Matsya Defended and Prince Uttara

The strange and violent death of Kīchaka struck terror into the people of Matsya, who guessed that Sairandhrī was guarded by fearful powers; and word of it reached the searchers of Duryodhana, who had been hunting the Pāṇḍavas in vain for nearly the whole year. And they began to suspect that the mysterious slayer of Kīchaka was Bhīma, and Sairandhrī was Draupadī, and that the Pāṇḍavas were hidden in Matsya.

And so Duryodhana, together with King Susharmā of Trigarta, devised a double invasion of Matsya, hoping to force the Pāṇḍavas into the open before the thirteenth year should end and so trap them into another twelve years of exile.

Susharmā struck first, from the south, seizing the royal cattle and ravaging the southern lands; and King Virāṭa marched out to meet him, and with him went his four humble servants, Kanka and Valala and the two keepers of horse and cattle, who volunteered to ride to their king's defence. And in the battle Susharmā captured Virāṭa and threw the Matsya army into panic; but at Yudhishthira's command Bhīma charged the enemy, broke their ranks, and rescued the captured king.

And here again the story marks the virtue of gratitude, for these disguised princes risked their lives and their secret to save the king who had unknowingly sheltered them, repaying his shelter with their protection.

But this southern attack was only a feint, for the moment Virāṭa and his army had marched south, the main Kaurava host swept down from the north, led by Bhīshma and Droṇa and Kripa and Karṇa and Duryodhana himself, seizing the royal herds; and with the king and the army away in the south, the city lay undefended. And there remained only the young prince Uttara, boastful and untried, who declared loudly before the ladies of the court that he would rout the whole Kaurava army single-handed, if only he could find a charioteer to drive him.

And Sairandhrī suggested that Brihannalā, the dance-teacher, had once served as Arjuna's own charioteer; and so, reluctantly, the prince took the disguised Arjuna to drive him against the Kauravas.

But when they came within sight of the great Kaurava host, and Uttara beheld the terrible standards of Bhīshma and Droṇa and the radiant armour of Karṇa, his boasting collapsed into terror, and he flung down his bow and leapt from the chariot and fled toward the city in panic. And Arjuna ran after the fleeing prince, and caught him, and dragged him back to the chariot, and made him a promise: that Arjuna himself would fight the whole Kaurava army, if only Uttara would hold the reins and guide the horses.

So the boaster who could not fight became the charioteer, and the servant who had seemed nothing became the warrior; and the true worth beneath the outward show was about to be revealed.