Friend of the Pandavas

Krishna stood beside his cousins the Pandavas through exile, insult and war. When Draupadi was dragged into the Kaurava court and stripped, he answered her cry with an endless length of cloth.

Before the war he went himself to Hastinapura as a peace envoy, asking only five villages for the five brothers. Duryodhana refused even that and tried to arrest him.

Offered a choice between Krishna's army and Krishna alone, unarmed, Arjuna chose Krishna — and so the Lord became his charioteer.