The Pandavas in Virata Nagar
At a Glance
- Central figures: The five Pandavas - Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva - along with Draupadi, their wife, all living under assumed identities in the court of King Virata of Matsya.
- Setting: The kingdom of Virata, ruled by King Virata, during the thirteenth and final year of the Pandavas’ exile as prescribed after their defeat in the Game of Dice; from the Mahabharata.
- The turn: Kichaka, commander of Virata’s army, harasses Draupadi relentlessly, forcing Bhima to kill him in secret - nearly exposing the Pandavas’ identities with three months still remaining in their year of concealment.
- The outcome: The Pandavas survived the full thirteen years undetected; their identities were revealed only after Arjuna defeated the Kaurava army during the cattle raid, with the year of disguise already complete.
- The legacy: The successful concealment ended with a marriage alliance - Uttara, daughter of King Virata, was wed to Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna - binding Matsya to the Pandava cause before the Kurukshetra War.
Each of the five brothers had lived as a king, fought as a warrior, been honored as a son of Dharma or a son of the Wind or a son of Indra. They had sat at Indraprastha on thrones that were theirs by right. Then they lost it all on a throw of dice - not once, but twice - and walked into the forest with nothing. Twelve years they spent there. The thirteenth year, the condition was harder: they had to vanish. Live among people, unknown, undiscovered. If even one person recognized them before the year was done, the whole ordeal would begin again from the start.
They chose the kingdom of Matsya. King Virata was a fair man, his court large enough to absorb strangers without too many questions. The Pandavas hid their weapons in a tree at the edge of the city, wrapped the bundle in cloth and let it lie there in the branches, and walked into Virata Nagar wearing the faces of people they had never been.
Five Names That Were Not Their Own
Yudhishthira presented himself as Kanka, a Brahmin learned in the science of dice, and became the king’s companion at the board. Bhima became Ballava, the palace cook - a man of extraordinary size, which raised no particular suspicion, since cooks are often large. He took part in wrestling bouts at the court’s entertainment and was careful, always, not to kill his opponents.
Arjuna’s disguise was the strangest of the five. Some years earlier, the celestial nymph Urvashi had cursed him to live as a eunuch for a year. Arjuna had set aside the curse, waiting for a use for it. Now he put it on. He entered the palace as Brihannala, teacher of dance and music, and spent his days instructing Uttara, the king’s daughter, in classical forms. Nakula became Granthi, a handler of horses. Sahadeva became Tantipala, keeper of the royal cattle, which suited him as well as any role could - he had always understood animals.
Draupadi came in as Sairandhri, a skilled maidservant, and entered the service of Queen Sudeshna. She said only that she was expert in the dressing of hair and the preparation of cosmetics, that she had powerful protectors who would come to her aid if she were wronged, and that she could not be touched by any man. The queen accepted her.
Kichaka
For most of the year, this held. The Pandavas performed their duties, kept their silences, and watched the months pass. Then Kichaka came back to court.
Kichaka was the queen’s brother and the commander of Virata’s army - a man who had won many battles and never learned that winning battles is not the same as being right. He saw Sairandhri in the corridor of the women’s quarters and wanted her immediately. He went to his sister and asked her to arrange an introduction. Queen Sudeshna, afraid of her brother in the way that people who have known someone their whole lives learn to be afraid of them, sent Draupadi to his apartments with a flagon of wine.
Draupadi went. Kichaka made his intentions clear. She ran.
She went to Yudhishthira first, and Yudhishthira said nothing, because he was Kanka the dice-player and could say nothing without risking everything. She went to the great hall where Bhima was sleeping and woke him and told him what Kichaka had done and what he intended to do again. Bhima’s face did not change much, but he sat up.
They arranged it carefully. Draupadi told Kichaka she would meet him in the dance hall that night when it was empty. Kichaka came in the dark, expecting Draupadi. He found Bhima.
What happened next was not a long fight. Bhima broke every bone in Kichaka’s body and rolled the corpse into a shape that had no clear edges to it. When the servants found him in the morning, they could not say with certainty that it was a man. Word spread through the court that the Gandharvas, the celestial beings known to protect Draupadi, had killed him. No one looked further. No one wanted to.
Uttara and the Kaurava Raid
With about a month remaining in the thirteenth year, Duryodhana moved. He had been watching Matsya, guessing, counting. The timing of the cattle raid was calculated - if the Pandavas were there and came forward to defend the kingdom, their year of disguise would not yet be complete, and the exile would begin again.
The Kaurava army swept in from one direction and took Virata’s cattle. The king himself was occupied fighting another raid on the opposite border. His son Uttara, young and bold in the way that young men are before they have fought anyone who is truly trying to kill them, declared that he would reclaim the cattle - if only he had a driver for his chariot. Brihannala was nearby. Uttara pulled the dance teacher by the wrist.
Arjuna drove the chariot north. When they came within sight of the Kaurava force - Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Duryodhana, the full array of the enemy’s best - Uttara looked at them and wanted to run. Arjuna stopped the chariot at the tree where the Pandavas had cached their weapons a year ago. He climbed up and unwrapped them. Then he told Uttara who he was.
Uttara sat very still for a moment.
Arjuna took up the Gandiva, his bow, and turned to face the army. He used the Sammohana Astra, the weapon of deep sleep, and the front ranks of the Kaurava force went down. He scattered the rest. He stood on the field with Bhishma and Drona and Karna before him and did not fall, and the cattle were taken back.
The Marriage of Abhimanyu and Uttara
King Virata came home to discover that the servants he had employed for the past year were the five Pandavas and Draupadi. He was astonished. He was also grateful - they had defended his kingdom, killed Kichaka who had been a threat the king had never been entirely comfortable with, and managed his horses and cattle and kitchens with complete reliability.
Virata offered his daughter Uttara to Arjuna in marriage. Arjuna declined. He had spent a year as Uttara’s teacher, and the relation between a teacher and a student’s daughter is one that the Pandavas took seriously. He proposed instead that Uttara marry his own son Abhimanyu, a young warrior trained by Krishna himself. Virata agreed at once.
The wedding was celebrated with the war already visible on the horizon. The alliance between Matsya and the Pandavas was sealed - one more kingdom, one more army, standing on the side of the five brothers when the field at Kurukshetra was finally drawn.