Pandavas Leave Draupadi and Hunt in Kamyaka

The Pandavas had been roaming the Kamyaka forest for some time, living as exiles, hunting deer, serving the brahmanas who had chosen to share their hardship. The forest was vast and full of game, and the brothers — Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva — moved through it like immortals at play, exploring its flowering groves and its deep, shaded thickets. One day, they decided to hunt in all four directions at once. They needed deer to feed the brahmanas who lived with them in the hermitage, and a coordinated hunt would bring back more meat than any single hunter could carry. Before they left, they sought permission from maharshi Trinabindu, the great sage whose austerities blazed in that forest, and from Dhoumya, their own priest and guide. Both gave their consent. And so the five brothers, the equals of Indra, the destroyers of enemies, mounted their chariots and rode out — each in a different direction — leaving Draupadi alone at the hermitage gate. She stood there, radiant, her beauty illuminating the forest around her like lightning against a dark cloud. The hermitage was quiet. The brahmanas were inside. The sages were at their devotions. And the Pandavas were far away, chasing deer through the trees. At that very moment, a king named Jayadratha, the son of Vriddhakshatra, was passing through the Kamyaka forest on his way to the country of Shalva, where he intended to marry. His retinue was large, as befitted a king, and many other kings traveled with him. They stopped to rest in the forest — and there, at the gate of the hermitage, they saw her. She was alone.