However, they wanted to avoid war and hence Lord Krishna tried to broker a peace on behalf of the Pandavas. The Pandavas demanded only five villages, so that a settlement could be reached without war and destruction could be avoided.
Shri Krishna gave these 3 suggestions to avoid war
Lord Shri Krishna had gone to Hastinapur for a peace treaty before the Mahabharata war, he had given three suggestions, which could have prevented the inevitable war. His first suggestion was that Indraprastha should be returned to the Pandavas with due respect. However, Dhritarashtra, Bhishma, Guru Dronacharya, Vice-Chancellor Kripacharya and Duryodhana had clearly refused for this. At the same time, the second suggestion was that Duryodhana and his brothers would touch the feet of Panchali and Draupadi and ask for forgiveness, which made Duryodhana even more angry.
Demand for these 5 villages for Pandavas
Apart from this, the third suggestion was that 5 villages should be given to the Pandavas, which surprised the assembly. Whereas almost everyone considered it a fair deal. The 5 villages that Shri Krishna had demanded were Avasthal, Varnavat, Vriksthal, Makandi and any village that the Kauravas wanted to give as per their wish.
I will not give away land even equal to the tip of a needle…
However, Duryodhana and Shakuni refused to accept even this suggestion. Duryodhana immediately replied, “I will not give them even land equal to the tip of a needle.” Apart from this, he proved his foolishness by trying to capture Shri Krishna, due to which Shri Krishna became angry and said that war and destruction of Kauravas is certain.
Know where those villages are today
The location is today’s Kannauj city. There is a place called Varnavat Shivpuri, which is located north-east of Rishikesh in Uttarakhand. Whereas, Vriksthal is in Gurgaon district of Haryana and Makandi is situated somewhere on the banks of river Ganga.