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The first Exile
Yudhishthir’s being the crown prince and his rising popularity with the citizens was extremely distasteful to Duryodhan, who saw himself as the rightful heir since his father was the de facto king. He plotted to get rid of the Pandavas. This he did by getting his father to send the Pandavas and Kunti off to a nearby town on the pretext of a fair that was held there. The palace in which the Pandavas were to stay in that town was built by an agent of Duryodhan; the palace was made entirely of inflammable materials since the plan was to burn down the palace – together with the Pandavas and Kunti – once they’d settled in. The Pandavas, however, were alerted to this fact by their other uncle, Vidur, and had a counter plan ready; they dug an escape tunnel underneath their chambers. One night, the Pandavas gave out a huge feast which all of the townsfolk came to. At that feast, a forest woman and her five sons found themselves so well-fed and well-drunk that they could no longer walk straight; they passed out on the floor of the hall. That very night, the Pandavas themselves set fire to the palace and escaped through the tunnel. When the flames had died down, the townsfolk discovered the bones of the forest woman and her boys, and mistook them for Kunti and the Pandavas. Duryodhan thought his plan had succeeded and that the world was free of the Pandavas.
Arjuna & Draupadi
Meanwhile, the Pandavas and Kunti went into hiding, moving from one place to another and passing themselves off as a poor brahmin family. They would seek shelter with some villager for a few weeks, the princes would go out daily to beg for food, return in the evenings and hand over the day’s earnings to Kunti who would divide the food into two: one half was for the strongman Bheem and the other half was shared by the others. During these wanderings, Bheem killed two demons, married a demoness, and had a demon child called Ghatotkach. They then heard about a swayamvar (a ceremony to choose a suitor) being organised for the princess of Panchal, and went at Panchal to see the festivities. According to their practice, they left their mother home and set out for alms: they reached the swayamvar hall where the king was giving away things most lavishly to alms seekers. The brothers sat themselves down in the hall to watch the fun: the princess Draupadi, born of fire, was famed for her beauty and every prince from every country for miles around had come to the swayamvar, hoping to win her hand. The conditions of the swayamvar were difficult: a long pole on the ground had a circular contraption spinning at its top. On this moving disc was attached a fish. At the bottom of the pole was a shallow urn of water. A person had to look down into this water-mirror, use the bow and five arrows that were provided, and pierce the fish spinning on top. Five attempts were allowed. It was evident that only an extremely skilled archer, such as the now-presumed-dead Arjuna, could pass the test.
One by one, the kings and princes tried to shoot the fish, and failed. Some could not even lift the bow; some could not string it. The Kauravas and Karna were also present. Karna picked up the bow and strung it in a moment, but was prevented from taking aim when Draupadi declared she would not marry anyone from the Suta clan. After every one of the royals had failed, Arjuna, the third Pandava, stepped up to the pole, picked up the bow, strung it, affixed all of the five arrows to it, looked down into the water, aimed, shot, and pierced the fish’s eye with all of the five arrows in a single attempt. Arjuna had won Draupadi’s hand.
The Pandava brothers, still in the guise of poor brahmins, took Draupadi back to the hut they were staying at and shouted for Kunti, “Ma, Ma, come and see what we’ve brought back today.” Kunti, saying, “Whatever it is, share it among yourselves”, came out of the hut, saw that it wasn’t alms but the most beautiful woman she had ever set her eyes on, and stood stock still as the import of her words sank in on everybody present.
Meanwhile, Draupadi’s twin Dhrishtadyumna, unhappy that his royal sister should be married off to a poor commoner, had secretly followed the Pandavas back to their hut. Also following them secretly was a dark prince and his fair brother – Krishna and Balaram of the Yadava clan – who had suspected that the unknown archer could be none other than Arjuna, who had been presumed dead at the palace-burning incident several months ago. These princes were related to the Pandavas – their father was Kunti’s brother – but they had never met before. By design or happenstance, Vyasa also arrived at the scene at this point and the Pandava hut was alive for a while with happy cries of meetings and reunions. To keep Kunti’s words, it was decided that Draupadi would be the common wife of all of the five Pandavas. Her brother, Dhrishtadyumna, and her father, the king Drupad, were reluctant with this unusual arrangement but were talked around to it by Vyasa and Yudhishthira.