Episode#21 During Draupadi's Swayamwara, powerful Yadavas came in large numbers with Rich gifts to attend the marriage. The Pandavas were duly recognized that they are alive and now it was right time for them to return Hastinapur after having an additional female member in the family. Thus, Bhisma Pitamah advised Dhritarashtra to invite Pandavas to Hastinapur and offer them half kingdom as per the norms. Vidura also emphasised the necessity of doing so until more brides entered the home and divide the brothers. Dhritarashtra agreed to give them half the kingdom but it was a deceitful promise - he kept Hastinapur, the hereditary capital, for himself and his sons and he offered Pandavas the land known as 'Khandav-Prasth' which was fully covered with dense forests and swarming with ferocious wild animals, snakes and no human being dared to step in. Duryodhana objected to share his inheritance with his cousins, by arguing with Vidura that "Pandavas are not the true son...

Episode#20 They reached King Drupada's capital Panchala on the day when he was holding Swayamwara for Princess Draupadi. Among the kings invited were Duryodhana, his brothers, Karna, Vasudev Krishna with his elder brother Balarama and other Yadavas were present too! Vasudev Krishna and Balarama were the maternal cousins of Pandavas as Kunti was Vasudev's sister. Drupada wanted to avenge Drona who had humiliated him by defeating him at the hands of his disciples a few years ago. He invoked Lord Shiva for a son who would kill Drona; performed yagna and the fire God blessed him with two children who emerged from the flames - one was Dhristhadyumna who would kill Drona and Draupadi who will marry in the Kuru family and divide them. Amba who was bestowed a boon by Lord Shiva that she will be able to take her revenge on Bhisma in her next birth was now born as a daughter to King Drupada named Shikhandi (the Oracle said that later she would acquire the male body to transform in a h...

Episode#19 After escaping from the wax house, the Pandavas wandered from place to place like poor homeless Brahmins without food and shelter, the knew returning to Hastinapur was suicidal and hence they took shelter in the hut of a young Brahmin couple in the nearby village, they would live incognito till they empowered themselves sufficiently to combat the cruel conceited Kauravas. A huge demon named Bakasur who lived nearby the village and harassed the villagers. He had a voracious appetite and would gobble up animals, men, women and children. Finally, the villagers came to a settlement with Bakasur that every fortnight they will provide him food by turns, and the demon will eat the food as well as the Bullock and the delivery person too. The next turn was of the young Brahmin couple! The wife thought that if her husband went to deliver the food, Bakasur would devour him and consequently she and her daughter will be left alone in the world, when she told her story to Kunti, she as...

Episode#18 Later Duryodhana proceeded to Mathura for the advance mace training from Balarama the elder brother of Vasudev Krishna and Subhadra. Duryodhana being Kuru prince, Balarama invited him to stay with him at his house and gave him a lesson every morning and evening. The young and beautiful Subhadra daughter of Vasudev and his second wife Rohini was in her adolescence, she watched him stealthily, he was handsome with well built physique, tall, broad shoulders, swollen chest, even his attitude and his arrogance infatuated her, she was almost in love with him. Duryodhana had cited Subhadra watching him stealthily from her window - and he fell in love with her, when the training was over and he was to return Hastinapur the following morning; he got up early, it was dawn and the sun was yet to rise when he saw Subhadra walking towards the Yamuna river. He quickly followed her, she was clad in a single piece of cloth - a body wrap, the bangles in her wrist and the silver anklets...

Episode#17 Once Drona organized a game show to exhibit the proficiency of various skills of his pupils; Dhritarashtra, Bhisma, Vidura, Gandhari, Kunti and entire court along with all the courtiers formed a eager audience. All were awestruck and spellbound watching the Pandavas and Kauravas displaying their magnificent skills with total confidence and ease. At this critical juncture, Karna suddenly entered uninvited, displayed his skills of archery before the assembled dignitaries and challenged Arjuna for a dual. This dual did not take place as Karna was discovered to be base born, the son of a lowly charioteer Adhirata. Duryodhana, proficient in mind games, vowed eternal friendship to Karna by conferring the throne of small township and declaring him as a King - but in reality, he was building up a strong Ally against the Pandavas, he applied the same statergy in case of Aswasthama (Drona's son) to use him as his Trump card, with these two Trump cards in hand, Duryodhana, aid...

Episode#16 One day while practicing, he got disturbed by a barking dog, he shot several arrows in the direction of the dog and without hurting the dog, and his arrows stuck in his jaws in a manner in which the dog was unhurt but at the same time could not bark and disturb him, Arjuna saw this predicament of the dog and concluded that he must be a master-archer, he took the dog to his Guru Drona who also felt that it was a great workmanship of a skilled archer, to their great surprise it turned out to be Eklavaya, seeing Guru Drona, he fell at his feet and the sage questioned "who taught you these skills?" Eklavaya replied "You are my Guru and you are my inspiration, I have learned from you" Drona remembered that he had promised Arjuna to make him the greatest Archer of the Bharat Varsh. He had to set aside Eklavaya for he was far better than Arjuna - with Eklavaya's kind of expertise, Arjuna did not stand the remotest chance to be the best of the best. Drona ...

Episode#15 One fateful morning, when Madri was taking bath on the bank of river, Pandu watched her stealthily from behind a tree, when she emerged from river covered with single cloth dripping with femininity, Pandu was unable to resist and he grabbed her by force and embraced her tightly, Madri resisted and reminded him of the curse but Pandu was overpowered by his feelings of passion and thus met his death. Madri, cursed herself and burned on the funeral pyre of her husband as sati was the usual practice then. Kunti now left alone, returned to Hastinapur along with the five children. Kunti lived at the Hastinapur court, and her five sons, together with the hundred sons of Gandhari were brought up jointly under the guardianship of Bhisma. At Hastinapur a keen rivalry soon developed between five Pandavas and their hundred cousins the Kaurava, while rival queens of Hastinapur lived together neither being friendly nor explicitly hostile - they had no choice but to play a neutral role...