Virata Parva

Virata Parva, also known as the “Book of Virata”, is the fourth of eighteen books of the Indian epic Mahabharata. Virata Parva traditionally has 4 parts and 72 chapters. The critical edition of Virata Parva has 4 parts and 67 chapters.

It discusses the 13th year of exile which the Pandavas must spend incognito to avoid another 12 years of exile in the forest. They do so in the court of Virata. They assume a variety of identities. Yudhishthira assumes the identity of game entertainer to the king and calls himself Kanka, Bhima of a cook Ballava, Arjuna teaches dance and music as eunuch Brihannala and dresses as a woman, Nakula tends horses as Granthika, Sahadeva herds cows as Tantipala, and Draupadi in the name of Malini went as Sairandhri to queen Shudeshna.

This is a controversial book in the Mahabharata. In the 2nd-century CE Spitzer Manuscript found in Kizil Caves, China, which includes a table of contents of the Mahabharata, there is no mention of the Virata Parva and Anushasana Parva.