Week 7 Story: The Burning of the Khandava Forest
Krishna and Arjuna in battle with Indra, as they help Agni burn down the Khandava forest.
Krishna and Arjuna were sitting by the river at the party that the Pandavas threw them, while the brothers were in the house intoxicatedly entertaining their guests. Arjuna was telling Krishna about his jewel-encrusted gold chariot when a Brahmin appeared in front of the two men. Krishna and Arjuna instantly stood up to show respect and the brahmin said, "After walking a long a distance, I need to eat something." Krishna and Arjuna tried to show him inside, offering a meal made by Draupadi and Subhadra, but the brahmin said “No, it is not ordinary food that I want to eat. I am Agni, the god of fire. I do not crave what mortals consume. For these past twelve years, all I have eaten is ghee for a sacrifice that I made to show Brahma that I do not just exist to harm the humans on this earth, and this has made me weaker and weaker as each day passes. I need to eat a forest, the Khandava forest to be exact, or I may cease to exist and then there will be nobody to control the fires that take out villages and spill out of volcanoes. If you two are as noble as they say, you will help me eat the forest and restore me of my strength, for then I will be able to maintain my duty of overseeing the element of fire on this earth.”
Agni told Krishna and Arjuna that he had tried to eat the forest multiple times before, and for some reason, Indra would never let it happen and he would make rain fall from the sky to extinguish the fire of Agni. Krishna and Arjuna, slightly confused about why Indra would not let Agni satisfy his hunger, said that they would help Agni eat the forest if Agni offered them celestial weapons in exchange and Agni agreed immediately. Agni gave Arjuna a bow from the god Varuna that shot arrows that could pierce an enemy at any range. Arjuna shot an arrow at the clouds, popping them and making them all disintegrate, ceasing the rainfall. Krishna flew his discus over the forest to dry up all of the water that Indra had let rain down. Ultimately, Indra was defeated and Agni was able to eat the whole forest and the men returned back to the Pandavas' to celebrate their victory.
Indra didn't know how to feel about his defeat. He can't believe that his son, Arjuna, wouldn't trust his judgement on not wanting the forest to burn because it would harm the environment and those that live within in. Everything and everyone in that forest was shriveled to death and the ash from the fire lingered in the ecosystem, polluting the air and the health of those that breathed it. Indra was also on the other hand, proud of his son for being able to defeat him in battle and being so strong that he could counteract the forces of nature. Because of this, Indra wanted the forest fire to have a silver lining so he made forest fires able to have positive consequences and used his powers to change the biology of plants, strengthening them against fires. Because of Indra, wildfires can bring even more plant growth than before in some cases because they can be used to clean up any dead or decaying matter in the forest. Now exist some plant seeds that can only germinate if they are heated up by a fire, such as Ponderosa pine trees.
Author's Note: This is my rendition of the story of how Agni asked Arjuna and Krishna to help him defeat Indra in battle so that he could successfully consume the Khandava forest. My only change in this story are how the weapons are used to defeat the rainfall and its impact on fire and I also changed the ending in which Indra contributes positively to the order of the nature of wildfires in forests. Those positive consequences that he put into place are actually real benefits of forest fires, although those benefits do not always outweigh the costs of a forest burning down.
Source: The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921).
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