Duryodhana's house of Wax

 

Duryoadhana was very jealous of the Pandavas, his cousins, as the people of the Kingdom liked and loved them. The people of the country wanted Udhishtra to become the King after  Dhirthurashtra, the blind Kaurava king. Also the power and might of Beem and Arjun made Duryodhana worried. So he along with his uncle Sakuni planned to get them killed.

So Duryodhana and his friends raised a city "Varanavatham" in front of the Pandavas, praised the city  where there were so many rich and beautiful buildings, festivals for lord Siva, parks and entertainments etc and one should visit and see that city before one’s death.

Pandavas got so much impressed by this city and wanted to go and see that and participate in the festival of Lord Siva. King Dirthurashtra who was told about the plot to kill the Pnadavas  also encouraged them to go and see the festival.

So impressed with the festival and the beautiful city the pandavas started for that city of Varanavatham.

Duryodhana sent his minister Purochan earlier to that city and built a very beautiful Palace with wax and other easily burning materials for the Pandavas to stay. His idea was to allow the Pandavas to stay there for an year and enjoy the stay and the city life and then when they were resting, to burn the palace and kill them.

When they were going to Varanavatham, their uncle Vidhura cautioned them about the dangers of staying in any place without caution and gave the example of a rat which goes underground to protect itself where fire will not reach it.

This caution of Vidhura had made the Pandavas worried and they remained very careful and cautious.  The pandavas studied the palace and found it fit to be  of little stability and  of getting burnt and so they remained careful and built a tunnel from the palace to the outside with the help of a man sent to them by Vidhura, without anybody knowing about the tunnel.

 The Pandavas also did not show any sign of the danger they are living with it to Purochan in order not to raise any doubt in his mind.

Purochan always stayed outside the Palace and the Pandavas also did not sleep and took pain to watch for any untoward incidents. Purochan also waited for a year to kill them so that people did not have any doubts about the proposed death of the Pandavas. Udhistra also was aware of this plan and asked Kunti to arrange for a feast in which sleeping medicines were added and all the employees  of Duryodhana including Purochan were invited and treated with sumptuous  food and intoxicating drinks.

 When they all fell asleep Beem lighted the palace and escaped from the Palace through the tunnel and went away from the burning Palace. The palace was completely gutted with Purochan and other employees. People came to the palace and cried and shouted that the Kauravas had killed the Pandavas by treachery as the bodies of Purochan and other were found burnt there, which they mistook as that of Pandavas.

The escaped Pandavas travelled long distance by walking and crossed the river Ganga and went to a small town called ‘Ekachakra’, changed into the garb of Brahmins and stayed in a  poor Brahmin’s house. They go out daily as Brahmins and begged and collected food which they brought to their mother who cooked them and fed them.

So life went on like that for them.