Dhritarashtra Grants Khandavaprastha to the Pandavas
To prevent further strife in the Kuru court, the blind king Dhritarashtra summons the Pandavas. He offers them a solution: half the kingdom, to be ruled from the distant and wild territory of Khandavaprastha, where their safety will be assured by Arjuna's might.
When the Pandavas had rested from their ordeal in Varanavata, King Dhritarashtra and Bhishma summoned them to court. The atmosphere was tense, the memory of the lacquer house and the attempted assassination still fresh. The blind king spoke directly to Yudhishthira.
"O son of Kunti," Dhritarashtra said. "Listen with your brothers to what I have to say. So that strife does not arise again, go to Khandavaprastha."
He presented it as both a gift and a necessity. They would take half the kingdom, but they would rule it from that remote, forested region. The king offered a reassurance, comparing Arjuna's protective role to that of Indra, the wielder of the vajra (thunderbolt), for the gods. "No one can harm you there, if you are protected there by Partha. Go to Khandavaprastha and take half the kingdom."
The offer was a formal partition of the realm. It acknowledged the Pandavas' right to a share, while physically separating them from the Kauravas in Hastinapura. For Yudhishthira and his brothers, it was a chance to establish their own sovereignty, away from the palace intrigues that had nearly killed them.
The Pandavas, those bulls among men, accepted the king's words. They saluted everyone in the court — the king, Bhishma, the elders — and set out for that terrible forest. They had received half the kingdom. Their future now lay in Khandavaprastha.