MANY brahmanas visited the Pandavas during their exile, and one such, returning to Hastinapura, went to see Dhritarashtra, who received him with due honour.

The brahmana told him how the Pandavas, born princes, were, by unkind destiny, at the mercy of the wind and the sun and suffered great privations.

Dhritarashtra was probably sorry to hear this, but what troubled him most were the consequences to his own sons. Could Yudhishthira continue to hold the justly wrathful Bhima in check?

Dhritarashtra feared that the anger of the Pandavas, long pent up, might one-day break its bounds and overflow in a devastating flood.