ARYAVARTA

chapter 12

Hastinapur

The royals are busy, though the king is not present in the kingdom the city is busy in preparing for the upcoming festival. The daughter in laws of kuruvansh along with kuluguru kripachariya are to visit the temple.
Along with them a one year old karn to was present. After their arrival at hastinapur gandhari had never took karn outside the palace. It was the first time .The head priest Dakshin along with other priests and high officials are present to welcome the royal family. Dakshin was one of those who supported Pandu being the king, the reason for that is gandhari. Gandhar is located at the far end of the aryavartha , unlike other countries due to their coastal geography gandhar used to trade with foreign countries . this has resulted in a drift in the cultural and cast norms from theother kingdoms in aryavartha. Due to this a huge section of priests and other high cast leaders were against gandhari becoming the queen of hastinapur.
The procession lead by satyavati and other women in royal family moved towards the temple along with kripachariya and the other servants.
The roads were empty and the people looked at the procession through windows of their home and the homeless secured spots away from the vision of the royals. Dakshin and others welcomed the royal family but their faces turned into scowl when they saw karna with gandhari

"Namaste Dakshin,is everything okay?" asked satyavati
"The preparations for the puja is complete,now maharani kunti can do the puja,but with all respect rajmata what is he doing here" asked Dakshin pointing his fingers to karn
Though gandhari was blind to see the pointed fingers she knew whom he referred.
" He is my son, a prince of hastinapur he has the right to enter this temple" said gandhari
"Princess he is your adopted son, he only has privileges of a prince but this puja can be attended only by the members of kuruvansh, even kripachariya,a wise brahmin can't attend it,hence I can't allow a bastard inside the temple"replied Dakshin

Gandhari was fumed with anger when Dakshin called Karn a bastard but before she could do radical kripachariya stopped her

" Dakshin is right,rajkumari Karn is not a kuruvanshi but that doesn't mean he can't enter the temple" said kripachariya

Gandhari understood what kripachariya meant unlike others he didn't cared about the cast system.

" If my son can't enter the temple with the royal family then I too won't enter the temple " said gandhari

Satyavati was about to scold gandhari but was stopped by Amba who signaled kunti to move forward .
Understanding the dire situation kunti and others continued to move towards the temple leaving gandhari behind along with Karn and kripachariya.

" Princess let's go back"said kripachariya
"No rajguru ,if I leave today then my son would be treated like this his all life. Karn will enter this temple today itself" replied gandhari
"If you do this rajmata will forever be against you"
"I don't care what she does. I will enter this temple"
" Then let's rest some where else for the time being"

Gandhari, kripachariya along with her trusted servants moved towards ganga away from the vision of others
The royals after conducting the Pooja left the temple. The temple opened for the citizens of hastinapur.At this moment gandhari and kripachariya along with some servants comes to the temple after their visit to ganga.

" It's very crowded now I think we should come another time princess.
The soldiers will not be able to control them" said kripachariya
"We don't need the soldiers to control the people, I am here as a mother not as a princess kuluguru. Like all these people I too have to wait in line . My son is not a kuruvanshi,but he is a citizen of hastinapur like them and I am too." replied gandhari

Kripachariya had a smile on his face,he knew this day would make a huge impact in the lives of the people of hastinapur and it's royals.
Kripachariya along with gandhari and karn joined the crowd to seek the blessings from the god. The people saw gandhari and paved way for her, but kripachariya stopped them and asked them to move forward. It was the first time the people of hastinapur seen a royal waiting for her chance like all the others.

Hastinapur royal palace

The action of gandhari had created a huge uproar in the kingdom. The high cast considered this action of gandhari as a punishable offence .
According to them gandhari had caused shame and tainted the kshatriya cast by attending the temple with the low cast. Satyavati too wanted gandhari to be punished as she has not only disobeyed her but also brought shame to kuruvansh.
She hated gandhari the moment she brought Karn as she feared that Karn may one day cause destruction to kuruvansh.But at the moment she can't do nothing. Drithrashtra has stated to bhishm and her that he won't let anyone hurt his wife and son
Drithrashtra calling Karn as his son increased the fear in her heart. Now their only option was to wait for pandu to return,since dhitrarashtra can't go against the orders of the Maharaj

Dhitrarashtra entered the chambers of gandhari.Amba and Ambika were also present there

" Everyone leave us " said dhitrarashtra
Amba and Ambika along with servants left them
" What does she want, prosecute me" asked gandhari
" She will not do anything,I will not let anyone hurt you or Karn"replied dhitrarashtra
" They hate me and karn. He even called him bastard"
"What Dakshin did was wrong,but what he said was true.for us he will be our son but to the society he is our adopted son,a bastard. He will be forced to live with that label. Anyone who could change that is him and I am sure our son will change that,and the entire aryavartha will call him not as a bastard but the son of dhitrarashtra and gandhari" said dhitrarashtra

He moved closer towards her and touched her face pulling her closer to him and gave a kiss on her forehead