The Mahabharata tells the famous story of the contest between the sons of Dhritarashtra and of his brother Pandu for the right to rule over the northern part of India. The cousins had quarrelled, and a game of dice was to bind the losers to relinquish their share of the kingdom. The Pandavas, sons of Pandu, lost. It had been agreed, though, that if the losers passed twelve years in the forests, and another so disguised as to escape detection, they should then be free to come back and claim half the kingdom as their share. The Pandavas kept their promise; but when their banishment was over, the Kauravas, their wicked cousins, would not keep their word. A heroic war ensued. The fight raged fiercely up and down over the plains of Panipat, the battle-ground of India even in this mythic period. The five Pandava brothers won, beating the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra, and all the country from Pinjor to Delhi became part of their newly-recovered kingdom.
