake, fought the yakshas who guarded it and brought back the flowers.
05Duryodhana in chains, Jayadratha shorn
Duryodhana went to Dvaitavana on the pretext of counting cattle, the ghosha-yatra, to show the exiles his splendour. The gandharva Chitrasena stopped his camp, defeated Karna and took Duryodhana prisoner. Yudhishthira sent Bhima and Arjuna to free their cousin, and the shame of being rescued nearly drove Duryodhana to fast to death. Later Jayadratha, king of Sindhu and husband of Duhshala, found Draupadi alone at the hermitage and carried her off in his chariot. The brothers overtook him. Bhima shaved his head leaving five tufts and made him declare himself their slave before Yudhishthira let him go. Jayadratha went to the Himalaya and pleased Shiva, who gave him a boon to hold back the Pandavas, Arjuna excepted, for a single day.
06Karna gives away his armour
Karna was born with golden armour and earrings grown into his body, and while he wore them no weapon could kill him. Surya came to him in a dream and warned that Indra, father of Arjuna, would come disguised as a brahmana to beg for them. Karna answered that he never refused a brahmana at the hour of his worship. Indra came. Karna cut the armour and earrings from his own body and gave them. Indra, shamed and pleased, gave him in return a shakti spear that would surely kill one enemy, but only once. Karna kept it for Arjuna.
07The Yaksha’s questions
In the last year the brothers chased a deer that had run off with a brahmana’s fire-sticks, until they were parched. Nakula found a clear lake. A voice told him to answer its questions before he drank. He drank and fell dead. So did Sahadeva, Arjuna and Bhima. Yudhishthira came and agreed to answer. What is heavier than the earth? The mother. What is higher than the sky? The father. What is the greatest wonder? That every day beings go to Yama’s house, and those who remain wish to live forever. Pleased, the Yaksha offered one brother’s life. Yudhishthira chose Nakula so Madri too would have a living son. The Yaksha was Dharma, his own father, and he gave all four back, with the boon that no one would know them in the year to come.
Famous verses
माता गुरुतरा भूमेः पिता उच्चतरश्च खात् । मनः शीघ्रतरं वायोश्चिन्ता बहुतरी नृणाम् ॥
The mother is heavier than the earth; the father is higher than the sky. The mind is swifter than the wind; worry is more numerous than men.Mahabharata 3.297.41 (BORI CE), Yudhishthira to the Yaksha
अहन्यहनि भूतानि गच्छन्तीह यमालयम् । शेषाः स्थावरमिच्छन्ति किमाश्चर्यमतः परम् ॥
Day after day beings go to the house of Yama, yet those who remain wish to stay forever. What wonder is greater than this?Mahabharata, Aranyaka Parva, Yaksha Prashna (BORI CE Appendix I, no. 32, lines 63–64, after 3.297.61)