Bits of life

S-16 Words-2000

I know my brotherly love and affection for him were misplaced and wrong. I should have told him what he wanted was wrong. But I am not strong minded enough to say no to him.”

Draupadi replied that she would definitely take revenge against Keechaka and warned the queen to be ready to perform his last rites before dawn. Sudeshna became sad and could not stop her from uttering those words foreboding ill for Keechaka. She shivered imagining the fate of her brother, Keechaka.
From the chambers of queen Sudeshna, Draupadi straight went to one of her husbands, now the chief cook of the king, Bhima whose name was Vallabha. She woke him up and told him the kind of revenge she wanted against Keechaka.

They made a plan along with Brihannala to bring Keechaka to his end. Draupadi was to pretend fondness for Keechaka and she would fix a secret meeting with him in the dancing hall where Brihannala also would be present. Everything went according to their scheme. Keechaka was pleasantly surprised when Draupadi showed interest in him on that morning when he saw her singing with pleasure at the beautiful nature. She also felt sorry for not recognizing his true personality and that she would correct herself of that slip in judging him. She confessed her eagerness to meet him in secret. He was thrilled to have the meeting that night arranged by her.

On that night, he walked to the dance theater with a goblet of wine in his hand and an anticipatory smile on his face. He saw Draupadi alias syrandhri sitting on the couch with her sari covering her head. He thought she was doing that out of shyness. He was even more pleased to make love to her in leisure. Once he lifted the veil off, the face and the fierce eyes that stared at him belonged to a giant of a man. Who was he? He was none other than Bhima alias Vallabha. In the background, Arjuna alias Brihannala started playing on the percussion instrument called, tabla.

Keechaka and Bhima engaged themselves in fierce fight. They wrestled like two violent bulls and were equals for quite some time. But Bhima was definitely the better wrestler than Keechaka. And soon he tore apart Keechaka’s hands and broke the legs and left him lifeless lying in a pool blood on the floor of the theater of arts. Draupadi, who was watching the fight, was finally appeased and her fire of revenge cooled. Thus another evil minded person was killed by the Pandavas towards the end of their exile.

In Hastinapur, Duryodhan and his henchmen started losing heart about not able to find the whereabouts of the Pandavas. He had high hopes to find and repeal the exile. He was blaming his secret spies for not being efficient enough to smell the habitat of his arch enemies, the Pandavas.

Just at the moment of his frustration Dushasana entered and informed his brother Duryodhana a piece of good news. He said that the king of Hastinapur, Dhritarashtra received information that the army chief of the country of Matsya, Keechaka was killed. Duryodhana was stunned with shock.

“What happened? Who killed a powerful wrestler like Keechaka?” asked Karna. They started discussing who was equal to Keechaka in the martial art of wrestling. Then they started analyzing that as far as wrestling power was concerned, there are few people who could be his equals. They were Duryodhana and Bhima, Drona and Karna Balarama and Bhishma. None else attacked Keechaka as far as he knew. It could be only Bhima whose whereabouts were unknown. Duryodhana was overjoyed at this discovery that it could be only Bhima who killed Keechaka and none else. Immediately, he wanted to attack the country, Matsya and imprison the Pandavas.

To get the permission of Dhritarashtra to launch an attack on the territories of Matsya, Shakuni and Duryodhan made another plan. Shakuni said,

“ if you want to attack Matsya without a valid reason Dhritarashtra, Bhishma and Kripacharya and Drona will not agree. So, you have to give them a convincing reason to attack Matsya.”

Duryodhana requested his uncle Shakuni to find a valid reason to convince the elders for a fight with Matsya.
“dear nephew, you can tell them that you have received credible message that after the death of Keechaka, the country of Matsya has become an orphan country. The people are not confident of king Virata’s strength to defend the country against external or internal conflict. So it becomes our duty to assure them of our safety. For that we have to bring the king to heel and he should agree to merge their borders with ours.”
Duryodhana cheered Shakuni for this brilliant suggestion. He went to his father repeated the words he just heard from his uncle. His father was pleased because he thought it became a ruler to be alert and ambitious to widen his territories whenever there was a chance.

But Bhishma had a doubt. He was not willing to launch an attack on a country that was their friend. But then Duryodhana told him and his father, king Dhritarashtra that if they don’t seize this opportunity to annex Matsya, then the king of Trikat, Susharma was ready to occupy it by force. So they planned and sent word to Susharma to make attack on the Matsya king and his kingdom.

On the very next day, there was an attack on Matsya by the king of Trikat, Susharma. He started by attacking the stables and the cow fields. Nakula and Sahadeva in the guise of the keepers of horses and cows were ready for combat.

In the meanwhile a messenger conveyed the news of Trikat’s army attacking the Matsya property. The king was angry and ordered to make his chariot ready. Kanku Bhattu who was Yudhishtar was playing chess with the king when the message was delivered. He heard the king ordering his chariot to be brought to him. Dharmaraja told him that he, Vallabha that was Bhima and the cowherd and stable keeper were also good warriors. It would be good for the Matsya kingdom to make use of their services too. King Virata agreed to Yudhishtar’s suggestion.
As thought out before, Bhima and Nakula and Sahadeva accompanied the king of Matsya to the battlefield and within a short time, defeated the enemy. Bhima caught hold of the king of Trikat, Susharma and brought him to the king Virata’s presence at the point of his sword. Kanku Bhattu that was Dharmaraja asked the king to forgive the enemy because forgiveness was a great virtue.

Listening to his words of wisdom, king Virata forgave Susharma and asked him to go away.
In the meanwhile, the son of Virata, prince Uttar was all vanity before the ladies of the king’s palace. He was saying that if his father had taken him along with him, he would have fought like a hero and would not let his father to be injured in the war. Just then news reached him that the military army of Hastinapur reached the outskirts of Matsya along with the famous leaders like Bhishma, Drona, Kripacharya, Duryodhana, Karna, and Ashwathama and many others. Prince Uttar Kumar said in a vain tone that he would go to war at that very moment and defeat the army and their leaders. His mother Sudeshna warned him that the warriors of Hastinapur were not easy to defeat. But the prince was adamant and loud mouthed enough to brag that before his bow and arrow, the enemies would turn tail and escape.

Brihannala and his pupil princess Uttara make an entrance at that time. Brihannala warned the prince not to take the Hastinapur leaders lightly. Each one of them was known for power and knowledge of the weapon he held. He also offered to be the prince’s chariot driver. But prince Uttar made fun of Brihannala because she was a unach. Draupadi, or Syrandhri who was standing near the queen said that Brihannala worked as a chariot driver with Arjuna the Pandava prince of Indraprastha.

The prince made fun of the statement of Draupadi and said,

“No, I can’t believe it. Brihannala worked as Arjuna’s chariot driver? I can’t believe it,”said the prince laughing at her words.

Draupadi was a bit offended and with a serious tone she said,
“Alright Prince, if you don’t want to believe it, then don’t. But what I said is true.”

Queen Sudeshna supported Draupadi saying that Syrandhri never lied. What she said always came true. Uttara Kumar finally agreed to let Brihannala be his chariot driver. Before they left to for the battlefield, princess Uttara had a conversation with her brother.

“Dear brother, I heard that the people of Hastinapur wear beautiful clothes. Please bring me some of those clothes for my dolls after you defeated them.”

She looked at Brihannala if she had agreed with her opinion. Brihannala said,
“Yes, princess Uttara, they do wear colorful clothes. But Bhishma and Dronacharya wear only white.”

Uttara replied saying that she wanted only colored clothes for her dolls.
With that prince Uttara Kumar bade good bye to all the ladies and went to the place where the army of Hastinapur waited to make war on Matsya.

Arjuna drove the chariot at a great speed and soon they were within the sight of the limitless army of Hastinapur. On looking at the sight of numberless soldiers and their commanders standing in line right at the front of the army, Prince Uttara Kumara lost his courage and pleaded with Brihannala to take him back to the palace of the Matsya king.

When Arjuna asked him to be brave and fight with the enemy, he said,
“Brihannala! I would rather be alive and enjoy life instead of dying a death at the hands of the enemy. Their army looks like an endless ocean. Please take me back to my mother and sister.”

When Brihannala refused to drive him back to the palace, Uttara Kumara got down from the chariot and started running away.

Arjuna alias Brihannala got down and ran to catch the prince. He caught hold of him and put the wailing prince on his shoulder and brought him back to the chariot.

Then Arjuna asked him to be quiet. He said,
“Alright prince Uttar. I will take your place and you agree to be my chariot driver.”

Prince Uttara was surprised. He wondered how a unach could do such manly things as fighting and driving a speeding chariot across the battlefields.

Then Arjuna asked him to drive the chariot to a particular place in the forest nearby. When it reached the place he desired, he pointed out a certain tree to the prince and asked him to climb it and get the large bundle of his weapons. They were the weapons that the Pandava princes had hidden among the thick leafy branches of the tall tree. Uttara climbed up the tree and brought the weapons down. Arjuna took his Gandiva, the mighty bow he attained from a powerful deity and the quiver of arrows. Then they turned back and approached the Hastinapur army where the army of the enemies was waiting for the war to start.

When Uttara asked him who the commanders were, Arjuna pointed out each flag and named the warrior standing in readiness to attack. But then, the prince said that Duryodhana was missing from the army. He also made a right guess as to where he could have gone. He told Arjuna that Duryodhana must have gone to the fields where the cows were grazing. His intention was to steal them. Looking at Arjuna, Karna and others started aiming arrows at him. Arjuna was not disturbed by the arrows of Bhishma, Drona, Kripa and Ashwathama. He faced them all and crashed the arrows of each of these great archers with electrical speed. Finally, he had aimed the astra that had an intoxicating effect on the