- Pandavas live incognito and serve King Virat. Yudhishthir becomes Kanak, a courtier. Bheem becomes cook. Nakul and Sahadev look after cattle and horses. Arjun becomes Brihannala, an eunuch. Draupadi becomes Sairandhri, handmaiden to Queen.
- The Pandavas live incognito and serve King Virat (Ashok Sharma) of Matsya desh. Virat is powerful and not an enemy of the Pandavas. They hid their weapons in a tree outside the city limits. Yudhishthir becomes a courtier named Kanak. Bheem becomes a cook Ballabh. Nakul and Sahadev look after horses and cattle respectively. Arjun becomes a eunuch named Brihannala and Draupadi becomes Sairandhri, the handmaiden to Queen Sudeshna of Virat. Sairandhri claims that she was the handmaiden to Draupadi herself. Sudeshna is amazed to hear that there was never any tension between the brothers due to Draupadi.
Kunti continues to stay with Vidur and wont go to the Hastinapur palace. Gandhari is apologetic to Kunti for happened to the Pandavas. Kunti never came to the palace even once in 12 yrs. Even Vidur's wife Vidura says that Hastinapur has no respect for women in this era as then Yudhishthir would never have put Draupadi at stake and Duryodhan would never have ordered her dis-robing. Dhritarashtra tells Gandhari that he wishes that the Pandavas fail in their incognito year.
Dhritarashtra has a dream where King Bharat yells at him for taking wrong decisions and leading Hastinapur to destruction. He says that as the present king, Dhritarashtra is answerable to the past and future Kings of Hastinapur for his actions. Bharat reminds Dhritarashtra that Bharat himself prioritized merit over birth for deciding who should inherit the throne. This key value of life has been destroyed during Dhritarashtra's rule. With this act Dhritarashtra has insulted both Bharat and Hastinapur.
Dhritarashtra does not agree that Duryodhan is not fit for the throne. He says every decision is taken according to the era one lives in. Bharat's decision was right for his era, Dhritarashtra's decision is the right one for his era. Dhritarashtra blames King Shantanu for taking Bhishma's right and giving it to a boy who wasn't even born yet. That's when Shantanu enters the dream and yells at Dhritarashtra that Shantanu never gave away Bhishma's rights to anyone. Shantanu says that Dhritarashtra is hiding behind Bhishma and the day Bhishma falls, Dhritarashtra will be exposed.
Dhritarashtra wakes up screaming that Duryodhan is a reflection of his personality. Dhritarashtra still argues to Gandhari that Yudhishthir was the one who gambled away his property, brothers and wife and as such, he is not fit to be King. Even if Duryodhan cheated by getting Shakuni to play on his behalf. Gandhari says that Duryodhan is guilty as his intentions were not clean. Gandhari again asks Dhritarashtra to calls the Pandavas back and send them to Indraprastha. But Dhritarashtra says that Duryodhan will claim that their incognito year has been breached and thus they have to accept another 12 years of forest exile and 1 year of another incognito year.
Queen Sudeshna is a fan of her own brother Kichak, whom she thinks protects the boundaries of Virat. Brihannala trains Virat's daughter Uttara (Varsha Usgaonkar). Duryodhan's spies are not able to locate the Pandavas.
Sahadev vows to kill Shakuni. He says that everyone has selected their target (Bheem has selected Duryodhan and Dushasan, while Arjun has selected Karna), but no one has selected Shakuni who is the main source of all their misery. The brothers try to meet each other in secret, when possible.
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