Thereafter Pandu consulted with great sages in the forest and then asked Kunti to observe vows of austerity for one full year. At the end of this period Pandu said to Kunti, "O beautiful one, Indra, the King of heaven, is pleased with you, so invoke him and conceive a son." Kunti then invoked Indra, who came to her and begot Arjuna. As soon as the prince was born, the same celestial voice boomed through the sky: "O Kunti, this child will be as strong as Kartavirya and Sibi [two powerful kings of Vedic times] and as invincible in battle as Indra himself. He will spread your fame everywhere and acquire many divine weapons." Subsequently, Pandu's junior wife Madri bore two sons named Nakula and Sahadeva. These five sons of Pandu (Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva) then came to be known as the Pandavas.
Now, since Pandu had retired from the throne and gone to the forest, Dhritarashtra had temporarily assumed the throne until Pandu's eldest son Yudhishthira came of age. However, long before that time Pandu died as a result of the curse, and Madri gave up her life as well by ascending his funeral pyre. That left the five Pandavas in the care of Queen Kunti.
After Pandu's death, the sages living in the forest brought the five young princes and Kunti to the Kaurava court at Hastinapura (near present-day Delhi). In Hastinapura, the capital city of the kingdom, the five boys were raised in royal style under the guidance of Dhritarashtra and the noble Vidura, Pandu's half brother.
But a smooth transfer of power was not to be. Although Dhritarashtra had at first recognized the primogeniture of Yudhishthira, he later allowed himself to be used by his eldest son, the power-hungry Duryodhana, who wished to ascend the throne in place of Yudhishthira. Driven by uncontrollable jealousy, Duryodhana plotted against the Pandavas, and with the hesitant approval of the weak Dhritarashtra, he inflicted many sufferings upon them. He made several attempts on their lives in Hastinapura, and then he brought them to a provincial palace and tried to assassinate them by having it set on fire. All the while, the five youthful Pandavas were accompanied by their courageous mother Kunti, who suffered Duryodhana's atrocities in the company of her beloved sons.
Miraculously, however, Kunti and the Pandavas repeatedly escaped death, for they were under the loving protection of Lord Krishna, who had incarnated to perform His earthly pastimes. Ultimately Duryodhana, a clever politician, cheated the Pandavas out of their kingdom (and their freedom) in a gambling match. As a result of the match, the Pandavas, wife Draupadi was abused by the Kauravas, and the Pandavas themselves were forced to spend thirteen years in exile in the forest—to the great sorrow of Kunti.
----------------------------Written by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
http://hjbhai.blogspot.com
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