The Burning of the Khandava Forest

Anirudh Acharya as Daksha.

The burning of the Khandava forest in the Mahabharata is a relatively minor incident. Arjuna and Krishna level a forest, on which the Pandavas build their capital city. One point of view, is that the Pandavas required a stronghold from which to rival the Kaurava capital of Hastinapura. However critical engagement of this incident from other points of view question this pragmatic explanation. The ecological devastation wrought by the Pandavas was total, killing (almost) every living thing in the forest. There is also the terrifying prospect that this was genocide, where a clan intent on establishing a settled polity, butchers the itinerant tribes and indigenous peoples. This pattern is grimly familiar, as the march of development and urbanisation struggles to reconcile with ecological approaches. In Ultimate Kurukshetra, this minor incident in the epic destroys the livelihood of the forest dweller Daksha. The words he utters, “What about us?” in the face of Arjuna’s destructive inferno chills my heart to this day.

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