In the Mahabharata, Duryodhana has a palace of lacquer built at Varanavata. His plan is to set it on fire while his cousins, the Pandavas, sleep inside. Before the Pandavas leave for Varanavata, their uncle Vidura warns Yudhishthira of the plot. He does it cryptically, in a Mleccha language, and tells him of a means of escape.
Vidura then sends a skilled miner, who digs a tunnel from the palace to the bank of the Ganga. The Pandavas and their mother Kunti escape through it, and a boatman sent by Vidura carries them to safety.