Prakriti P.O.V
We left Kampilya and started our journey towards Hastinapur with Draupadi. We knew the difficulty of making them accept Draupadi without treating this like unethical. But we will make them understand, Brother Yudhishthira has to be the King of Hastinapur, this is his and people of Hastinapur destiny.
We reached Hastinapur as everyone stood at the entrance waiting for us. Pandavas get off of their horses and me and Mother followed them leaving Draupadi in the carriage. My eyes went towards Gandhara King and Prince Duryodhana who looked angry and disappointed by our arrival. One by one we took blessings from our elders and greeted them. "Son Yudhishthira, if you were all alive, why didn't you come back?" Queen Gandhari asked. She doesn't know about her brother and son scheme. "Mother, at which time it appears righteous, I tried to do it with full dedication" he responded.
"How come your Dharm is change now, son?" King Dhritarashtra questioned. Brother Yudhishthira moved towards him and with an example he explained our reason. I moved with Arya and greeted King Dhritarashtra and walking towards Queen Gandhari, she smiled and put her hand on my head in blessing "You have win the competition in Kampilya" King Dhritarashtra appreciated, Arya joined his hands together "And with your blessings, I could honor Hastinapur more" he responded.
"Where is our Kuruvans second daughter in law?" Queen Gandhari questioned smiling. I looked at Brother Bhima, he appeared sad because we can't bring Sister Pallavi here. "Not second, Queen mother, third daughter in law" Arya replied. "During the time of separation, Brother Bhima married the sister of Hidimba" he continued, everyone looked shocked at the news "And she has given birth to a son".
"In other words, Brother Bhima married a demon" Prince Duryodhana said in mocking voice and laughed with Gandhara King.
"Hastinapur has a very different way of showing dharma by marring a demon" Gandhara king sneered at us. I inhaled sharply, he doesn't have any right to belittle Sister Pallavi. I moved towards Gandhara King and bowed my head greeting him. "And what is bad about marrying a demon, Gandhara king?" I questioned him, joining my hands together in respect. He raised his eyebrow and chuckled "Daughter Prakriti, everything is wrong in marrying demon" he laughed.
"As long your wife live in forest, you can accept her as your wife" Grandfather Bhishma said in serious voice. "But I will not accept the child as Kuruvanshi" he further added.
"And why that is Grandfather Bhishma" I spoke looking at him "Why can't you accept our nephew as Kuruvanshi, he is Brother Bhima son, he has Kuru's blood in his veins" I said, Ghatothkach is a Kuru son even if they accept it or not.
"Because he is a demon" Gandhara King said like the idea is absurd. "Wasn't it you Grandfather who made treaty between Demon and human, You accepted them for the first time when no one could" then my eyes moved towards Gandhara King "And we all are creation of god, he made us as we are, so nobody has any right to point finger on god creation besides I can give you some examples where human are worse than an evil demon" I smiled as he looked away clenched his jaw.
"And if God doesn't make difference among us then who are we to do that" I asked walking towards Grandfather.
"Daughter" Grandfather smiled putting his hand on my head and I joined my hands together in greeting "I will accept him as Kuruvanshi and as my great grand son" he spoke smiling and with open arms he pulled Brother Bhima in a hug. I smiled and moved back a little.
Mother greeted Queen Gandhari "Where is our third daughter in law?" she asked again. I looked at Arya as he looked at me, we were all uncomfortable. "I will get her Mother" I said and walked down towards Draupadi carriage, she peeked around as I went near her. I extended my hand forward "Krishne, everyone is waiting for you" I said with a small smile, she looked nervous but nodded her head and put her hand in my palm. We moved towards our elders, everyone looking at us with smile on their face. She stand in front of Queen Gandhari and touched her feet in greeting. Then Queen asked Arya to come forward to welcome them as a couple. Every Pandava moved forward for the ritual and everyone looked at them in shock "We, five brother have married with Panchali" Arya said.
Gandhara King started laughing moving towards King Dhritarashtra "One woman with five husband". I gritted my teeth in anger as he mocked our family.
"This is Adharm" Grandfather shouted looking at each of us. "I was waiting for Dharma and you, five brothers has made an Adharm" he said with clenched jaw, anger burning in his eyes and left us and King Dhritarashtra turned his body away and walked out of the place. Before Queen Gandhari could walked away, I stopped her "Mother Gandhari" I moved towards her, she stopped in her track "Everyone think this marriage is an Adharm but it is still a marriage, Draupadi is still your daughter in law, It is your duty to welcome her" I said looking towards Krishne who has tears running down her cheeks. "But it is Adharm" she said. "And who tells the difference between Dharma and Adharma" I questioned her, she looked confused "Father Bhishma think that, so it has to be" she concluded.
"Because he hasn't see the reason behind it" I said "And when he will know, he will understand, with him, everyone will understand" I continued.
"What should I do, what is my dharm now, daughter" She asked confused. I smiled "Welcome your daughter in law, Mother" I said and she nodded her head.
***
"If Grandfather calls our marriage an anomy and expelled us from this Kingdom then we will have to accept it" Brother Yudhishthira said, we were in the chamber. "And we will have to accept if he make Duryodhana King" he added.
"Why are we even here Brother, we should have left this place when he turned his face away from us" Brother Bhima said frustrated.
I was sitting beside Draupadi listening to the Brothers argument.
"We cannot accept Grandfather decision otherwise the world will think that we have done a sin, that Draupadi has done a sin" Arya said forcing his words out.
"But we cannot disrespect Grandfather's order and this is our crisis" Brother Yudhishthira said turning around, his shoulder tensed.
"We should let Krishne speak to Grandfather" I spoke for the first time since we entered in this chamber. Brother Yudhishthira looked confused "Why?" he asked, I smiled "Because she is the only one who can make him understand that this marriage is pure" I said turning my head towards Draupadi who nodded her head.
***
I was standing with Mother in the court room next morning. Everyone was present there as Pandavas walked in with Draupadi in the room. I looked towards Grandfather Bhishma, he has a smile on his face. Draupadi has done her work. They greeted their elders and then took their seat. Brother Yudhishthira was standing in the center explaining story of Varnavrat.
"Now I am back to take care of our Kingdom" he announced looking straight at King Dhritarashtra. He joined his hands together "I request you revoke the title of Crown Prince from Brother Duryodhana" he said, King Dhritarashtra opened his mouth to object but before he could do that Prince Duryodhana himself accept it and moved out of the seat and greeted Brother smiling. I frowned, all of a sudden he is changed.
"But you have to answer my question first, Crown Prince" he asked to Brother Yudhishthira "The woman who has relationship with more than one man is called obscene" he said indirectly pointing finger towards Draupadi, I clenched my jaw to control the rage bubbling inside of me. "In Aryavarta, this type of women gets prison" he said looking at Draupadi, I moved myself and walked towards my family standing beside Draupadi, my eyes glaring dagger at Prince Duryodhana. "If this questions asked by someone in the future, what justice will you do Crown Prince?" he asked smirking.
"I have an answer for your question, Prince Duryodhana" I said, walking forward containing my anger and putting calm smile on my face. Gandhara King quickly moved out of his seat and went towards us "But he hasn't ask you the question, he asked his Crown Prince" he said with a fake smile. I gave him a smile "I am his future general Secretary, I have every right to answer the question that will be asked to Brother Yudhishthira" I explained, Gandhara King frowned looking troubled. "Am I right, Uncle Vidur" I asked looking towards him, he smiled and nodded his head "You have right to answer this question".
"The situation is different when Pandavas married Draupadi, it is not a normal marriage like others, to purify their marriage, they have made sacrifice and took oath and even Maharishi Vyasa accepted this marriage as ethical. Besides Draupadi is born from fire and everyone knows fire can never be impure" I explained looking around, Prince Duryodhana scoffed at this "I don't believe you".
"I don't want to hear anything, your family is expelled from this Kingdom" King Dhritarashtra screamed all of a sudden. My eyes widened, he can't do that, we haven't done anything wrong. Brother Yudhishthira tried to explain him but he wasn't ready to listen.
"Even Grandfather Bhishma accepted that our marriage is Dharma" Brother Yudhishthira said turning towards Grandfather. "King Dhritarashtra, I have thought about the situation and decision they made is right, they are innocent in this" Grandfather said standing up and taking our side. "I am not going to accept them" King said angrily, standing up from his throne. He is blind sided because of his son, I can't believe him.
"King Dhritarashtra, we are ready to take fire test to prove our innocence" Brother Yudhishthira walking towards their brothers. "Everyone will know then that sometimes you have to take this test to prove yourself" he announced.
"Then what about the Adharma happened in this Kingdom, My liege" I said staring at King Dhritarashtra with a fierce look. "People can gave a child poison but there will be no justice, they can try to kill a person by stopping them entering in the competition, there will be no punishment and they can even kill a family by burning them even they will not be judged, right, My Liege" I said, my voice echoing in the whole room. He appeared startled and sat on his throne again in tension.
"They are blaming us now to hide their sin, King Dhritarashtra" Gandhara king said acting tense.
"And what can they even do, having relationship with five men, this woman doesn't know any Dharma then how will she teach her family" Prince Duryodhana said scowling at us. My nostrils flared in anger as he accused my whole family. Arya moved forward with bow in his hand challenging Prince Duryodhana in anger. King Dhritarashtra angrily gave Arya death punishment. My head jerked in his direction in shock "You can't give this punishment" I yelled, "Arya is protecting his wife honor so you can't give him this punishment" I said, my eyes glaring at him. He has crossed the line always siding with his son. He huffed and sat down on his throne again.
"I have enough, for how long your sons is going to stain this court, King" Grandfather shouted all of a sudden and everyone looked at him in shock. "I can not stand here anymore" he said in frustration and walked out of the court. I stared at him and sighed, looking down.
"For the protection of Kuruvansh, we have to split the nation" Uncle Vidur said in pain, I looked at him disturbed by the news.
***
I quickly went in search for Grandfather Bhishma, splitting of nation can't be the solution to this. I can't let this happen. I found him standing in a corridor in anger, Uncle Vidur was present there as well. "Firstly my body will split into pieces then my nation will split" he said in rage, Uncle bowed his head crying. "This cannot be the only solution, Uncle Vidur" I asked him showing myself, Uncle shook his head and Grandfather looked tensed.
"Water and Oil can never be put into one vessel, they can never meet and there will be no use to them" he explained, "To save Hastinapur, splitting is the only option" he said in pain.
"But will the problem go away after splitting the Kingdom?" I questioned him, I don't believe Prince Duryodhana will let us live in peace. "Future is unknown, daughter" Uncle responded.
"Brother Dhritarashtra have dharm in his heart but he is failing to remember it because of his son" Uncle said, his mouth set in hard line.
"I don't agree with you Vidur, I will make him remember royal duty" Grandfather said with conviction in his voice. If he could have, why haven't he done this before, he has misconception about this. Just then a person came and told us that King Dhritarashtra gave the command to imprisoned Pandavas, my eyes widened and I quickly walked towards their chamber. One Soldier was tying a rope on Brother Bhima hands when I reached in the chamber. My heart broke into pieces as I saw my family in ropes. "Calm down Bhima, if King gave this order, then we will stay in prison" Brother Yudhishthira stated.
"I don't agree with you Brother Yudhishthira" I said walking inside the chamber. "We didn't came back so that they can put my family in prison" I said gritting my teeth in anger as I looked at every brother. Brother Yudhishthira looked at me calmly "We will have to respect justice" he said.
"But this is not justice and everyone knows that, if the people of this Kingdom won't even believe his own King to provide right justice then what is the meaning of all of this" I said frowning.
"This is our King command and we will have to accept it" he said calmly and I looked down in anger. "I will talk to the King myself and make him understand" I said glowering as they started walking out of the chamber. My eyes met Arya as he walked past me, I stared at him tensed "I will find a way, I will" I promised him, he gave me a small smile and walked out.
I made my way towards Grandfather Bhishma with quick stride controlling my anger, How can King do this injustice? When I approached Grandfather, he was seething with anger, Before I could say anything to him, he put his hand on my head "I will do the justice, my daughter" he said and walked away.