The Brothers and the Apsara

When the five Pandava brothers had won the princess Draupadi and taken her, by a strange turn of fate, as the shared wife of all five, the divine sage Narada came one day to visit them in their new home. He found them living together in harmony, and he was glad of it - but being wise, he foresaw a danger that the brothers in their happiness could not yet see.

"You are five brothers who love one another," Narada said, "and you share one wife among you. This is a thing that has never been before, and it can stand only if you are careful. For nothing in the world so easily turns brother against brother as a woman desired by more than one. Let me tell you a story of two brothers who loved each other more dearly than any I have known - so dearly that they were inseparable in everything - and of how a single beautiful woman set them to slaying each other. Hear it, and make a rule among yourselves before such a thing can grow between you."

And the brothers, with Draupadi beside them, listened as Narada told the tale of Sunda and Upasunda.