Indraprastha: The Capital of Pandavas

As per the 'The Mahabharata' the Demon Maya, who was said to be the best architect
of his time, built the city and the palace of Khandavprastha for the Pandavas after their
Uncle King Dhritarashtra partitioned the Kingdom of Hastinapur (which was rightfully
Yudhishtir's) into two in order to stem the rivalry between the Pandava brothers (see picture
below) and the Kauravas (their cousins). Pandavas chose the ruined land of Khandavprastha
as their capital. While, it brought a big smile on Duryodhan and Shakuni, it only tensed
Bhishm Pitama further. The reason? Well, the place Khandavprastha surrounded by the
Khandav forest was cursed by Lord Indra and was totally infertile. In addition, the region was
inhabited by Asuras, Nagas and Rakshasas and was under the Naga ruler Takshak.
The Conversion from Khandavprastha to Indraprastha
Soon after the Pandavas entered Khandavprastha they asked help from their cousin,
Lord Krishna. Krishna then invited Vishwakarma, the great architect to design the town just
the way he had made Dwarka or perhaps better than that. Soon, the work began and all the
forest that surrounded the place was cleared by wildfires. In the process, the tribe of Asuras,
Nagas and Rakshasas were either killed or they fled towards the west. Few of them settled in
the Salwa region while many settled in the far west region of Gandhar. The Naga leader
Takshak then moved to Takshshila and took out his revenge on Arjun years later by killing
Arjuns grandson Parikshit by poisoning him with snake poison. It was during this fire that
Lord Krishna and Pandavas had saved Maya, the architect belonging to the Asura tribe.
Asura Maya was so overwhelmed by this gesture that he built the renowned Maya Sabha,
the assembly hall for his new king Yudhishtr. This hall was famous for its grandeur,
bejeweled beauty and illusory effect.
Legends bestow us about the architectural beauty and marvel of the legendary city of
Indraprastha. The floor of the palace was done in such an illusionary manner that it had the
reflection of water whereas the ponds and pools in the palace gave an illusion of a flat
surface with no water in them. After the Khandav forests were burnt, the Rakshasas and
Nagas were all gone and the infertile land was restored into a beautiful city. It got its name
as Indraprastha since it was built in resemblance to Lord Indras own city. The city even
made Lord Indra a bit jealous as it was him who had cursed this place before Pandavas came
and turned the shape of the place.
The Location of Indraprastha in Modern Day
The territory of Indraprastha lied somewhere to the east of river Saraswati and west of river
Yamuna. Although, we cannot find this city anywhere in the modern time, the archaeological
findings have in a way proved that the capital of Pandavas was somewhere in the area
where the second Mughal Emperor Humayun built Dinpanah and the Afghan ruler Sher Shah
Suri built Shergarh. In the current time, the area lays comprises Indraprastha Park, Pragati
Maidan, Old Fort and the nearby colonies of Delhi. As per the legendary tales, it is said that
Raja Dhillu from the pedigree of Karna later formed a place Dhilli around the Pandavas
capital and advanced many small villages to structure a big city. It is said that his decedents
still live with surnames such as Dhull, Dhaliwal, Dhill and Dhillon which are common caste
seen in the Jatt clan of the Punjab region. They are even addressed as Raja Jatts because of
their ancestral connection.

Pandavas also built other cities like Swarnaprastha (modern day Sonipat) and Panaprastha
(Panipat) in their province.

Importance of Epics in India

India is a land of spiritualism. The monks and the sages declared long ago before the
people of this country that real happiness of life consists in renunciation, love and fellow
feelings. These two great books the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have been the
sources of inspiration to most of the Indians since their composition. These two great epics
the Ramayana and the Mahabharata speak highly of ideal way of life. They teach us what
life ought to be. The characters of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata breathe the
sentiments of Indian people and the teachings of these two great epics are being handed
down from generation to generation. The festivals centering round the principal characters
of the two epics Rama and Krishna exhibit the ideals upheld by the Hindus.
The Ramayana and The Mahabharata are not simply stories of heroism, but they
embody the socio-religious ideals of millions of people of India known as Hindus. Rama and
Krishna are thought to be incarnations of God and their ways are to the believing Hindus the
ways of God. They are worshipped in temples and remember in time of stress and strain in
national and personal life. The freedom movement of India received huge inspiration from
the Gita. Its ideal of doing work without any expectation of result colors the dram of many
Indians.
Mahabharata
Mahabharata is an ancient historical work written in Sanskrit by Krishna-Dvaipayana (aka
Veda Vyasa). It is undoubtedly one of the greatest works of the world, unique in many ways
unique for the deepest philosophic truths, for the wide range of human life covered by the
ethics and for the high spiritual stimulus provided in this epic. It is a whole literature in itself,
containing a code of life; a philosophy of social and ethical relations, a speculative thought
on human problems that is hard to rival; but above all it has for its core the Bhagavad Gita,
a perennial source of spiritual strength. It is a story of love, courage, truth, lies, deceit,
selfishness, foolishness, and every other human emotion. It showcases human emotions so
totally that you need not study anything other than Mahabharata to understand human
nature. The Mahabharata dwells on the aspect of the important goals of a human being in
his mortal life. The epic aims at making people realize the relation between the individual
and the society and how they both are inter dependent on each other. Apparently it is the
story of a war between two rival sections of a dynasty, but its very much more. It is the
story of evolution of all life, it is a treatise on cosmogony, a code of universal ethics; it is also
a history of the human race in its most general sense.
In its all-comprehensive dimension the Mahabharata compares with, and owes its
existence to, the Vedas. Economics, sociology, politics, accountancy, the art of war,
chemistry, astronomy all this is included in here along with philosophy and spirituality.