Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c5.1187

c5.1187

Now, Duryodhana made up his mind to destroy the Pāṇḍavas somehow or other. With this end in view he went to his father, posing himself to be a great well-wisher of the Pāṇḍavas, and obtained his permission to transfer their (Pāṇḍavas') residence to another palace. Accordingly Duryodhana deputed his minister Purocana to get built at Vāraṇāvata a palace of lac. Vidura came to know of the intended mischief and gave advance notice of it to the Pāṇḍavas through a messenger Kanaka. The architect built the 'lac palace' but built a tunnel also attached to it. A year after the Pāṇḍavas shifted the residence to the new 'palace' Duryodhana set fire to it, and the Pāṇḍavas escaped unscathed through this tunnel. (Bhārata (Malayālam) Ādi Parva, Chapters 141-151).