Chapter
1 - The Palace of Lac
Duryodhana,
the eldest Kaurava was really jealous of his cousins – the
Pandavas. After the death of Pandu and Madri, the Pandavas had
returned from the forests with their mother Kunti, Duryodhana just
could not bear it. Duryodhana saw the Pandavas as his enemy and did
not care who knew it.
Duryodhana’s
insane jealousy and eating him up and it was not helped by the fact
that Bheema, the second Pandava, was ferociously strong. Even as a
young boy, Bheema was a very strong and Bheema found the puny
Kauravas very funny.
Bheema
had been born and brought up in the forests. The rough jungles had
just made Bheema more stronger and Bheema had nothing but disdain for
the soft Kauravas, who had known nothing other than the the luxuries
of the palace.
Bheema
used to bully the Kauravas and the Kauravas were really terrified on
him. In fact, whenever they used to see Bheema, the Kauravas used to
hide on the treetops. And Bheema would still not leave the Kauravas
alone. Bheema used to stand at the base of the tree and with his
ferocious strength, Bheema used to shake the very tree.
The
Kaurava boys used to fall down from the tree like fruits and look
shaken and run away terrified of the young Bheema who would laugh at
the fleeing Kaurava princes.
And
all these events only made Duryodhana hate the Pandavas even more.
Duryodhana’s
hatred for the Pandavas and Bheema is particular went so bad that
when they all started learning warfare and the science of the
administration of the kingdom from Dronacharya, Duryodhana actually
tried killing Bheema.
Duryodhana
poisoned the food which was to be eaten by Bheema and when the
drugged Bheema fell unconscious, Duryodhana tied up Bheema’s hands
and feet and pushed the second Pandava inside the river.
And
without a second glance, Duryodhana walked away from the place.
Luckily
for Bheema, the place under the river where Duryodhana had pushed him
had a huge kingdom of snakes. The snakes bit the unconscious Bheema
as he sunk inside the waters. The poison in Bheema’s body and the
poison of the snake acted as antidotes to each other and the poison
from Bheema system was completely gone, when he reached the snake
kingdom.
And
on talking with the snakes, Bheema realized that he was related to
the snakes through his mother – Kunti. The snakes were very glad
for their new visitor though he had come to them in unfortunate
circumstances. In honour of their new guests, the snakes fed Bheema
with the nectar of the snakes. It is believed that this drink
actually made Bheema even more strong than he previously was.
And
that was how Duryodhana’s first plan of killing Bheema had badly
backfired. After pushing Bheema into the river, Duryodhana came back
to the palace and he claimed to have no knowledge of what had
happened to Bheema. Kunti and the Pandavas were distraught and they
kept combing the river for some signs of Bheema and that was when
they had some suspicion of foul play. But Duryodhana was quiet and
said absolutely nothing.
Duryodhana
almost thought that he had gotten away with it, when the impossible
happened. Bheema came back from the dead. And not only that, Bheema
came back even more stronger than before. And a little wiser.
The
event was an eye-opener – both to the Pandavas and to Duryodhana.
Duryodhana
realized that he would have to be more careful of disposing off his
annoying cousins in the future because they seemed to be lucky and
the Pandavas realized that Duryodhana was really insane in his
jealousy and that there was no line that Duryodhana would not cross
if it meant the destruction of the Pandavas.
That
was the reason, the Pandavas never spoke of the incident again. The
Pandavas feared that if they spoke about Duryodhana’s involvement
in the whole affair, Duryodhana might do something even more
horrific.
But
just because the Pandavas were silent, it did not make Duryodhana
change his mind. Duryodhana was as bad as ever and his plans if
anything were becoming more and more bold and the next time,
Duryodhana had an even more audacious plan to kill the Pandavas.
Duryodhana
spoke highly of a place called Varanavatha where the huge festival
was to be organized in honour of Lord Shiva. Duryodhana manipulated
things that he sent the Pandavas to Varanavatha and at the time the
Pandavas went there, Duryodhana had a beautiful palace built. The
palace was one of the most beautiful constructions of its times and
definitely the most combustible – because the palace was made of
lac.
And
Duryodhana was patient this time. He did not want any of the events
to ever lead back to him, which was why Duryodhana wanted for a whole
year. The Pandavas had lived in the lac palace of Vanaravatha for an
entire year when Duryodhana through one of his men called Purochana,
set his plan in action.
In
the dead of the night, when a huge feast was conducted during the
day, when Duryodhana was sure that the Pandavas were fast asleep,
Duryodhana asked Purochana to set the entire palace on fire.
In
the dead of the night, a fire broke out in the lac palace of
Varanavata. The lac palace was built completely of things which could
burn and burn very easily. Which was why, the time between the
commencement of the fire and the spreading of the fire was too short.
The
people from Varanavata were horrified when they saw the entire lac
palace go down in flames. The people tried dousing the flames of the
palace and that was when they discovered something impossible – the
fire was spreading too fast. Far too fast, than in the case of a
normal fire. The fire kept raging and there was no part of the palace
which even escaped the fire.
The
next morning a charred body of a woman with five men were inside the
palace and the people were terrified.
They
all realized that the Pandavas were gone and this time, there was no
one who could bring them back. And the fire had started right from
the room where Purochana was sleeping, who was also killed in the
fire.
So
the entire kingdom believed that the evil Purochana had set fire to
the lac palace and Purochana himself killed in the fire.
Back
in Hastinapur, Duryodhana could not hide his glee when he heard of
the six dead bodies found inside the lac palace. And with the death
of Purochana, Duryodhana realized that another loose end was tied up
and this time there was nothing which could lead back to him. And
Duryodhana was actually happy. He felt that he had got rid of the
Pandavas in a masterly stroke and he had done with with absolutely no
suspicions leading back to him.
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ReplyDeleteI always thought its ghatothkacha, Ghatasya utkachaha ghatothkacha ( the one whose head is like Ghatam (hairless) )
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Name of the lac palace was 'Sivam'
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