It is as an actor in this tangled drama that Krishna appears.  Alongside the Pandavas and the Kauravas in Northern India is a powerful people, the Yadavas.  They live by grazing cattle but possess towns including a capital, the city of Dwarka in Western India.  At this capital resides their ruler or king and with him is a powerful prince, Krishna.  This Krishna is related to the rival families, for his father, Vasudeva, is brother of Kunti, the Pandavas’ mother.  From the outset, therefore, he is placed in intimate proximity to the chief protagonists.  For the moment, however, he himself is not involved and it is only after the Pandavas have gone into exile and reached the kingdom of Panchala that he makes his entrance.  The occasion is the archery contest for the hand of Draupadi.  Krishna is there as an honoured guest and when Arjuna makes the winning shot, he immediately recognizes the five Pandavas as his kinsmen although as refugees they are still disguised as Brahmans.  When the assembled princes angrily protest at Draupadi’s union with a Brahman, and seem about to fight, Krishna intervenes and persuades them to accept the decision.  Later he secretly meets the Pandavas and sends them wedding presents.  Already, therefore, he is fulfilling a significant role.  He is a powerful leader, a relative of the central figures and if only because the feud is not his own, he is above the conflict and to some extent capable of influencing its outcome.

His next appearance brings him closer still to the Pandavas.  When Arjuna is exiled for his breach of marriage etiquette, he visits Krishna in his city of Dwarka.  A great festival is held and in the course of it Arjuna falls in love with Krishna’s sister, Subhadra.  Krishna favours the marriage but advises Arjuna to marry her by capture.  Arjuna does so and by becoming Krishna’s brother-in-law cements still further their relationship.

This friendship has one further consequence, for, after Arjuna has completed his exile and returned to the Pandava court, Krishna visits him and the two go into the country for a picnic.  ’After a few days, Arjuna said to Krishna, “The summer days have come.  Let us go to the River Jumna, amuse ourselves with some friends and come back in the evening.”  Krishna replied, “I would like that very much.  Let us go for a bathe.”  So Arjuna and Krishna set out with their friends.  Reaching a fine spot fit for pleasure and overgrown with trees, where several tall houses had been built, the party went inside.  Food and wine, wreaths of flowers and fragrant perfumes were laid out and at once they began to frolic at their will.  The girls in the party with delightful rounded haunches, large breasts and handsome eyes began to flirt as Arjuna and Krishna commanded.  Some played about in the woods, some in the water, some inside the houses.  And Draupadi and Subhadra who were also in the party gave the girls and women costly dresses and garments.  Then some of them began to dance, some to sing, some laughed and joked, some drank wine.  And the houses and woods, filled with the noise of flutes and drums, became the very seat of pleasure.’[6]