Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c5.628

c5.628

5) Becomes heir-apparent and goes to the forest. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, crowned Dharmaputra as the heir-apparent when the latter had successfully completed his course of study in warfare. By his good conduct, righteousness and administrative efficiency Dharmaputra excelled his father and became very popular among his subjects. Jealous of this Duryodhana decided to destroy the Pāṇḍavas somehow. With the permission of his father, Duryodhana constructed a palace at Vāraṇāvata for the Pāṇḍavas to reside there. That palace was built of Lākṣā (See under Arakkillam). The entire population resented this act of Duryodhana and rebuked him. They tried to follow Dharmaputra to Vāraṇāvata and stay there. But by tactful words he made them abandon that idea. Still many brahmins followed Dharmaputra. After some days Duryodhana set fire to the palace. But the Pāṇḍavas escaped through a tunnel from the house which had been constructed without the knowledge of Duryodhana just at the time of construction of the building. Escaping from there the Pāṇḍavas reached the forests and travelling farther came to the shore of the Gaṅgā. (Ślokas 138 to 148, Ādi Parva, M.B.).