Arjun couldn't keep his emotions in check with the little conversation he had with his wife. The next day when all six of them are supposed to meet in their hideout, Arjun came beforehand.
"Arjun, why didn't you come with Panchali?" Bheem asks eagerly looking around for his wife.
"Bhrata, I came early," Arjun was unsure.
"Is everything alright, Phalguni?" Yudhisthir noticed something off.
Arjun in one breath, said everything that Draupadi confessed to him yesterday. And when he finished, Bheem and Yudhisthir were stunned. Sahadev and Nakul had tears in their eyes.
"We unknowingly gave her the idea that we only want her body...." Bheem winces feeling disguisted to himself for even saying that.
Yudhisthir sits on the nearby tree root to keep himself steady.
"How can she think that way?" Nakul asks desperately.
"We can't blame her. If anyone else was in her position, they would have thought the same," Yudhisthir says though his heart broke into pieces.
"She isn't just anyone, Jyest," Arjun says stubbornly.
"How much more low we can be? First she thought we disliked our sons because she had children with all of us. And now this. What's left to hear?" Bheem felt someone is twisting his heart with knife.
"Arya," Draupadi came in their hideout.
She got tensed noticing their expressions.
"What's wrong? Why do you all look like that?" she cups Yudhisthir's face.
Yudhisthir hold her hands in place and pushed her away from himself. Draupadi became more confused.
"Phalguni," Draupadi tries to approach Arjun who also steps back as she came close.
Draupadi stood in the middle. Looking at her husbands one by one. None of them are looking at her eyes.
"You all are scaring me, now. What's wrong?" she asks in a shaky voice.
None of them talked. Draupadi's heart grew more anxious. Some time passed none of them talked.
Draupadi sits in front of Bheem and places her hands on his knees. Bheem looks away from her for the first time in his life.
"You won't even look at me? What did I do?" a sob escaped her lips.
Pandavas came back to their senses. Again, they became the reason of her tears.
"We fall into the lowest category of men to whom wife only means someone whom to turn when need of physical satisfaction. We aren't worthy to meet your eyes," Sahadev says gravely.
"What?" Draupadi looks at them confused then her conversation with Arjun from last night hit her. Arjun must have told the others.
"Arjun performed his bhrata dharma again, didn't he?" Draupadi glares at Arjun.
"He isn't one to blame. We should have known this," Bheem says sternly.
Draupadi closes her eyes in guilt. She promised Mata Kunti that her sons will be taken care of. And she only causes them pain.
"I apologize..."
Bheem placed his hand over her lips. Draupadi looks back and she swore this stern look of Bheemsen isn't something she has seen ever.
"Not another word," Bheem says suppressing the harshness in his tone.
"Panchali, we agree our behavior gave you the worst impression on us. We were such horrible men to you that you considered..." Yudhisthir's voice trembled as he couldn't even utter the words.
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
Empire of Righteousness
ऐतिहासिक साहित्यThe Divine woman Draupadi was born as the eternal consort of Panadavas. But we always fail to treasure things which we get easily. Same happened with the Panadavas. Draupadi's utter devotion towards them made them totally neglecting towards her. A t...
