Reading through the story again, I decided that I should go back to the previous episode, Jealousy, to make sure I understood why Prince Duryodhana wanted to get rid of the Pandavas. Duryodhana told his father, King Dhritarashtra, that the Pandavas planned to take his kingdom from him. The king had no reason not to believe his son so now Duryodhana could unfold his plan of building a palace filled with oil-soaked wood furniture. The palace was built and Duryodhana went to convince Queen Kunti and her sons to come visit. They agreed and the prince even got a crooked guard, Purochana, to come help him with his plan. Vidura, half-brother of Pandu and Dhritarashtra, knew something was off from the start. He suspected Duryodhana was up to something and immediately warned Yudhishthira.
Queen Kunti and her sons traveled to the newly built palace. Yudhishthira remembered the words of Vidura and then came to see all the furniture soaked in oil and the ceiling built of wood. All of this would surely burn without a doubt! Yudhishthira warned his brothers and mother. Vidura had a plan in mind to help the family escape when needed. He sent a miner dig a tunnel from the floor of the palace out to the forest. The night he finished digging, the princes and their mother went down into the tunnel and walked out into the forest it led to. But, Prince Bhima decided that the evil guard, Purochana should not be let off the hook. He went back to the palace and set flames to the guardhouse where Purochana perished.
That night, beggars had come to the palace searching for sympathy. The Pandavas had taken them in and given them food, wine, and somewhere to sleep. As they were sleeping, the fire from the guardhouse had spread to the palace and the beggars had passed. The next morning, the people of Varanavata saw the disaster and the remains of the beggars. They thought that Queen Kunti and the Pandavas had died in the fire. Everyone was in such sorrow for the noble family, except for Prince Duryodhana and his father. They rejoiced. Little did they know, Queen Kunti and her sons had
actually escaped!
After the more taking more detail notes on the story, I did some more research via Wikipedia. I found an article titled, "Lakshagraha." I learned that Lakshagraha translates to "The House of Lacquer" and it serves as a chapter in Mahabharata. It mentioned how building the house was not only a plan of Duryodhanah but also his evil uncle, Shakuni. I did not remember seeing anything about this in the PDE version of the story! It also talked about how Purochana was an architect which I thought was an interesting tidbit. The article wrote that Queen Kunti and her sons were invited to attend a fair being held at the palace, as well as staying their for some time. The Pandavas lived in the house for a year and the tunnel was built in about 6 months. Bhima and Purochana were also planning to kill each other from the start. Purochana wanted to set the place to fire while everyone was asleep but Bhima never slept. So, Purochana asked his wife and her sons for help. They were to poison the food given to the Pandavas. Bhima felt that something was wrong and ate all of the food, knowing that he had already been exposed to this poison as a child. The Pandavas were sleeping but Purochana assumed them to be dead. He was rejoicing and the Pandavas saw this as an opportunity to set the house on fire and the wicked perished. Everyone assumed the Pandavas had died and only Vidura knew this was not true. This story was slightly different and certain details were left out in the PDE version.
The Noble Pandavas (Wikimedia Commons)
Bibliography:
House of Fire from PDE Mahabharata by Laura Gibbs. Link.
