As Karna - Out of my depth

Ten

It's been an year since the arrival of the Pandavas. Many fights took place between the cousins, with King Dhritarashtra and Gandhar raj Shakuni favouring the Kauravas and the Mahamantri Vidhur and Mahaamahim doing the same to Pandavas. Pandavas claim the Prince Yudhishthir the Crown Prince, as the eldest and the son of previous King Pandu, while the Kauravas claim that Prince Suyodhana was conceived first and is the Crown Prince as the Son of the acting King. Mahaamahim and Mahamantri want Yudhishthir as the next king, as he is Devaputra, son the Lord Yama and a strict followet of Dharma. They consider the Kauravas, especially Prince Suyodhana, kulnashak, destroyers of the clan because of the signs at the time of their birth. While Gandhar raj shakuni, who had lost his family and had to watch his sister forcibly married to a blind man after the slaughter of her family, stewed in revenge and used the chance to widen the rift between the Kauravas and the Pandavas by showing the partiality of the Kuru elders towards the sons of Pandu.

Prince Bheema was born with enormous strength and none of the Kauravas other than Prince Suyodhana could face him. Even being born on same day, the two cousins could not stand each other. Just as Prince Bheema was born with enormous strength and strong body, Prince Suyodhana was born with vajra like upper body. The fights between the two has become a daily occurance and they fought like two elephants uncaring of anything. Prince Bheema used to torment the Kauravas using his strength while they used to abuse him with vile curses.

Once, after seeing such brutality by Bheey, Prince Suyodhana concocted a plan to poison Prince Bheema with the help of Gandhar raj Shakuni. But his brother Vikarna and half brother Yuyutsu heard of the plot informed the Pandavas. But, before any body could stop the plot, Bheema ate the poisoned laddus and Suyodhana seeing the chance threw him into the waters of Ganga.

Everybody believed that is the end of Bheema, who fell into Nagaloka in the underworld. He was taken to Aryaka Nag, an ancestor of Queen kunti, who recognized the young Prince and gifted him with Nagamrit, which gave him additional strength of ten thousand elephants along with his already abundant strength. He came back a week later with the take of gaining strength and meeting their ancestor after a week. During the week, he was gone the entire palace mourned the Prince and the Kauravas became the symbol of evil. The last chink of bond between the cousins is wiped out and gave way to two factions of bitter enemies. The Pandavas befriended Yuyutsu for trying to help them. But nobody remembered that Prince Suyodhana was also a child and not all the Kauravas were involved and that if the elders had but taken a few moments, the cousins would have been united. Prince Suyodhana was punished severely and even Queen Gandhari refused to speak with him. He was also made to apologize, but his claims of protecting his brothers fell on deaf ears and they said that Prince Bheema has already endured such hardship as punishment. Seeing that only he was punished, while the pandava got scot free, Prince Suyodhana was enraged and his heart became bitter and seeing their brother punished but their tormentor escaping made the Kauravas follow their brother in the feelings.

Seeing such bitter enemity between the cousins, the elders not knowing what to do sent them to Guru Drona's ashram for the education. Hoping that the hardships of the ashram life may unite the brothers. Here is where the twist laid.

Guru Dronacharya renowned for his knowledge and valour was very poor. Unable to even procure milk for his son, Ashwatthama, he went to his co-disciple and friend King Drupad of Panchala kingdom, as he had promised to help him. But, when he reached the palace, King Drupad treated him like a beggar and said there can be no friendship two unequals. Enraged at being insulted, Drona returned home to find his brother in law Kripa inviting to Hastinapur. Since the moment of humiliation, Guru Drona was harbouring vengeance in his heat and has been looking for a pupil who will make Drupad fall on his feet.

As such, when the Kuru princes arrived at his ashram, he quickly discerned their talents and began working on them and imparting them valuable knowledge. His discerning eye however quickly found that the middle pandava, Arjuna, is equally swift on both hands and unusually skilled in Archery. He decided he has found the pupil he was looking for and started to favour Arjuna and in turn Pandavas. This caused an unbridled jealousy in his son Ashwatthama, who began to feel as if he is replaced with Arjuna by his father. So, he started getting close to Kauravas and became a friend of a charismatic Suyodhana.