Arjuna
looked back at Indraprastha as he smiled sadly at it. He was not
going to see it for the next 12 years. Arjuna sighed as he turned
back and walked away from there, without a backward glance.
***********
There
had never been a place where Arjuna had stayed for long. Arjuna was
born in the forests and felt at home in the rough and tough jungle.
The only rule there was the rule of survival. Arjuna, now an archer
par excellence felt that he owed it all because of his upbringing in
the forest.
When
Arjuna’s father Pandu had been alive, Pandu, had often told him of
the stories of Hastinapur. But to Arjuna, Hastinapur seemed some sort
of mirage. Something like a dream….But then talking to Yudhishtara
convinced Arjuna, that their father, the pale man, who roamed about
the jungles with the sharp skills of a hunter, was in fact, the king
of Hastinapur.
Pandu,
the king of Hastinapur….Arjuna tried thinking about it and
found the idea too incongruous. His father who always wore the coarse
clothes made of tree bark and who lived in a thatched hut in the
middle of the forest and who ate simple food….could not be the king
of Hastinapur. But then as Arjua studied his father and mothers, he
realized that he had been foolish in not guessing this fact before.
Agreed his father was not surrounded by the lavish wealth of the
palace, but his parents had that stamp of regal authority which was
present in almost everything they did.
And
then when Yudhistara had become sixteen, their father had died.
Mother Madri was sobbing so hard that Arjuna felt more sorry for her
than he felt for himself. Mother Madri took Nakula and Sahadeva,
aside and took them to Kunti. ‘She is your mother from now on! Follow Yudhishtara and support him! He
now holds the position of your father!’ She had said to the twins.
Mother
Madri turned to Kunti and no actual words were exchanged between the
two women. There was no need to. Both the women loved the same man
who was now lying dead. Kunti, the stronger and the more mature of
the two queens would carry on looking after the children. She loved all the five Pandavas like her own children and never
differentiated between her own children and Madri’s children. In
fact her favourite among the five was Sahadeva, the youngest of the
lot.
Madri
nodded to Kunti and without a backward glance had stepped into the
funeral pyre along with Pandu’s dead body.
After
that, Kunti had brought the five of them to Hastinapur. She had felt
that the Pandavas being princes of Hastinapur, they had to know all
the arts of warfare and diplomacy and for their education had come
back to the palace.
Arjuna
could not explain it, not even to himself, but the palace never felt
like home to him. Agreed, now he had comfort which he had not dreamt
of even in his wildest dreams. He could do everything….and
strangely enough Arjuna found himself wanting to be in the open
jungles more than ever. Though there were several reasons for his
discomfiture, Arjuna attributed his uneasy feelings mostly to the
Kauravas, his cousins and the sons of Dhirdarashtra, his father’s
blind brother and now the king of Hastinapur.
Arjuna
could not help but feel that Duryodhana, the eldest son of
Dhisrdarashtra, did not like them at all. The way Duryodhana looked
at them always made Arjuna feel like he was in a wrong place enjoying
something, which was not his.
Arjuna
was not sure he could take this continuous animosity directed towards
him when something happened which changed his life forever.
Dronacharya.
The man who had made Arjuna realize his passion in life. Arjuan never
forgot the feeling when he had had his first archery lesson.
When
Arjuna felt the bow in his hands, it felt like time had stood still.
The bow and the arrow felt like a part of him and the target was all
he could see, as the world paled to insignificance. The sound of the
world had ceased and all Arjuna could hear was his own heart,
steadily beating, the thrumming moving to the bow in his hand.
Between the sounds of heartbeats he knew the exact minute he had to
let the arrow go and at the exact second he let the arrow loose. He
watched it with absolute certainty as the arrow seemed to follow his
thoughts and thwack! The arrow had hit the target exactly
where he had aimed it. Arjuna watched the arrow firmly embedded in
the target and then suddenly blinked as he was brought back to
reality. It seemed to him like the volume was turned on as the world
came back to focus sharply. His brothers thumped him in the back for
the excellent shot….Arjuna saw the quiet pride in Dronacharya’s
eyes and smiled….
After
that there was no looking back. But then on the front of his cousins,
all that his archery skills did was to make Duryodhana more angry at
him.
Yudhishtara
learnt the art of managing a kingdom really well and people began
talking of making Yudhishtara the king of Hastinapur after
Dhirdarashtra. After all Yudhishtara was the son of Pandu and he was
the eldest among both the Kauravas and the Pandavas.
As
if Duryodhana needed any more reason to hate them…The talk of the
people was the final straw. The animosity which he secretly had was threatening to become a full-fledged hatred…The weak
Dhirdarashtra, finally having no other choice in the matter, had
handed over the barren land – Khandavaprastha to Yudhishtara for
him to rule.
It
was Arjuna and Krishna who had been responsible in making
Khandavapastha, a barren place run over by Asuras and thieves and
dangerous beasts, into Indraprastha, the place what it was under the
rule of Yudhishtara. And Yudhishtara ruled Indraprastha like a man
born to rule.
In
fame, power and prosperity, Indraprastha eclipsed Hastinapur almost
into insignificance. And for some time Arjuna had actually liked
staying in Indraprastha.
But
then he was exiled from Indraprastha for the next 12 years….
*********
Arjuna
and his brothers had all married Krishna Draupadi, the fire-born,
dark princess of Panchala. Wanting to avoid any jealousy among the
Pandavas, the brothers and Draupadi had agreed for a system where
Draupadi stayed with one of the brothers for a full year and then
staying with the next brother for the next year. In order to deter
further problems, the brothers had agreed that if any one of the
brother broke the deal, that brother had to go on a self-imposed exile for
12 years. For the next 12 years, the Pandava would never come near
Indraprastha.
And
now through a quirk of fate, Arjuna had broken this promise. He had
been in Draupadi’s inner chambers when she was with Yudhishtara.
Arjuna’s
mistake was that he had placed his bow in Yudhishtara’s inner
chambers, the previous day. The next day, a subject had come running
to him for help because someone was abducting his cows. Having no
other choice, Arjuna knew that he was consigning himself to a twelve
year exile, he entered his brother’s chambers and took his bow.
Yudhishtara
and his other brothers tried convincing Arjuna that the exile was not
necessary. But then Arjuna never spoke a lie and he always kept his promises. Arjuna started his
12 year exile from Indraprastha….
Great narration...
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for part 3!!!
ReplyDeleteGood narration short simple but still effective in conveying
ReplyDeleteVery beautifully narrated, waiting for Part 3.
ReplyDeleteEager for part 3!!!
ReplyDeleteI started reading previous episode with curiosity of who will be the incarnation of Varchas? .. Now that few hints added fuel to the fire of my curiosity.. am all eyes to see the entry of Veera Abhimanyu ..
ReplyDeleteGreat work as always !
-Nandu