Shakuni's success in the gambling match thrilled Duryodhana. He had taken everything from his cousin Yudhishthira.

Everything.

"Bring Draupadi here!" he commanded his brother Dushasana. "She is my slave now, a queen no longer."

But when Dushasana told Draupadi what had happened, she refused to come. "Ask Duryodhana whether my husband had lost himself already when he staked me," she said angrily. "If he had lost himself, he could not stake me afterwards."

When Dushasana returned to the assembly hall and repeated Draupadi's words, Duryodhana howled in rage. "She is my slave!" he shouted. "Bring her here now. No excuses!"

Dushasana returned to fetch Draupadi. "You are Duryodhana's slave!" he shouted. "Come with me!"

"But I have my period," Draupadi tried to explain. "I'm barely dressed. I can't go out like this."

"Silence, slave!" Dushasana commanded.

Grabbing Draupadi by the hair, he dragged her before the assembly.

Everyone stared in shock, but said nothing.

"Husbands, you must help me!" Draupadi moaned. "Mothers, fathers! Uncles and grandfathers! Do you say nothing? Is there no justice in this assembly?"

"This whore has quite a tongue," Shakuni joked, and Duryodhana laughed, while Yudhishthira and his brothers wept silently, bowing their heads in shame.

"Strip off your clothes, slaves!" Duryodhana commanded. "Now!"

The Pandavas stripped until they stood in only their loincloths.

"You too, whore!" Duryodhana ordered Draupadi. "Strip!"

At a nod from Duryodhana, Dushasana reached for Draupadi's sari and began to pull, but Draupadi closed her eyes and prayed. "Lord Vishnu, save me," she murmured. "Save me, God! Save me!"

Dushasana pulled off her sari, but there was another sari underneath, and another, an unending stream of cloth. Dushasana pulled and pulled until he became so entangled in the heap of cloth that he could pull no more.

God had heard Draupadi's prayer.

Despite the miracle, Duryodhana continued to taunt Draupadi, baring his thigh. "Come, slave! Sit on your master's thigh."

Bhima shouted, "I'll smash your thigh someday, Duryodhana! As for you, Dushasana: I'll rip you open and drink your blood!"

"My hair will stay unbound," Draupadi vowed, "until I wash it in Dushasana's blood."

"Death to you all!" Bhima added. "Death to Duryodhana and his ninety-nine brothers!"

As Bhima spoke, the dice-board burst into flames.

Vidura could stay silent no longer. "Draupadi has God's protection. You all saw it. Brother, you must do something," he said to Dhritarashtra, "before it's too late!"

"Enough!" shouted King Dhritarashtra, intervening at last. Then he turned his blind eyes towards Draupadi. "You have been steadfast throughout this ordeal. Make a request, and I will grant it."

Draupadi replied immediately. "Free Yudhishthira from slavery!"

"Done!" agreed Dhritarashtra. "Make another request."

"Free Yudhisthira's brothers," Draupadi said.

"Done! You may make a third request."

"That is all," Draupadi said. "I ask for nothing more."

"Then I restore everything!" proclaimed Dhritarashtra. "Wealth, kingdoms, power, everything you lost is yours again. Return to your home in peace."

So Draupadi and her husbands mounted their chariots and began the journey to Indraprastha.

"Summon Yudhishthira to play another game," Duryodhana shouted at his father. "Quickly, before they gather their armies and attack us."

"My own nephews... attack us?" Dhritarashtra exclaimed. "It's unthinkable!"

"Jackals howled the night you were born, my son," moaned Gandhari, "an omen that you would bring destruction upon us. Now I realize the prophecies were true. Calm your rage, I beg you."

But Duryodhana refused to listen to his mother and father. "Send a messenger on the swiftest horse," he commanded. "Bring Yudhishthira back here for another game of dice. With Shakuni's help I'll finish him once and for all."

Duryodhana's messenger overtook the Pandavas. "Duryodhana challenges you again!" he said. "The losers will be exiled into the wilderness for twelve years, followed by one year in disguise. If they are discovered in that year, another thirteen years of exile will follow."

Again, Yudhishthira's sense of royal duty meant he could not refuse the challenge.

Again, Shakuni won.

The Pandavas had to go into exile.

"Let Kunti stay here with us," Vidura said, and the Pandavas tearfully bid their mother farewell.

As they left Hastinapura, the Kauravas mocked their cousins, but the people pitied the princes and their noble wife.

Many faithful followers accompanied the Pandavas and Draupadi into the wilderness.

"Please go home," Yudhishthira told them. "The forest is dangerous, and I cannot keep you safe. Return to Hastinapura, and we too shall return when our years of exile are complete."

Yudhishthira was worried how they would feed themselves in the wilderness; they could not feed all these followers too.

The family priest then urged Yudhishthira to pray to Surya, the sun-god, source of the world's bounty. Surya appeared and gave Yudhishthira a copper bowl.

"Let Draupadi cook with this bowl," Surya said, "and it will always be full."

During their exile, the forest rishis told the Pandavas many stories, including this story about their ancestor, King Kuru.

King Kuru took his plow and went into the field. He ran out of seed, so he cut off his flesh for seed, watering the field with his blood.

"King Kuru, what do you want?" Indra asked. "I will grant you a boon!"

"I need nothing," replied Kuru, "but please bless this land so that anyone who dies here in the act of renunciation or in the act of war will ascend to heaven!"

Indra agreed. That field was Kuru-kshetra, Kuru-Field.

"Has any king suffered more than I?" Yudhishthira asked the rishis.

"Listen to Rama's story," the rishi Maitreya told him. "Rama was blameless, but his father, King Dasharatha, exiled him at the behest of a jealous queen. For fourteen years, Rama lived as a forest hermit with his brother, Lakshmana, and his wife, Sita. Then the king of the rakshasas, Ravana, kidnapped Sita, and Rama had to wage a war to rescue her. He had no human allies, but with an army of monkeys, including the monkey-god Hanuman, he defeated Ravana. Only after all those hardships did Rama become king."