Founding of Indraprastha

Classical

The place Dhṛtarāṣṭra had given the Pāṇḍavas was Khāṇḍavaprastha, a wasteland. With Kṛṣṇa's help and the guidance of Vyāsa, they chose a good site and, after purification rites, marked out the lines of a city. The plan was a serious one, with fortifications, moats and gates, not a village. They built a city with a wide moat and high white walls with ornate gates. The text says the defences included war machines, making the city as strong as a fort. In the middle they built a splendid palace, filled with wealth. The city was called Indraprastha and was said to rival Indra's own capital, Amarāvatī, in beauty.

People came from everywhere to settle: Brahmins who knew the Vedas, merchants and craftsmen from all lands. Around the city they planted gardens with many kinds of flowering and fruiting trees, built lakes and pleasure houses and artificial hills, and the gardens filled with birds. The Pāṇḍavas' happiness grew day by day as their kingdom filled with good people. Once things were settled, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma went back to Dvārakā. The brothers ruled with Yudhiṣṭhira as king.

Soon afterward Nārada came, and warned them to make a rule about sharing Draupadī, telling them the story of Sunda and Upasunda, which led to the agreement that would send Arjuna into exile. Indraprastha is remembered in later tradition. Some Indian traditions place it at Delhi, near what is now the Purana Qila. Excavations there have found painted grey ware pottery of roughly the right period, though no one can say it proves this is the Pāṇḍavas' city (see the Purana Qila node). In the epic itself, Indraprastha is the first place where the Pāṇḍavas rule as kings, and where the Rājasūya and the dice game both happen.

The speed of the city's founding is part of the point. In a few sentences the epic takes the Pāṇḍavas from refugees to kings, and the contrast with Hastināpura is marked. Its first king is Yudhiṣṭhira, assisted by Kṛṣṇa and Vyāsa, and its people are drawn by its justice and wealth. The next chapters show the process by which Indraprastha becomes a rival to Hastināpura: Arjuna's exile, the burning of the Khāṇḍava forest (told in the Adi Parva), the palace of Maya, the conquests that precede the Rājasūya. The name Indraprastha, 'Indra's plain', also prepares the later link with Arjuna, the son of Indra.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva, Kṛṣṇa, Vyāsa

Bound to

Purana Qila: digging for Indraprastha origin

Vidura brings the Pāṇḍavas home; Dhṛtarāṣṭra divides the kingdom origin

Khāṇḍava-daha origin

Maya builds the Sabhā for the Pāṇḍavas origin

The Draupadī rule and Arjuna's twelve-year exile origin

Places: Khāṇḍavaprastha, Indraprastha, Dvārakā

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CCIX (the founding of Indraprastha)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CCX (life at Khāṇḍavaprastha; Nārada's arrival)

See it on the tree · All stories

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