Friend drupada the king who refused to recognize him

friend, Drupada, the king who refused to recognize him.
Arjuna goes to get Drupada, conquering him and bringing him to Drona (although first reassuring Drupada that he will be
protected from any danger). Drona asks Drupada for half of his kingdom as the price of his freedom. Drupada agrees and
is released, but is not very happy about the situation.
The Challenge Manifests: Duryodhana, Bhima, Karna, and Arjuna
Kripa, the weapons master, wants to show off to King Dhritarashtra how well the young men under his tutelage are able
to defend the kingdom. The warriors are matched in contests of strength and skill. The first problem occurs when
Duryodhana (son of the king and oldest of the Kurava brothers) and Bhima (one of the Pandava brothers known for his
unusual strength) get a little carried away and must be separated by Kripa. Then Karna, who everyone thinks to be the
son of a charioteer, arrives and challenges Arjuna, who has just established himself as the most skilled of the archers.
Karna’s challenge is rejected because he is thought not to be of noble birth. Duryodhana, already angered by his fight
with Bhima and jealous of the success of the Pandava brothers, declares that, as the eldest son of King Dhritarashtra, he
is giving the kingdom of Anga to Karna, thereby making him a noble and eligible to challenge Arjuna. After this, Karna
will always be loyal to Duryodhana and will be one of his defenders even when he knows Duryodhana is wrong. In a

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caste system, there is virtually no way to gain acceptance into a higher caste. Duryodhana has just given Karna much
more than a kingdom. He has placed him and his descendants into a higher caste.
Duryodhana’s Response: Manipulation of the king and assassination attempt
Duryodhana next tries to poison the mind of his father, King Dhritarashtra, by suggesting that the people would prefer
the eldest Pandava, Yudhishthira, as king. The king realizes that his son, Duryodhana, is a dangerous and not very moral
person, but he is his son. Rather than reprimand him as a father or a king should, he sends Duryodhana and the
Pandavas away to separate locations during the upcoming holiday celebrations, hoping to cool things off.
Instead, Duryodhana takes the opportunity to try to kill the Pandava brothers and their mother. He has one of his
ministers accompany the Pandavas with the order to have a house set up for them that will “burn at the touch of fire.”
His minister does this, but the Pandavas are warned and have a tunnel dug under the room where they are staying. They
also have one female and five male bodies, already partially burned, brought from the cemetery. On the night when the
house is set to be burned to the ground with them in it, Bhima confronts the minister, sent by Duryodhana, as he is
setting fire to the house. The minister realizes that he is going to die in the fire. As an act of mercy, before he escapes
down the tunnel, Bhima breaks the minister’s neck. The next morning the bodies from the cemetery are found and the
Pandavas (along with their mother) are thought dead. The Pandavas go into hiding.