Birth of Draupadi

(Birth of Draupadi created by zdrava on DeviantArt)

Drona and the Bharatas had humiliated him for the last time, King Drupada thought to himself. There had to be some way he could be avenged. Drona should not be allowed to freely attack him and get away with it. His chamber echoed only with the sounds of hurried footsteps as Drupada paced back and forth anxiously. Finally, he stood still and looked up to the ceiling.

"Of course, the gods must help me," Drupada said. "I don't know why I didn't think of it before." He rushed out of his room and grabbed the servant standing outside of his door.

"Prepare an elephant for sacrifice," Drupada said. The servant nodded quickly and disappeared into the dim hallways. "For an elephant, the gods must grant me a boon," Drupada thought.

As the servants began to set up the sacrifice down at the temple, Drupada continued to wear a path around his chambers. What would he ask for, he thought to himself. It had to be something that would be guaranteed to take down his enemies. He pondered but could not think of the perfect solution.

He came to a stop in the center of the room. The air grew still as well and the only sound was the faint sound of Drupada's breathing. He straightened his posture and then turned to his door and headed towards the temple. The energy outside was thick with anticipation. People milled about and whispers could be heard as Drupada passed. Whispers of his embarrassing defeat and of the sacrifice.

Drupada went back into his room to prepare and then made his way down to the temple for the sacrifice. Walking into the grand temple Drupada could see an elephant tied down, with the priest next to him sharpening a blade. Behind them stood a large fire that filled up most of the room with its heat.

Everyone milled around for a while as the priest finished setting up the sacrifice. Then silence filled the temple as the king walked up towards the elephant. He raised his hands above his head and lowered onto his knees, looking up towards the sky.

Loudly, Drupada called up to the heavens, asking for revenge against Drona and the Bharatas. The air around him seemed alive, either from the heat of the fire or the power that now was now filling up the temple. Drupada continued to shout his plea at the gods. The temple kept getting hotter and hotter as Drupada's voice began to rise. Finally, the priest brought his blade down on the elephant's neck.

The fire instantly went out and a chill fell over the temple. Drupada was still kneeling before the elephant, with sweat beading up on his lip and a slight shiver. Some bystanders in the ceremony began whispering and Drupada slowly raised his head.

First, a young man emerged from the fire. He stood tall and passively looked over the crowd. Drupada let out a cry of victory. The Devas had finally given him a son and heir to his throne, as well as a tool to help take down the Bharatas'. People began murmuring and pointing at the fire again. Drupada glanced behind his son and noticed a disturbance in the fire.

Appearing timidly from the fire was the most beautiful girl Drupada had ever seen. She looked around with large eyes and an innocent face. Drupada smiled as his plan started coming more together. Now the gods had given him exactly what he needed. He laughed, thanking the gods for sending him the Bharatas' downfall.

Author's Note:

I had read C. A. Kincaid's rendition of the Mahabharata and decided to re-write Draupadi's birth. I really like the character of Draupadi because even though she came to her father as a way to avenge him she still loves her husbands. She very much has a tragic life, and I think she's very interesting. One thing that definitely drew me to this story was the fact that Draupadi was brought into this world as a weapon. I had never expected that twist in the story. I feel like I could definitely write more stories about Draupadi because she is a very cool character. She is definitely one of my more favored characters in these stories. For the sacrifice scene, I had found on Wikipedia that they sacrifice elephants for extremely valuable gifts to the gods so I figured someone as upset as Drupada would sacrifice an elephant to get what he wants. According to the Wikipedia page about Hindu sacrificing is that decapitation, strangulation, and a spike being driven into the heart were the most common way to sacrifice the animals. I chose to do the decapitation just because I figured that would be the quickest death and the others seemed cruel. I also wrote the brother back into the end of this story and decided that Drupada would use both of the siblings. His son would be used to try and defeat them in battle and is daughter would be more used to take the Bhratas down from the inside.

Bibliography:

Animal sacrifice in Hinduism from Wikipedia

Kincaid, C. (1921). The Indian Heroes: Mahabharata - The Princes of Elephant City.