Story
King Bhima is walking alone one day when he runs into a very dangerous rakshasa while in the forest. However, he is not alone. Hidimbim, the sister of the rakshasa, watches as Bhima kills the rakshasa. Hidimbim secretly hated her brother so she falls madly in love with Bhima. After a while, they have a son. His name is Ghatotkacha.
Fast forward a couple of years and Bhima fights another rakshasa. The rakshasa is named Baka. Bhima is now old and so everyone is surprised that a Bhima can defeat a demon as savage as this. However, Bhima was injured in the battle and was left very sick. All the best healers and priests tried to come heal him. No one was successful and Bhima dies. Hidimbim wept day and night at her husbands passing while Ghatotkacha came to become the king.
King Drupada lived close by but overheard that King Bhima had died and wanted to send Ghatotkacha a gift to try and make him feel better. But it won't be free. Ghatotkacha is given an invite to try and win Drupada's daughter in the bow and arrow contest.
King Drupada is holding a swayamvara for his daughter. His daughter's name is Draupadi. Draupadi is also the mother of Dhrishtadyumna. The Pandavas, Karna, and Duryodhana all attend this swayamvara. The avatar of the god Vishnu, Krishna, is also in attendance. Even his brother Balarama attends. Even though the Pandavas are disguised, Krishna recognizes them right away. He can see that the brahmins are the Pandavas. During this contest, everyone comes and goes but no one can hit the target. There are two people left, King Ghatotkacha and a peasant named Arjuna. . Arjuna wins this contest. He is able to string a bow and hit the target. By winning this contest, he can take Draupadi as his bride. Kunti explains to his brothers that whatever is acquired that day must be shared. This means that the brother must share Draupadi. So, Draupadi is the shared wife of the five brothers. Vyasa then explains that even in a previous lifetime, Draupadi also had five husbands. In her previous lifetime, Draupadi was a woman named Nalayani. Nalayani was married to a sage. This sage slept with her in the guise of five different men. After the sage left her, Nalayani prayed to the Lord Ishvara, Shiva, to give her back the five husbands. The prayer was answered in a Draupadi's lifetime. This is why she marries the five Pandava brothers.
King Ghatotkacha is furious and feels insulted after finding about Nalayani and her past. He vows to destroy King Drupada and make sure his daughter never marries again. So Ghatotkacha hires spies to go and steal Nalayani during the night when she is asleep. After she is captured and made prisoner, Ghatotkacha sends a warning to Drupada. The letter says that if Drupada does not denounce his title of king then his daughter will be killed. Drupada refuses to denounce his title so Ghatotkacha is true to his word and will carry out the execution tomorrow. The next day, right before Nalayani is about to be killed, Bhima appears in front of Ghatotkacha. Bhima says, "Have mercy my son, for you are supposed to be a just king, just like I was." Ghatotkacha was so overcome with emotion that he decided to spare Nalayani's life and had her returned to Drupada.
So for the rest of his days as a ruler, King Ghatotkacha became a just king and had mercy for those who really deserved it.
Author's Note
For this story, I rewrote the first section of the Mahabharata. I tried to take bits and pieces from the original story while also mixing in my own telling of the story. I tried to keep it simple and easier to follow. Focusing on pages 24-47 made it easier to keep it simple but also limited me to what I could talk about. That is why the story is not as long as some might write. The overall plot is from my reading notes and then the other writing is just off of the top of my head. Going forward I would love to get feedback on what I can do to these stories to improve. I just got my comment wall up so now I will actually be able to see the comments. Please let me know what I can do better and what I did well to keep doing that. I kept the names of the original characters so it would be easier for me to write and keep track of what actually happened. In the future, I think I will change the characters to one of my favorite shows characters because it seems more fun to write like that when you can change what happens to your favorite characters.
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