Before she became fire,
she was water
Quenching the thirst of every dying creature
She gave and gave
until she turned from sea to desert but,
instead of dying of the heart, the sadness,
the heartache she took all the pain and
from her own ashes she became fire.
~~~~~~~
"Draupadi is ours!"
Three words. A huge implication. A turn in history forever.
Duryodhan's yell resonated the once hallowed halls of kuru Sabha as jumped and yelped with joy for the most beautiful woman, the wife of his cousins was his, and his alone. His inappropriate thoughts ran wild as his fantasies were finally forming some rhythm, some shape.
He scanned the sabha before sending his charioteer to summon the once queen of the aaryavart.
The elderly Sarathy departed the court and moved slowly through the Kuru palace's corridors in the direction of the women's day quarters. He cautiously rapped on Draupadi's flat door. Never before had he been asked to deliver a message of the kind he did today. The door was opened by a maid, who ran to Draupadi.
Soon, Draupadi stood before him, so regal the poor sarathy grew dumb just to look at her. He shivered under her piercing gaze and finally understood why she was called intense.
Pratikami stared down at his feet and, then, somehow whispered, "My lord Duryodhana sent me, Devi. Your husband Yudhishtira has lost everything at a game of dice."
Draupadi merely raised an eyebrow, as years of wisdom gleaned behind her eyes, she knew this was not all.
"Yudhishtira lost his brothers at the gambling, he lost himself and..." the next words would not come.
"And?" her pupils dilated with shock.
"Finally, he lost you as well!" cried Pratikami, with the last shred of courage he owned. "Duryodhana is your master now and he commands you to come to the sabha."
Draupadi gasped, never in her life had she imagined such an imprudent thing. She fell back on her chair as if she would collapse without it. She ran a hand through her long thick hair and shivered. How could she, an empress be reduced to a maid?
Tell me, messenger, whom did my husband lose first, himself or me?"
"He first lost all his possessions, his wealth, his army, his granary, his kingdom. Then he lost his brothers, one by one, beginning with the youngest; and then he lost himself. Only after that did he lose you, last of all. You were more precious to him than everything else, than himself."
A stab of light in her lovely eyes: a flicker of hope. She said, "Go back to the sabha and say to my husband his wife wants to know if he lost her first, or himself. Ask Yudhishtira only that and bring his answer to me. Also, ask him what should I do."
Pratikami bowed and went back to the crowded court where Duryodhana and his brothers waited impatiently. The old sarathy said, "The queen Draupadi asks if Yudhishtira lost himself first, or her. She also said, she would not take orders from anyone but her husbands, in there feet lie her duty for evermore. She asked them what to do."
Duryodhan growled as he glared at pratikami before turning to dushansan. A desire for vengeance rises in him. Once, she laughed at his humiliation. Now he could gloat before hers.
This is what power feels like, pure unfettered power. It's great.
"Dusasana, you fetch our woman." Duryodhana said clear as the pandavas gasped but duryodhana was not done. "Drag her here by her hair if required!"
He began to laugh. "My brother won you fairly. You don't have to fear your husbands any more, you belong to us now. Come boldly to Duryodhana; turn your haughty eyes to the lord of the Kurus."
She moaned. She swayed on her feet at what had overtaken her so suddenly!
She took a sword from nearby and attacked him with all she could. But he simply held the sword and pulled it tight, dragging her along before gripping onto her tight long hair.
"Don't pretend to be so modest, you are no virgin. Five men already and now you will have a hundred more to keep you happy. We are your husbands' cousins, after all." And his devilish laugh again. Then he came closer and she thought he was going to touch her; she saw in his eyes how much he wanted to. She drew away from him, shaking.
"This is all about dhriti isn't it?!" She shuddered as she saw him just smirk and anger bubbled inside her. That wretched girl had never brought anything but ruin to her family.
"Don't try to fight. You know what I can do. You are my servant girl." He said as his eyes contracted to slits of evil. Of pure evil.
She ran, ran for all she was worth but she still heard his voice across the hall.
"Come, my dark beauty, let us go to the sabha."
He closed on her and with a scream, she dodged round him and ran toward Gandhari's apartment down the passage. But he was on her in a flash. Dusasana caught Draupadi by her long hair, washed in the holy waters of the Rajasuya yagna.
Her hair, they had always been a matter of pride In her swayamvar, they had flown freely with the wind, anyone she encountered always praised it. Her sister, even though a warrior, begged to comb it. Her maids always gushed about her hair. Her husbands treated it with utmost care even in the bed.
But her hair, was now her leash.
Growling, he began to drag her to the Kuru court—she whom her husbands would hardly allow the wind to touch. She screamed, moaned and begged him to leave her, she was clad in one cloth of her periods.
But he continued dragging her there, no better than an animal as he laughed a laugh decorated with evil. Her garment kept often falling away from her naked shoulders, while she clutched at it for her very life, or for honor more precious than life. The hauled her down the steps and threw her down, her body battered and bruised, her eyes swollen, clad in her mensural cloth and face streaked with tears.
She shivered with fury. She screamed and beckoned everyone to answer but her plea fell deaf ears.
All they offered her were consoling smiles, that taunted her. Broken vows by her husbands that haunted her.
She beseeched the Grand Excellency, Bhisma, The Maharaj, Drno, Kripa but no one lifted a finger in her defense. Her eyes raked her husbands. Yudhishtira would have been glad if the earth opened and swallowed him. He never raised his head. She stood like that, her slender shoulders heaving and no one dared make a sound.
More quietly, she said, "Dharma has left the Kuru sabha. But I would still like an answer from Pitama Bheeshma, from Acharya Drona, from Kripa, Vidura and Dhritarashtra. My question is a simple one: am I Duryodhana's slave or still a free woman?"
"Let me answer, you ungrateful maid. I won you fair and square. You are no virgin to speak of this!" Duryodhana said glaring at her imprudence.
She still shook with the terror of her plight. Staring at her with unspeakable lewdness, Dusasana taunted, "Who are you to speak of dharma? Your dharma now is to serve Duryodhana and I dare say your satisfaction lies there as well!"
Bheema, who barely controlled himself all this while, could not bear it any more. He turned on Yudhishtira.
"What have you done? Men who gamble every day have wives, but they do not wager them at dice. But the Pandava emperor does! You are mad. You gambled away all our wealth, our army, our kingdom, everything we had. I said nothing, because you are my older brother. I cared little for what you lost when I set it against my love for you.
Then, you gambled the six of us away and still I held my peace. I thought that you are our guru, our king. We all belong to you and whatever you did would be for the best."
Bheema's face was crimson. Arjuna tried to calm him, but the son of the wind had lost control of himself.
Karna grew angry as he turned on Yudhishthira. "How could you? Did your hand not shiver gambling away your own wife? Have you grown so heartless missing dhriti you are witnessing all this with pursed lips! You staked my kingdom but let you do it, because you are my younger brother. Did you subconsciously try to stamp your undisputed authority on our possessions simply by squandering them away? How could you?"
Yudhishthira stood silent, somewhere in him, he knew what they said was true.
"Why are you people turning on Yudhishthira? He did the right thing by getting rid of a vaishya! Who would want a prostitute in their arsenal? A rather wise way to get rid of her I must say!" Duryodhana said loudly as everyone shuddered at his audacity.
Draupadi burned in humiliation as she swallowed the tears and turned them into fire that would consume them one day. A wild and cornered thing, she panted, "I curse you, sons of Bharata! I curse you a thousand times! That you allow this outrage in your ancient court of dharma."
"I have won you fair and square, curses of a prostitute never become fruitful!" Duryodhana said evilly.
"All six are slaves and I think that for slaves they stand too haughtily and wear too many fine clothes. Dusasana, strip them of their silks! Let them wear only what slaves should and let them be made over to their master."
Dusasana licked his lips. He glanced at Duryodhana, who nodded. Grinning, Dusasana went toward the Pandavas. His cousins did not wait for him, but stripped away their upper garments themselves and stood bare-bodied like slaves before their masters.
Draupadi shivered as Vikarna said "Bhaiya, please leave her, she will be naked if you remove the one cloth she is wearing!"
Duryodhana chuckled "How does it matter whether a prostitute wears clothes or none at all?"
"Duryodhana, please let her go!" Bhishma said but his plea fell deaf ears but it struck shakuni with an amazing idea who whispered it to Duryodhana.
But before it could be executed, the doors to the court hall swung open and in strode the person no one expected to see. Dhriti.
Her eyes scanned the hallowed halls of the court before settling on her elder brother who sat on the floor, bare bodied with head bowed in shame. She looked at Draupadi who glared at her with resentment for she was the reason pandavas played the game of dice.
"Ah! We have an unexpected guest joining us today! Now back to where we were, if you all really want me to think about sparing this disgraceful maid, you all must surrender your weapons to me and beg." Duryodhana sneered as everyone in court gasped.
Bheeshma oblidged as others watched, The pandavas gave up their weapons and so did vidura. Slowly, the others too gave up their weapons. At the end, only one person stood with their weapons grasped firmly, Dhriti.
"I will not surrender my weapons, I am free here and I shall do whatever I please!" Dhriti said glaring, she was scared, giving up her weapons would render her as helpless as Draupadi and never would she let that happen.
"Dhriti! Please, for draupadi's honour-" Karna started but Dhriti shaked her head "I shall never beg to Duryodhana after all he did to me. My honor will never let me"
"Dhriti- Please." That was the first thing Yudhishthira said in a long time with such imploration in his eyes that even Dhriti averted her gaze elsewhere as she shook her head.
Flashback (Chapter- Indelible Recollections)
"I wanted to kill you, but you are just too beautiful to be killed off, what a waste of beauty it would be if I killed you just like that." He whispered as blood draining from the gash on his head fell on her face and she smiled. She loved watching her enemies bleed, even if trapped in a room for months, but she could break away from the room, it was the secrets of her he held that kept her trapped there.
"You disgust me." She said as she pushed his hand away only for him to grab her wrist.
"I disgust you, but, they, they don't even look for you. Have they found you? When you are in the very same palace, did your family make any effort to look for their little ray of sunshine, did they Dhriti?" He smirked as she gasped hearing that and dropped her urumi.
Taking advantage of her momentary distraction he fumbled with her blouse and undid it and she clasped her hand over there and slapped him hard.
"Don't you dare!" She yelled ferociously and tried to get up but the shackles held her down
Back to present
Draupadi looked at dhriti burning with fury, the one person who could now do something just stood there.
"Ya to Dhriti ko nishastra karo ya Draupadi ko nivastra!" (Either Dhriti should give up her weapons or Draupadi her clothes) Duryodhana's voice rang loud and clear through the hall.
"I will not give up my weapons! But I don't believe Draupadi should be considered a maid"
"Why is it?" someone asked.
"Draupadi is not only Yudhishtira's wife. She is also the wife of Bheema, Arjuna, Sahadeva and Nakula. They were not asked before she was put up as a gambling stake. They haven't wagered her and she is no one's slave, but free." Dhriti completed but no one compiled with her logic.
"Oh dear Dhriti! Look at you, using your brain. Come here, come to me!" Duryodhana rasped as shakuni pulled back his lioncloth and exposed his calf and patted it.
"Whatever you do to me," Dhriti said, too angry to stay quiet, "I can do worse to you."
'Oh,' Shakuni said, prancing towards her. "Do not think I forget that for a moment. Come here, sit on my lap. No one shall accept you now, you have lived in our palace too long to be considered pure."
The pandavas and elders in the court gasped in shock and Yudhishthira swayed weakly with knowledge as Sahdev helped him steady himself.
"Shakuni! How magnanimous of you to offer me a place!" Dhriti said as she walked the distance between them. Sahdev's breath hitched as he saw his love walk to shakuni and Arjun, Bheem, Yudhishthira and Karn's eyes blurred with tears.
~~~~~~
Hello everyone! I think this chapter was more of a filler before the next. I think I will end this dice hall episode in 1 or 2 more chapters but I am not sure.
It is also very disappointing that each chapter is getting around 200 reads but not even 10 votes! This upsets me severely and makes me want to abandon this book, if this continues, I will abandon the book.
Also there is a big revelation coming in the next chapter so I am looking forward to your reactions to it. Anyone remembers a character who was once a part of the main narrative but suddenly disappeared?
There wasn't much happening in this but I think the next one might be more eventful.
I hope you all liked this!