Indraprastha- Hindu LocationLocation · Landmark

Foundation on the Khandava Tract

When Dhritarashtra sought to resolve the growing tension between his sons and the Pandavas, he offered the five brothers a portion of the kingdom. The tract he gave them, Khandavaprastha, was a barren and inhospitable stretch of land. The Adi Parva of the Mahabharata recounts how Arjuna and Krishna aided Agni in consuming the Khandava forest, burning away the dense wilderness and its inhabitants, an act that cleared the ground but also revealed the danava architect Maya hiding within the flames.

Maya, spared by Arjuna, offered his services in gratitude. He constructed for the Pandavas a city and royal assembly hall of unparalleled magnificence. The Sabha Parva describes floors polished to mirror-like brilliance, pools that appeared as solid ground and solid surfaces that concealed water beneath. Crystal walls seemed to open onto empty air where passages truly lay. The city that rose from the ashes of Khandava became Indraprastha, a capital rivaling Amaravati itself in splendor, the seat from which Yudhishthira performed the Rajasuya sacrifice and received tribute from kings across the earth.

The Dice Game and the Loss

Indraprastha's very magnificence sowed the seeds of its loss. When Duryodhana visited the Maya Sabha, he mistook a crystal floor for water and lifted his garments, then walked into an actual pool believing it solid ground. The laughter of Draupadi and the Pandavas at his humiliation planted the desire for revenge that drove the subsequent events.

Duryodhana persuaded his father to invite Yudhishthira to a game of dice at Hastinapura. Playing against Shakuni's loaded dice, Yudhishthira wagered and lost everything in succession: his wealth, his kingdom, his brothers, himself, and finally Draupadi. Indraprastha passed from Pandava hands, and the brothers departed into thirteen years of exile. The city they had raised from wilderness became a prize held by those who had never built it, awaiting the cataclysm of Kurukshetra to determine its final fate.