Agni and the Khandava Forest

It was the hot season, and Krishna and Arjuna had gone with their friends to the banks of the Yamuna. The two of them were sitting a little apart, talking, when a stranger walked up.

He was a brahmin, as tall as a sala tree. His skin was the colour of molten gold and his beard was a bright yellow-green. His hair was matted and his clothes were rags.

"I am a brahmin who eats a great deal," he said. "I am always hungry. Will the two of you give me enough to eat?"

"Tell us what food you want," they said, "and we will fetch it."

"I do not eat ordinary food," said the stranger. "I am Agni. Give me the food that suits me. I want to eat the Khandava forest."

Then he told them why.

There had once been a king named Shvetaki, who loved sacrifices so much that he never stopped holding them. He wore out his own priests, whose eyes were ruined by the smoke. At last, to win the help of the god Rudra, he had ghee poured into the fire for twelve years without a break.

Twelve years of ghee was too much even for Agni. He turned pale and lost his appetite. His strength sank, and he could no longer burn as he used to.

He went to Brahma, and Brahma gave him a cure. "Eat the Khandava forest, with everything in it. The fat of its creatures will make you well."

So Agni went to Khandava and set it alight. But the forest had a protector. Takshaka, a king of the serpents, had his home there, and Takshaka was a friend of Indra, the king of the gods. Every time the flames rose, Indra sent down rain. The elephants of the forest carried water in their trunks, and the many-headed snakes spat it from their hoods. Seven times Agni tried, and seven times he was put out.

"Now Brahma has sent me to you," he said. "If you two stand guard, no one will be able to stop me."

Arjuna looked at his hands.

"I have the skill," he said, "but not the weapons. I need a bow that will bear my strength, arrows that do not run out, and a chariot. And Krishna needs a weapon to match him."

Agni called on Varuna, lord of the waters, and Varuna brought the treasures he had in his keeping. He gave Arjuna the great bow Gandiva and two quivers that could never be emptied, along with a chariot that flew the banner of an ape and was drawn by white horses. To Krishna, Varuna gave a mace, and Agni himself gave a discus.

Then Agni surrounded the forest with his seven flames, and Khandava began to burn.

The epic does not pretend this was gentle. The creatures of the forest ran, and the two heroes, circling in their chariots, turned back everything that tried to escape. Birds fell out of the burning air. It is a terrible chapter, and the Mahabharata means it to be.

Indra came with his storm clouds and poured down rain. Arjuna shot so many arrows, so fast, that they made a roof over the whole forest, and not a drop got through. Then Indra and the gods came down to fight, and the battle went on until a voice spoke out of the sky.

"Indra, your friend Takshaka is not in the forest. He is away, at Kurukshetra, and he is safe. And you cannot defeat these two. They are Nara and Narayana."

Indra withdrew. In the end he was pleased with his son's strength, for Arjuna was his son, and he promised him his own weapons one day.

The forest burned for fifteen days. Six of its creatures were spared, by the epic's count. One was Ashvasena, the son of Takshaka. One was Maya, the architect of the demons, who ran from the flames crying out to Arjuna for protection. "Do not be afraid," said Arjuna, and Agni let him go.

The other four were baby birds, and they saved themselves in a way no one else had thought of. Their father, a sage who had taken the form of a bird, had praised Agni beforehand and begged for their lives. When the fire came close, the four chicks, too young to fly, did not try to run. One after another they sang a hymn to Agni. The fire-god was pleased with them and passed over their nest.

Agni rose from the ashes of Khandava healthy and strong again. Maya, grateful for his life, asked how he could repay it. Krishna told him to build a hall for Arjuna's brother, King Yudhishthira. Maya built it, and that hall has a story of its own.