Reading Diary A Week 13: Yudhisthira's conflict

This week I chose to continue reading Buck's Mahabharata. We picked up in week 13 with pages 191 to 246. The beginning of the section is the story of the Pandavas at the lake. Yudhishthira is sending his brothers one after another to retrieve water from the nearby lake. However, none of them return. After a while he himself goes to look for the rest of his Pandava brothers. When Yudhishthira arrives at the lake he finds the bodies of all of his brothers laying by the lake. Eventually, Yudhishthira discovers that this is a test from his divine father, Dharma. He must answer questions before he is allowed to drink any water. Yama the Dharman King, then revives all of the bodies of the Pandava brothers. Next the Pandavas are deciding where to spend the thirteenth year of exile and they decide to do so in the court of King Virata in the Matsya kingdom. All of the Pandavas take on certain roles within the kingdom in order to disguise themselves. We then meet Kichaka, one of Virata's generals, who has a desire for Draupadi. This causes quite the commotion when he assaults Draupadi. However, she gets even with him when she has Bhima crush Kichaka into a ball of flesh. Sanjay then comes to visit the Pandavas by way of Dhritarashtra. It is an attempt to settle the issues between the Pandavas and Duryodhana.

Kichaka and Draupadi

Source: Wikipedia