Ͳաìʂէҽժ Ͳìʍҽ | Rewritten

➼ A (Non)Musical Evening II

☬ Hastinapura — Swayamvara Hall ☬

Dushala

KuruKanya. Gandharisuta. DhritarashtraPutri. KauravaAnuja. So many epithets for one woman.

The more she saw as she grew up and realized the kind of world the royals were part off, the more she hated it. The politics played by the kingdoms, the traditions restricting the women and unlucky, the rules freeing the deceitful and the power hungry exploiting the poor and the commons.

Hastinapura had it's share of problems, no matter the small pockets of joys she had experienced under her mother's care. Her brothers used to be resentful to the amount of attention their cousins gained after their arrival. Their resent turned into jealousy  -- an emotion which made a person do heinous things. She had seen this happen. And she had learned. She controlled her resentment, tried to not give into her jealousy.

Then the question arises.  Why would the only daughter of the Kurus be resentful? What would cause her jealousy?

If this questions were taken from a political and royal perspective, the KuruKanya was a catch. She was the only daughter, hence will be pampered. When in time of her marriage she would represent worthy alliance for any kingdom worth their salt. After all, a kingdom would gain Hastinapura as an ally where warriors like Bhishma, Kripa and Drona stayed and descendants like Pandavas and Kauravas. And if taken from a commoner's perspective, she was princess and hence she had everything - a life full of rose petals. End of question.

At the end, the questions remained unanswered. Perhaps she would think of this later on.

Elders who were supposed to protect barely did the needful before using her as a pawn in the metaphorical chess board. A grandfather who should have played with her, barely interacted more than necessary. A uncle she never saw unless it was in the court and a father too busy about his eldest son and the throne to care about his only daughter other than the benefit she brought him. Her brothers, her feelings regarding them was a mixture of familial love and surging anger at their callousness of others. This applied to her cousins too.

There was another person she was conflicted about. Her mother. Her willfully blind mother. Someone who tried to protect her but always took the known and the most available methods to do so. Like this farce of Swayamvara where her mother's so-called linchpin kingdom 'Ayodhya' did not even participate. Now her mother could do nothing to prevent her being regaled into a brood mare, a political pawn and a thing to bought and owned.

Dushala was left feeling caged in the golden palace at the end of the day. So, when her voice wavered and her suppressed pain reflected in her sudden hopeful voice in front of her newfound brother, she allowed the small lapse in her 'princess mask'.

Her newfound brother, Vasusena, was a miracle worker. He had brought a calmness to her elder brother, something even her mother had not been able to achieve. She had found her eldest cousin questioning things with a serene smile, something that would be similar to disrespecting his elders to the rule-abiding prince. She felt hope when her 'Bhaiya' was nearby, as he had asked the entire Pandavas and Kauravas to call him. She secretly agreed that the informal endearment  suited him more than the traditional strict 'Jyesht or Bhratashri'.

Hence now, she only hoped and prayed to Mahadeva that her miracle worker brother would do  something and spare her the pain of being a second/third wife or the burden of a first. Being a wife was the last thing she wanted, as even as the only wife, women were not spared. A living example was her mother, Gandharasuta Gandhari.

When her bhaiya announced that the task would be a musical competition, she was stumped as everyone else. When he further warned everyone, she felt this was a signal from Mahadeva. Why  would then her bhaiya involve Mahadeva's symbols so intricately in a task? From the Rudra Veena to it's maker, Mahadeva was involved in every thing including the revered Vijaya Dhanush which Mahadeva had used to destroy the city of Tripura. Something she knew because she had asked her bhaiya when he sat down after forwarding Sindhuraaj to the task.