The Weapons in the Tree, and the Year Nobody Recognised Them

The weapons in the tree

The exile had two halves and the second was the hard one.

Twelve years in the forest is a long time, but it is at least a thing you can be seen doing. The thirteenth year was different. The Pandavas had to live one full year in the open, among people, and not be known. If they were found, the whole count started again.

So they went to Virata's kingdom and became other people. Yudhishthira became a courtier who played dice. Bhima took the kitchen. Nakula went to the horses and Sahadeva to the cattle. Arjuna, the greatest archer alive, put on bangles and taught the princess to dance.

But there was a problem they had to solve before any of that. There were five sets of weapons, and the Gandiva among them, which nobody who had ever seen it could mistake for anything else. Carrying them was impossible. Leaving them anywhere they might be found was worse.

They wrapped them and put them high in a shami tree near the burning ground. Then, and this is the detail the Virata Parva keeps, they tied a corpse into the branches with them, so nobody would go near enough to look. Then they walked into the city with nothing.

The tree held them for a year.

What ends the year is a cattle raid. Duryodhana's army comes for Virata's herds. The king's forces are away, and there is nobody left to send but the prince Uttara. He goes, sees the size of the army, and turns to run.