Let us take a deeper dive into what happened when King Pandu and his wives took a step back from royal life, and entered forest life.
Pandu would rove about in the forest with bow and sword, like a god, with his two beautiful wives. With his noble attitude and behaviour, he quickly became the favourite of the forest-dwellers.
Pandus first wife Kunti, had the ability to summon any of the demigods, at a time of her choosing, and they would endow her with children.
Knowing that such children of the gods would be especially powerful, Pandu was thrilled upon hearing of this. And so he requested Kunti to summon the gods, in a particular order.
Pandu, being a life-long proponent of high moral values and justice, asked Kunti to firstly summon that god of Justice (Dharamraj) for their first child. And like that, the great Yuddhistira was born.
After Yuddhistira was born, Pandu conversed with Kunti, that a warrior must be endowed with great physical prowess, and therefore asked her to request the audience of the Wind god, Vayu. And so, the mighty Bhima was born.
Pandu then wanted a third son, one who would achieve fame and glory all over the World, and who was capable of vanquishing any foe. Kunti summoned the King of gods, Indra, and so was born Arjuna.
Kunti, being reluctant to have more than three children from the gods, then together with Pandu asked for children for her co-wife Madri. They asked for a son who was the most handsome, and another son who was the most knowledgeable. And so were born Nakula of unmatched beauty, and Sahadeva the intelligent.
Meanwhile, in the royal palace of the Kingdom of Hastinapura, Dhristrashtra and Gandhari were also pregnant. But the pregnancy took much longer than the expected gestation period.
Gandhari, having heard of the birth of Pandu, Kunti and Madris children, grew impatient, and struck her womb with heavy blows. This happened to lead to an unusual birth of a hundred fetuses who were then grown outside of her womb under the supervision of the royal physicians.
First-born among the 100 children of Dhritrashtra and Gandhari, was Duryodhana, and then Duhsashana.
Vidura, the Prime Minister of Hastinpaura, and also an adept astrologer and royal advisor, saw severe negative omens surrounding the birth of Duryodhana, and did not hesitate to offer some harsh advice to Dhritrashtra and Gandhari.
Vidura strongly suggested that the eldest son, Duryodhana be discarded, citing that he would be the cause of the destruction of the entire Kuru race owing to his evil roots.
Dhritrashtra and Gandhari, naturally passed on the advise of Vidura out of affection for their new born children.
Following this, Gandhari insisted to Dhritrashtra that she wanted to have a girl also, and thus Dushala was born.
Lastly, there was a child resulting from the union of King Dhritrashtra with a servant woman, and he was called Yuyutsu, a half-brother to the Kauravas.
And so the two sides were forged; on the side of Dhritrashtra, known as the Kauravas, the 100 brothers, a step brother, and a sister, and on the side of Pandu, the 5 Pandava brothers born of Kunti, Madri and a host of celestials.
In the forest, an unfortunate incident occurred resulting in the sudden passing away of Pandu and Madri.
Kunti therefore found herself looking after their five young children on her own in a forest, which was needless to say difficult.
Kunti was royalty, she always had been, and her husband was arguably one of the most powerful and successful Kings in the Kuru line.
Pandu was also by default the first choice of leader of the current senior Kuru leaders Bhishma and Vidura.
Not so long ago, Pandu had given his prime years to amassing the huge treasuries of the Kuru Empire, and establishing new regions through his blood and sweat.
Surely, this would not be forgotten. Kunti was surely entitled to return to Hastinapura with her children, especially in her time of need. And return she did.
Bhishma, the Grandsire of the family, and Vidura were very accommodating to Kunti and her children, and welcomed them with tears of affection, remembering their dear Pandu.
Intermingling with the Kaurava children of Dhritrashtra and Gandhari, the five Pandava brothers were approaching the age of formative education, which comprised of the sciences and arts, including the martial arts, and they studied under Guru Drona, the Royal preceptor.
It did not take any time at all for a familial rivalry to emerge between the two sets of cousin brothers.
Duryodhana had so far had Hastinapura to himself as the eldest and most dominant amongst his siblings. He was free to roam as he wished, he called the shots, and he was the most physically capable.
In Bhima, Duryodhana found his match. Being the son of the wind god, Bhima was endued with incomparable strength. He could take multiple Kaurava children like an elephant clasping a lump of grass.
Duryodhana did not like this one bit. Bhima was bigger & stronger and not afraid to be himself.
For Duryodhana, this unsettling and abrupt change in his life could not be tolerated. He contaminated the minds of his brothers also with the seeds of envy towards Bhima and the Pandavas.
As this envy grew, it led to dangerous and even lethal interactions between the young cousins.
Feeling like Bhima was the principle threat to his pride, dominance and comforts, Duryodhana would continue to make numerous attempts at Bhimas life, including trying to poison and drown him.
Sage Vaisampayana, the sage who would later narrate the Mahabharata to Arjunas great grandson, King Janamejaya, describes Duryodhana as the wicked youth who had nectar in his tongue, and a razor in his heart.
In response to this tense situation, Yuddhistira, the eldest Pandava, at this very early stage set a precedent; and one which would go on to become a defining component of the Pandavas collective response-mechanism that would shape their fate in the years to come; the response of inaction.
Yuddhistira did not want to react to this behaviour of the Kauravas towards particularly his younger brother Bhima. Why?
The rationale of this restraint on the part of Yuddhistira, that he imposed on the entire Pandava team, were multi-fold.
Firstly, the Pandavas and Kunti were in some senses the outsiders to Hastinapura, and they were far outnumbered by the Kauravas. Dhritrashtra was the King, he was the father of Duryodhana, and known to be very affectionate towards his children. By resisting or accusing a more powerful foe, it would unlikely bode well for the the Pandavas.
Secondly, Yuddhistira never liked to rock the boat. Better to find ways to tolerate the gross intolerance of Duryodhana than to overtly confront the Kauravas, or to tell the elders.
Thirdly, Yuddhistira had a perspective of morality which involved abstinence, tolerance, withdrawal or renunciation.
Their mother, Kunti on this point of not standing up against the Kaurava attempts at the lives of her children, concurred with Yuddhistiras approach and simply advised her children to try to keep as safe as they could, also fearing that being too vocal could attract an even more premeditated attempt on their lives.
So the consensus was, that they would do nothing. And they passed their days in Hastinapura living on the edge, as more or less second-class citizens, unable to voice the threats to their lives, in the presence of the leadership of the Kauravas under the blind King Dhritrashtra.
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