I would frequently visit the dance school and the kitchen of the Viratas under some pretext or the other. I would see Brihannadaa in the dance school wearing the special Matsya style costume with the Padar tucked in. The sound of the jingling anklets on her feet at the rhythm of the dance beat ‘Ta Thai Tak Thai’ would leave me heartbroken. Arjuna was the best man among my five husbands. He possessed many rare qualities. Probably that is why, more than the others he was the one who had to go through this difficult test of living as an insignificant maid.
While making Uttaraa practice, Brihannadaa would be perspiring due to the heat of Viratanagar. While wiping the drops of sweat on her forehead with the edge of her Padar she would glance at me for a glass of water. I could never forget that look in his eyes. At that moment, even though being the best of the men, to me he seemed like a child, like our Shrutakirti.
When Ballava would meet me in the kitchen he would first convey the wellbeing of his four brothers to me in a whisper. He would put some special dish that he had prepared that day in my hand and say, “Sairandhri, take care of your health!” Actually, I should have been the one doing those things for him. I would feel sad seeing him bare and sweaty, cutting the vegetables and prepping the food for the Viratas.
I had the least contact with Kanka. He would always be accompanying Maharaja Virata. How could a maid in the inner chambers of Princess Uttaraa appear before them directly? I had to devise many ideas to meet Yudhishthira, and convey his further instructions to his brothers safely. For that, I would create some fictitious problems for Princess Uttaraa and go to Maharaja Virata along with her to get them resolved. While the princess talked with her father I would inquire about Kanka’s wellbeing and seek further instructions from him. It was comparatively easy to meet my husbands Nakula-Sahadeva, known as Granthika and Tantipala, in the stable and the cow pen.
The second half of our incognito life was also coming to an end. Now just the last week remained. After that we were going to be free like the wild birds. Especially of late I remembered Krishna continuously as the arduous period of incognito life had passed by uneventfully. But … but …. we Pandavas were not so fortunate to have our lives going on so smoothly. As usual, to meet Kanka, I went to Maharaja Virata along with Uttaraa. Virata’s commander Kichaka was in a very confidential meeting with his king in the royal chamber. After seeing us Maharaja Virata smiled and said to his daughter, “Come Uttaraa, have you heard what our commander is saying? He has received news that the Pandavas of Indraprastha who lost the gambling game are living secretly in our Matsya kingdom. Prince Duryodhana of Hastinapura has requested to search for them thoroughly. The message is that as soon as they are found they should be imprisoned. The commander is working on the same plan.” I was horrified on hearing those words. Our plan that had worked successfully throughout the year was about to be exposed in the last phase! If somebody recognized us we would be immediately imprisoned! Again, living in the forest – again, living incognito. I felt dizzy. I kept staring at Maharaja Virata with my mouth agape. I didn’t even realize that commander Kichaka had been staring at me with unblinking eyes. He asked Uttaraa, “Is this your maid, Princess? What is her name?”
“Malini” replied Uttaraa.
It was impossible for me to wait there even for a moment. Even the citizens along with the royal circle were fed up of arrogant Kichaka. It was absolutely necessary to warn my husbands of the impending grave danger without wasting a moment.
First, I met Kanka in his room. “Duryodhana has come to know that we are living in the Matsya kingdom! He is searching for us!” As soon as he heard my words his face turned white with fear instantly. He stood silent for a long time. Then he uttered only one sentence – “Go and meet Bhima and Arjuna immediately. We will have to do what they say.”
As per his instruction, first I met Bhima and Arjuna and informed them of the impending calamity. I also warned Nakula and Sahadeva. I did this very astutely and at the end of the day I returned to my room. While wiping the sweat on my forehead with the edge of my Padar I sat on a mat in front of a big mirror. I freed my tied hair. Looking in the mirror I started running my lean fingers through my hair. It was my hobby and pleasure to look in the mirror daily and run my fingers through my thick, long hair. But at this moment I wasn’t enjoying that as usual. Is there any defender for my bluish, thick hair or not? Dushasana had grabbed the same hair tightly in his fist and dragged me in the council of the Kurus. Is the same thing going to happen here in the royal city of the Viratas if we get exposed? What if another Dushasana is hiding here too? The thought itself made me horripilate. Just that idea itself made my heart wail, ‘Achyuta… Madhava… Milinda… help…!’
Just then Madhulika, another maid, entered my chamber hurriedly. “Malinitai, the commander is coming to visit you!” she said with frightened eyes while panting.
It didn’t occur to me that now I must gather and tie my open hair which is usually tied. Only the warning from Krishna kept ringing in my ears and mind – ‘Draupadi, don’t ever go in front of the Viratas’ commander Kichaka, even by mistake!’ Just the memory of these words left me trembling. Whether to vanish in the sky or to hide my face in the ground, where should I hide? I couldn’t think of anything.
While I stood bewildered like a statue in front of the mirror the tall Virata commander Kichaka came in stomping his feet, bearing his huge mace on the shoulder and stood right in front of me. For a moment, I felt as if the entire world was spinning around me. His eyes wide, he kept staring strangely at my eye-catching heel-long hair. Then laughing sarcastically, he said, “Indeed you are Malini – a garland of beautiful flowers – but you are also Sukesha – the one with beautiful, long hair – just like Draupadi of Indraprastha!”
I couldn’t speak anything. I stood stupefied in front of him, as if struck by lightning. He kept muttering further, “Such ravishingly beautiful maid should exercise the power of her beauty on the commander instead of serving the princess. I am going to make such arrangements by telling the king, so that even I will be able to adorn your thick hair with flowers.”
Not a single word of his entered my ears. Only the flute-like words resonated – ‘Only Bhimsena will be able to protect you.’ Suddenly my fear vanished in thin air, and my mind got determined. I delicately brought my long hair over my shoulder with my left hand. While making playful gestures with a strand of my hair in a shameless way that surprised even my own self I invitingly said, “Oh how fortunate this lowlife maid Sairandhri would be to serve the commander! Whenever you want Malini will be at your service!”
As soon as he heard my encouraging, inviting response, that huge commander of Viratas holding the mace, directly came close to me. He put my hair back again and in a whisper, that only I could hear he said, “Sairandhri – Malini, get all dressed up and ready. I will spend tonight in your fragrant company!”
I blurted out the words of response as if pushed by someone, “As the commander wishes. This maid is at your service.” Hearing that the commander of Viratas was pleased with himself and laughed aloud shaking his chest. He left just as he came in, like a storm. I was scared to death looking at the back of his huge figure. First of all, I remembered Krishna. It was as if he was telling me from every direction, ‘Go to Bhimsena without wasting a moment’. As if pulled by an unknown force I rushed towards the kitchen of the Viratas. The moment he saw me, just by looking at my face Bhimsena surmised that I was in some kind of big trouble. I immediately told him in a soft voice what had happened. For a moment, he was also lost in thought. Then he said, “He seems like the Jayadratha of the Viratas. Don’t worry. I am here. I will take good care of him. What did he say to you – that he wanted to plant flowers in your hair, didn’t he? Let me sever that rugged tree of his body itself. And that too, in front of you. Do not worry at all. Just as you have promised him, get all decked up and sit on your bed.”
The night descended on Viratanagar. During the evening Bhimsena met all his brothers and instructe
d them to wait near my bedroom throughout the night. I had never seen Bhimsena plan anything so strategically. But that night I became especially aware of a subtle quality in him. He did anything that was related to me very thoughtfully. In such things, his heart would be full of silent love for me. He had assigned the duty to all his brothers to keep a keen watch outside my bedroom. It was a perfect arrangement to make sure that not a single warrior of the Viratas would be able to enter my bedroom even if it was on fire.
As per Bhimsena’s instruction I sat on my bed with my hair left open and all decked up. The night progressed. Kichaka had not yet arrived. Many suspicions stirred up in my mind. Had the commander come to know something about our incognito life? Was he planning to capture us? What if his armed warriors came in instead of him? Just when I was getting restless with each passing moment, the inebriated commander of the Viratas, Kichaka, entered my bedroom. There was no crown on his head, no mace on his shoulder. With hair dishevelled the eyes in his melon- like round face were overflowing with lust.
I was sitting on my bed with a thudding heart and my face turned down. To appear inviting to him I portrayed shyness. I had purposefully let my thick, long hair hanging down the bed like a serpent, their tips directly touching the carpet on the floor.
Kichaka – the lecherous commander of the Viratas – came and sat by my side while stammering something like ‘M – Malini – Sa – Sairandhri – dear’. In the gambling hall when Dushasana had grabbed my saree I had seen his eyes burning with revenge. I raised my head and looked at Kichaka’s eyes too. They looked so different. There was no trace of revenge in them, but the uncontrollable, flared up inferno of bare lust. At that moment, I strongly felt deep in my heart that one’s eyes give away one’s character. So far, I had not seen a single person with eyes like my dear friend Krishna!
Impatient Kichaka muttered ‘Sa-Sa-Sairandhri, Ma-Ma-Malini why are you so shy’, and moved closer to me to take me into his embrace. I got terrified. Exactly at that moment my hair reaching from the bed to the rug got tugged. A pain shot in my head. I became cautious and also fearless. I dropped my jade-studded, serpent hood-shaped ring that I was holding in my hands on the floor. It made a clunking sound. I bent down saying, ‘Where did my ring go?’, and as decided earlier, went under my bed along with my thick, long hair, like a serpent goes into its hole.
Lascivious Kichaka got restless on the bed. Wondering where the sweet-spoken Sairandhri who was right in front of him had disappeared, he began looking below the bed stammering ‘Sa-Sa-Sairandhri-Ma-Ma-Malini’. He put his muscular, hairy hand under the bed and grabbing the hair that came into his hand pulled, saying, ‘Come on dear – come outside’.
The one whom he pulled out was my mighty husband Bhimsena! His exhilaration vanished as if a huge python that can swallow its prey whole had appeared in front of him instead of a female cobra. Still he stammered, “You… Ba…Ba…Ballava...how come you are here?” Bhimsena was any way not in a state of mind to listen to anything. He shouted so loudly that it would have left a listener trembling in fear. “You scoundrel, she is not Sairandhri!” Shouting so, he put the first powerful strike on Kichaka’s neck. Kichaka lurched to one side. I ran out from under the bed. Leaning against the wall I kept staring with my eyes popping. I had only heard of Bhimsena’s unmatched wrestling power. I had never seen it in person.
“You, sinful soul… She is not Malini either!”
Bhimsena leapt on the tall commander like a soaring falcon.
“She is Draupadi – the wife of us Pandavas of Indraprasth, you foul creature…!” He struck Kichaka’s neck from the other side. Kichaka lurched to the other side.
I had never seen this side of Bhimsena. At that moment, his eyes were shining bright like the sun and the moon in the sky. Like the thunderous clouds of Mriga roaring loudly Bhimsena challenged Kichaka, thumping his muscular arms with a deafening sound, “Commander of Viratas, get ready to fight a deadly duel with the Pandava wrestler Bhimsena!”
By this time Kichaka had also regained his composure. He also thumped his arms loudly. Like two massive wild elephants colliding against each other, both of them began fighting right in front of me. Within a short time, they began perspiring profusely. Bhimsena had become uncontrollable like never before. He was throwing Kichaka down on the ground, using various wrestling maneuvers one after the other, like a washer man striking wet twisted clothes on the stone steps of Yamuna’s ghat. Half an hour passed by. Kichaka looked half dead now. Bhimsena was getting more aggressive each moment like the wild wind in a storm. For a moment, I wondered, ‘Would he be controlled even by Krishna if he comes here at this moment? I also felt for an instant that it was not Bhimsena at all, Krishna himself was wrestling, getting all wet with perspiration’. I simply kept staring at him in amazement.
“Malini, see how your Ballava is beating the crap out of him!” Bhimsena sat on Kichaka’s belly and began landing strikes one after the other with his iron fist on Kichaka’s big, hairy chest, shouting wildly. With every strike Kichaka would shut his eyes in agonizing pain and writhe.
Finally, the invincible wrestler of the Pandavas who had reached the climax of the bout, put his arms around Kichaka’s neck and held it tightly in the Bahukantaka hold. My wide-eyed valiant husband Bhimsena began tightening his grip every moment, gnashing his teeth in anger. As Kichaka felt suffocated he started to flounder like a fish out of water and tried to break free. But no – it was the Bahukantaka hold! Bhimsena ultimately killed him.
As Maharaja Virata came to know about the execution of commander Kichaka, initially he got scared. Then when he came to know that Pandava wrestler Bhimsena had done it, he gained his composure. He came to the kitchen in person to meet us along with gift salvers of royal costumes. Maharani Sudeshnadevi, his sons Uttara and Shweta, daughter Uttaraa and the Chief Minister accompanied him. His speech indicated regret that the world conqueror Pandavas had to work as lowly servants in his kingdom.
As per Maharaja Virata’s wish we all put on the royal costumes again. That day I strongly realized a special quality of Yudhishthira. During the last thirteen years, twelve years of forest life and one year of incognito life, he had spoken in a dismal, pathetic, piteous manner. But when we wore the royal costume, the kingship and the spirit of a Kshatriya within him resurfaced with a flourish. He took the place of the eldest Pandava and assumed the leadership of the Pandavas for further action. My mind was concerned about one thing though. Will he again create a problematic situation with gambling as per his nature? Where was he going to lead us after all? But he had completely transformed. The very first instruction that he gave to Maharaja Virata was the indication of his transformation. He said to Maharaja Virata, “Maharaja, first of all, send a special messenger to Dwaraka. Send an urgent message to Srikrishna – the Lord of Dwaraka that we Pandavas are coming out of our incognito life. Please give us your blessings.”
I was happy that first he had remembered Krishna. It was obvious now that the Viratas were going to be in trouble due to us. It was necessary for us to leave the city as soon as possible. We held a council at night. It was unanimously decided that we should go to one of the towns on the borders of Virata and Indraprastha, choosing such a place with the permission of Maharaja Virata. According to the condition put in the second game of gambling, the Kauravas were supposed to return the Indraprastha kingdom to us after the completion of incognito life.
But the very next day we received a message from a special messenger of Krishna that left me and all my husbands wary again. The message was, “The army of Hastinapura with all prominent warriors has left to attack the Viratas to capture their cattle! Duryodhana has unerringly surmised that you are located in Viratanagar due to the execution of Kichaka. He has presumed that you will show up for the protection of the cattle. Grandsire Bhishma, guru Drona, Kripa, Karna – the king of Anga, his brother Shona, Ashwatthama, Duryodhana himself with a few chosen brothers and Shakuni are coming with the army. You should fight against them along
with the Virata army, showing yourself up on the day of Vijayadashami. Arjuna should lead your army.”
Vijayadashami, the tenth day of the month of Ashwin dawned. The Matsya kingdom, located near Marusthali, used to get only a few intermittent rain showers throughout the year. That also was over now. The veil of whitish fog that had spread over Viratanagar lifted as the day progressed. The citizens began their daily routine. Herds of pure white, brown, blackish, grayish cows were taken out of their corrals and to the incline of Mount Arbuda nearby for grazing. Only the old cows and young calves were left behind in the corrals of the city. As the day advanced, a big commotion was heard from the inclines of Mount Arbuda. Following that Maharaja Virata who was gasping for breath entered the kitchen along with the newly assigned commander. My five husbands dressed as warriors and I had gathered there under the leadership of Bhimsena. My husbands had already prepared their minds as per Krishna’s timely instruction. But none of them had a single weapon with them. Maharaja Virata brought his palms together in prayer and implored them earnestly, “You are mighty warriors. Please protect the cattle of my subjects. You should immediately get into the chariots, chase and protect our cattle that the Kaurava army is capturing and save our honour.”
After hearing his appeal the five valiant Pandavas started looking at each other. Bhimsena said, “We do not have our weapons. How are we going to protect the cows?”
Maharaja Virata responded promptly, “You can take whatever weapons you want from our armoury and leave immediately.”
I realized the problem was that my valiant husbands did not have their weapons charged with mantras and said, “They have kept their weapons in the hollow of a Shami tree on the border of your kingdom. They will have to use those weapons only.”
Srikrishna- the Lord of the Universe Page 64