It was then that news came to Krishna which he knew was going to spiral into a huge problem – or rather bring about the very purpose of his birth.

And this happened in the kingdom of Hastinapur.

(The happenings in the kingdom of Hastinapur was in essence the story of the Mahabharatha.

Dhiradarashtra was the elder son but he was blind from birth. Because of this, the kingdom was handed over to the younger brother - Pandu.

Pandu ruled over the kingdom brilliantly well.

But then Pandu had unwittingly killed a sage when he was hunting.

To make up for this, Pandu gave up the throne and went to the forests with his wives.

So Dhirdarashtra ruled the throne of Hastinapur as a regent of his brother.

After Pandu's death in the forest, Kunti – one of Pandu's wife, brought five young boys over to the Hastinapur. These five boys were Yudhishtara, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. They were collectively called as the Pandavas because Pandu had acknowledged his paternity over them.

And after this, the question was very simple – who had the right to sit on the throne of Hastinapur – was it the Pandavas or was it the sons of Dhirdarashtra?

Left to this position, the problem would never have been solved.

But then naturally there was a twist in the tale and that came as Duryodhana, Dhirdarashtra's eldest son. Duryodhana wanted to rule the entire kingdom of Hastinapur and he hated the Pandavas. There have been instances where Duryodhana in his blind jealousy had openly plotted the murder of the Pandavas.)

Right now, news reached Krishna that the Pandavas were all killed. In a fire.

The fire was caused in a palace which was constructed by Duryodhana for the Pandavas.

When this news reached Krishna, he realized that the palace made by Duryodhana was made entirely of lac and other inflammable instances. Any person who was inside the palace at the time the fire had started would not have stood a chance. Not a single one.

The entire kingdom of Hastinapur believed that the vile Duryodhana was behind this catastrophe. But then they could not prove it. They had nothing to hold on to.

All they could do was accept the fact that the Pandavas and Kunti were all dead because there were six charred bodies found in the palace at Varanavatha.

*****

But then Krishna's spies told him something very interesting too.

The court of Hastinapur had two elders – powerful people – but people who mostly kept to the background – they were Vidura and Bhishma.

(Vidura is another interesting man in the scheme of things. Technically he was the brother of Pandu and Dhirdarashtra. But then because he was from a very low caste, he was never considered to sit on the throne. But then Vidura never minded it.

The other man was Bhishma. Technically, the throne of Hastinapur belonged to Bhishma. A promise of celibacy made by Bhishma and the fact that Bhishma promised to give up the throne to his father's second wife's children, made sure that Bhishma never sat on the throne of Hastinapur.

Both these men were loyalists of Hastinapur and served the throne. They wanted the kingdom to prosper – no matter what.)

Krishna's spies told him that the blind king of Hastinapur and Duryodhana all pretended to be very heartbroken at the news of the death of the Pandavas. No one believed in the act of the two people, but then they still kept it up.

But then what was interesting was that Bhishma and Vidura did not seem to be too much concerned about the news of the death of the Pandavas.

That was when Krishna began to have a suspicion that probably the entire thing was a ruse.

And that the Pandavas were just in hiding.

Krishna realized that the Pandavas had faked their own death probably with the help of either Vidura or Bhishma and they were in hiding to escape more of Duryodhana's traps.

(Naturally, Krishna's assumptions were correct. With the help of Vidura, the Pandavas had cheated death. They had a tunnel built out of the lac palace and they had themselves set fire to the lac palace and another woman who had come to the palace with her five sons were destroyed in the fire.)

It was at this time that it was said that King Drupada of the Panchala kingdom announced a "swayamvara" (choosing of one's own mate) for his daughter – the fire born princess Draupadi.

(This is a decisive part of the Mahabharatha. When the Pandavas were in hiding, they all heard about Draupadi – the breathtakingly beautiful woman who emerged directly from the fires of a sacrifice. All the five Pandavas were smitten by her beauty and they all wanted to marry her.

Arjuna, the third Pandava won the archery competition at the swayamvara and because of many twists in the tale, all the five Pandavas married Draupadi. She was their common wife.)

A swayamvara is where any king can participate in the competition, if the princess so agrees to it. Krishna singlehandedly made sure that none of the Yadavas participated in Draupadi's swayamvara. It almost seemed like Krishna was sure that the Pandavas were alive and that they would come to the swayamavara and Krishna wanted the Pandavas to marry Draupadi.

(There is a saying in folk stories that Mahabharatha story is based on the "four" Krishnas – one Krishna himself. The second Krishna was one of Krishna's best friend – Arjuna, the third Pandava. Arjuna was one of the most important characters of the epic. Arjuna was dark is colour. So he was frequently referred to as Krishna. In fact, Arjuna and Krishna were together very often referred to as the two Krishnas. The third Krishna was Veda Vyasa – the author of the Mahabharatha. Veda Vyasa's real name is Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa. Krishna means dark. Dwaipayana means island born and Vyasa is his name. So Veda Vyasa's name really means the dark one who is born in an island. Though he is the author of the story, Veda Vyasa frequently appears in the epic to move the story forward. Thus, he is the third Krishna. The last Krishna is "Krushnaa" - the feminine form of Krishna – and that is the dark fire born princess of Panchala - Draupadi.

These four Krishnas were the most important reasons for making the epic of Mahabharatha such a compelling epic.)

Krishna and Draupadi were the best of friends and were often considered as siblings. There are even folk stories which say that Krishna was the one who convinced Draupadi to marry all the five Pandavas because according to Krishna, only marrying all the five brothers would satisfy Draupadi.

The swayamvara of Draupadi is also very important, because that was the time when Krishna first came met the Pandavas face to face and he had become their friend for life.