Arjuna Vows to Free the Kauravas from Gandharvas

The Kauravas had been captured. The gandharvas — celestial beings, masters of music and war — had surrounded them, taken them prisoner, and held them helpless. Duryodhana and his brothers, who had marched into the forest to humiliate the Pandavas, were now the ones who needed rescue. Word reached the Pandavas in their hermitage. Yudhishthira listened. Then he turned to Arjuna. He spoke of dharma — the duty that binds a kshatriya (warrior) even toward enemies. The Kauravas were cousins. They were also guests in the forest where the Pandavas lived in exile. And they were in danger. Yudhishthira did not ask Arjuna to weigh the past or calculate what was deserved. He asked him to act. Arjuna agreed to his elder brother's words without hesitation. Then he made an oath. If the gandharvas did not release the sons of Dhritarashtra through peaceful means, he said, the earth would drink the blood of the king of the gandharvas. It was not a threat made in anger. It was a statement of intent, spoken plainly, in the hearing of those around him. Arjuna was known as a man who kept his word. When he said something, it was understood to be true before it happened. The Kauravas, trapped and helpless, heard of Arjuna's oath. They took heart again. Whatever else had passed between them — the dice game, the exile, the humiliation of Draupadi — in this moment, the man they had tried to destroy was coming to save them.