We’re at an important juncture wherein Bheemasena and Draupati plan a plot to somehow trap and kill Keechaka for his alleged misbehaviour. As Sairandhri (Draupati) represents her case in front of the king of Viraata Desha, he refuses to act on it immediately. Following this, even Kanka (Yudishtra) is on the defensive mode and requests Draupati to adjust and move on, rather than blowing it up and revealing her real identity to everyone. Even though Yudishtra’s words made sense for Draupati, she isn’t quite ready to let go of her anger and frustration. Of course, this is the second time that Draupati had to undergo a similar problem and even if she has five husbands, none of them came forward to defend and protect her! This infuriated Draupati more because, whatever happened at Hastinapura twelve years ago is still fresh in her mind! Draupati isn’t going to forget that infamous episode any sooner! Now as a similar episode happens once again in the form of Keechaka, Draupati wants stern action to be taken and with this, she approaches Bheemasena, who is more than ready to offer help this time. The trap is made and Draupati goes and conveys to Keechaka that she is ready to accept him, and with this, as Keechaka gets convinced, Draupati invites him to the nearby dance room.
As Keechaka comes inside the dance room, he sees someone lying down on the cot and with this, Keechaka assumes that it is none other than Sairandhri. Hence, Keechaka starts expressing his desire towards her in all forms and tries to touch her. As this happens, the person who is sleeping, suddenly turns towards him, and Keechaka is surprised to see a male lying down, instead of Sairandhri! This male is none other than Vallabha (Bheemasena). As Keechaka sees Vallabha on bed instead of Sairandhri, he gets terribly angry. Vallabha now invites Keechaka for a fight and with this, a fierce one-on-one battle rages between the two. Keechaka did not expect Vallabha to be in the dance room and he was not prepared for a fight at that point in time. However, Vallabha attacks him and Keechaka has no other option but to defend himself! Thus, a huge wrestling fight emerges and at the end, Vallabha proves to be extraordinarily powerful as compared to Keechaka! As Keechaka gives up slowly due to Vallabha’s fatal blows, Vallabha not only blasts Keechaka on to the ground to die, but also starts taking out all his bones, muscles and flesh out of his body, in such a way that there is no trace of Keechaka at all anywhere!
As Bheemasena does this, he makes sure that nobody traces who killed Keechaka. He takes a bath, applies some sandalwood paste on his body and goes back to his room to sleep. The next morning, news starts spreading that Keechaka is dead! Nobody had a clue as to who killed Keechaka and the way in which he was killed, left a lot of mystery to be pondered about for all of them! This led people to believe that Sairandhri’s “Gandharva” husbands would have been responsible for Keechaka’s death and as they were considered to be “invisible”, nobody can take any action on them! With this, a deep sense of fear also started gripping everyone in the Viraata Desha. People started talking thus, “Oh! It is only after the arrival of these five people and the mysterious woman, all hell started breaking loose! We’ve to be very careful in dealing with these people. If Keechaka can be killed by Sairandhri’s husband, then who else cannot be killed?” Talks like these started surfacing all over the Viraata Desha and upon hearing the news of Keechaka’s death, the queen, Sudeshna is shell-shocked! She had anticipated this to happen and had warned Keechaka not to go near Sairandhri. However, he took a huge risk and this cost him his life!
So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 