The Pandavas Return to Hastinapura with Drupada's Blessing
After years in exile, the Pandavas travel towards Hastinapura. Dhritarashtra sends his sons and their old teachers to receive them, and the city erupts in joy at their return. But the welcome is brief; they are soon summoned and told to leave again.
The journey back was not a secret. Word travelled ahead of them that the warriors were coming — Yudhishthira and his brothers, accompanied by Krishna, Balarama, and the wise Vidura. In Hastinapura, King Dhritarashtra heard the news. He sent a delegation to receive them: his own sons, the great archers Vikarna and Chitrasena, and their old preceptors, Drona and Kripa. It was a formal, public acknowledgment. They were to be met not as outcasts, but as returning royalty.
Surrounded by this escort of princes and teachers, the Pandavas entered the city. They moved slowly, their radiance seeming to grow with every step into the familiar streets. They were maharathas, great chariot-warriors, and the grief and sorrow of their exile fell away from them as they came home. The city itself became radiant with a collective wonder.
The citizens poured into the roads. The Pandavas had always been dear to them, and the people’s exclamations were loud and full of heart.
“The tiger among men, the one of righteous conduct, has returned!” they cried. “He always protected us with the rule of law, as if we were his near relatives.”
To them, it was as if history had reversed itself. “It seems without doubt as if the great King Pandu, who loved the forest, has returned today from the forest, to do that which pleases us and is good for our welfare.”
Their joy was a blessing and a wish. “Can there be any greater joy for us, now that the brave sons of Kunti have returned to the city? If we have given alms and sacrificial offerings, if we have performed austerities, let the Pandavas remain in the city for a hundred autumns.”
The brothers heard it all. They went first to pay their respects, worshipping the feet of Dhritarashtra, Bhishma, and the other elders who deserved such homage. They asked after the welfare of everyone in the city. Then, at Dhritarashtra’s command, they entered the quarters that had been earmarked for them.
They rested there for some time. Then the summons came.
King Dhritarashtra and Bhishma, the son of Shantanu, called them in. Dhritarashtra spoke directly to Yudhishthira.
“O son of Kunti! Listen with your brothers to what I have to say.” His reason was plain, stated without ornament. “So that strife does not arise again, go to Khandavaprastha.”
He offered a justification and a promise. “No one can harm you there, if you are protected there by Partha” — Arjuna — “as the thirty gods are protected by the wielder of the vajra (Indra).” Then he gave the terms. “Go to Khandavaprastha and take half the kingdom.”
The Pandavas, bulls among men, accepted the king’s words. They saluted everyone in the assembly. Then they set out for that terrible forest, Khandavaprastha, having just been given half a kingdom they could not inhabit, leaving behind a city that had begged them to stay for a hundred years.