Story of Pandava

The story began with the introduction of the parents of this brotherhood. The antagonist was Duryodhan/Duryudhan/Druyudhan (Duryodhan), or Suyodhan/Suyudhan who happened to be the eldest brother of all 99 siblings known as the Kurawas. He was the son of the blind King Dretarast/Destarastr (Dhritarashtr) and Goddess Gandhari.

As cousins, the Pandav and the Kurav often played together. However, Bhim (one of the Pandawas) loved to tease and trick the Kurav. This led to dissatisfaction and resentfulness of the Kurav. One day Duryodhan started to think about his insecurity and discomfort against the five brothers and plotted to overthrow them from being the Lord of Kuru Dynasty.

The plot began when Dhritarashtra appointed his nephew Yudistira as the crown prince instead of his own son. This caused Duryadana madness and he planned to kill all those five brothers together with their mother Kunti. He offered them to go to a place called Ekacakra - a place set by Duryodhana for them with a huge building (secretly made of sealing wax) in it. His idea was to burn them alive during their slumber at night. Fortunately, the plan was discovered by Vidura who was the uncle of the Five Pandawas. In fact, Yudistira had been warned about this plot by a hermit who came to him telling about a disaster that would inflict him in the future. Later the Pandawas fled the place and ran into the woods.

During their flight the five brothers heard about a competition in the Kingdom of Panchala that offered a marriage with a princess named Draupadi the prize. Arjuna who was a good archer entered the competition and won the princess. He then took her to his mother. But his mother asked him to divide it equally among the brothers not knowing that it was actually princess Draupadi. Inorder to keep their mother's word, the brothers agreed to share the princess. However there is a misconception that Draupadi was called Panchali because she had 5 husbands. Infact she was called Panchali because she was the daughter of King Drupad of Panchal (Panchal-naresh) and hence Panchali

When Dhritarashtra heard that the five brothers were alive, he invited them to his kingdom and granted them with the gift of half the lands of his kingdom. They successfully built up a great city call Indraprastha. With revenge and hatred in his mind, Duryodhan Invited the Pandavas to his court for a game of dice and managed to win with the help of his maternal uncle Shakuni. Yudhishtir lost all his wealth and kingdom in the game and then he put himself on stake and lost. he was then enticed by Duryodhan and Shakuni to put the other Pandava brothers on stake. Yudhishtir fell for it and put his brothers on stake and lost them too. Duryodhan now played another trick and told Yudhishtir that he still has his wife Draupadi to be put on stake and if he wins he will return back everything to the Pandavas. Yudhishtir stakes Draupadi and losses again. At this point Duryodhan asks his younger brother Dushasana to bring Draupadi into the court, pulling her by her hair as she was now, like the Pandava brothers, his servant. This greatly disturbs the great warriors sitting in the court. But all of them, namely, Bhisma (the grandsire of the clan), Dronacharya (the guru of Kauravas and Pandavas) and others like Kripachariya and Vidur keep quiet. Duryodhana then asks his brother Dushasana to disrobe Draupadi. This shocks everybody but still nobody moves. As Dushasana starts to pull Draupadi's sari in order to disrobe her, she prays to lord Krishna and as a miracle her sari keep growing in length. Thus lord Krishna saves Draupadi. Finally king Dhrithrasthra intervens and apologises to Draupadi for the inhuman behaviour by his sons and ask her to ask for anything that she may desire. Draupadi asks that her husbands be relieved of the bondage. Later the Pandavas are sent into 12 yrs of exile into the forest with the 13th year being in hiding (agyatvaas), and if they are found and recognized by anybody in the 13th year they would have to repeat the exile again along with another 13th year. The Pandavas complete their exile and the 13th year agyatvaas sucessfully. They then come and rightfully demand their kingdom from Duryodhna. Duryodhana refuse to part with 'land even as much as a needle point'. This then leads to the inevitable war, the crux of the great Indian epic called the Mahabharata. The war lasts for 18 days with both the parties soon resorting to unlawful means. At the end all the 100 Kurava brothers and their aides are killed. The Pandavas lose out a lot of their allies as well but the 5 pandava brothers survive. After having won the war, they soon depart for heaven, a long journey they undertake into the himalayas.

source : www.wikipedia.com