Brahmana Asks Pandavas to Retrieve Lost Kindling
A brahmana rushes to Yudhishthira in distress: a deer has carried off his kindling and churning rod, threatening his sacred agnihotra. Yudhishthira takes up his bow and leads his brothers in pursuit — but the deer vanishes, leaving the Pandavas exhausted, hungry, and lost under a banyan tree.
A brahmana came swiftly to where Yudhishthira sat with his brothers in the forest. He was sorrowful. He spoke:
"I left my kindling and my churning rod against a tree. A deer rubbed itself against that tree, and the sticks stuck to its antlers. The great deer rushed away from the hermitage at great speed, using giant leaps. O king, follow the footprints of that deer. Bring those things back to me, so that my agnihotra (the sacred fire ritual) is not spoiled."
Yudhishthira felt sorry for him. He grasped his bow and left with his brothers. All of them — Bhimasena, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva — prepared themselves and dashed after the deer.
They saw it at a short distance. They hurled barbed arrows, hollow arrows, iron arrows — everything they had. But the maharathas (great warriors) could not pierce it. While they were trying, the great deer disappeared.
The Pandavas were exhausted and sorry. Their limbs were sore with hunger and thirst. In that dense forest, they sought shelter under the cool shade of a banyan tree and sat down. Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 592