The Inner Beauty
The Love story of warrior prince Arjuna and the princess of Manipura, Chitrangadha
Beauty is defined by qualities, not appearance!
Real beauty lies in the skills, qualities, talent, and most importantly, the heart of the person, outer appearance is just a compliment to the inner beauty, don’t fall for outer appearance only!
As I always mention, each event that is mentioned in the timeless saga of Mahabharata has the power to teach us something that we can implement in our life which would lead to a better and peaceful life.
In this blog, I am going to talk about another such incident where the great warrior Arjuna falls in love with the princess of Manipura, Chitrāngadā, even though he vowed celibacy. Her charm and beauty were incomparable, any man in the world would fall for her, but the twist in the story is that all of her beauty was a temporary illusion. But even after Arjuna finds out the truth, he still chooses to love her and stay with her for more time, this time falling for her combat skills rather than outer beauty which gives us a very beautiful message that beauty lies within, outer appearance is just a compliment to the inner beauty!
Also, there is a play named “Chitra”, written by Rabindranath Tagore which is based on this event. I will be using excerpts from that play in this blog to make it more interesting.
Let’s have a look at the story…
Although the complete story is very long, I would like to summarize it in this blog, keeping the blog short so that maximum people read it till the end and get the message which I wish to spread.
Draupadi’s Marriage
If you have even a little knowledge about the epic of Mahabharata, you would know that Draupadi, sometimes referred to as Panchali, the daughter of Drupada, king of Panchala, was married to 5 Pandavas. Under any normal circumstance, it would be a great sin for any women to marry more than one man, or for a man to marry more than one woman for that matter.
A side note*
Please note that kings used to have more than one wife at that time, but digging a little deep, that was mostly because of political reasons. One of the biggest reasons for kings to have more than one wife at that time was due to the fact that marriage was used to build political relationships. Suppose there’s some kingdom X, and there’s a kingdom Y, one of the ways to stop wars and build friendly relations between the two kingdoms was that the king/prince of either of the kingdom would marry the princess of the other kingdom. Certainly, this is very bad! Using the pure relation of marriage to for personal benefits is undoubtedly one of the worst crimes someone can commit. But then again, those times are gone, judging people based on their actions which they did 5000 years ago is useless, rather, let’s learn from the mistakes they did and promise not to commit them again in future.
Coming back to the story, so Draupadi had to marry 5 Pandavas due to some circumstances that happened at that time which I would rather talk about in some other blog. Even though this marriage would be an act of sin, but the circumstances that arose, left Pandavas and Draupadi with no other option, so they decided that each year Draupadi would stay with one of the 5 Pandavas and the other 4 must not enter her room, no matter what happens, and if someone enters even by mistake, he would be exiled from the kingdom for 12 years.
Arjuna’s Exile
When the Pandavas built the empire of Indraprastha, they started following this rule very seriously and each year, only one of the 5 Pandavas was allowed in her room. One fateful day a brahmin came to Arjuna and told that someone stole his cows and if he doesn't chase them back soon, he would lose his cows forever. Seeing this Arjuna rushed to his room to get his Gandiva (name of his bow) but to his greatest surprise, he could not find it anywhere.
Without wasting time, he searched for it everywhere without any results! Only Draupadi’s room was left out. Seeing the seriousness of the matter, he rushed inside Draupadi’s room (this year Draupadi was staying with Yudhishthira), without looking at Draupadi or Yudhishthira, Arjuna quickly grabbed his Gandiva and rushed out of the room, chased the thief and got the cows back.
But, he broke his promise of not entering Draupadi’s room. For this, Arjuna gladly accepted his exile for 12 years, even though Yudhishthira insisted him to stay and told him that what he did was not intentional and his actions were to protect dharma, but Arjuna did not break his promise and followed the condition that was set at the time of marriage.
Arjuna’s Meeting with Chitra
During his journey, while he was exiled, Arjuna went towards the kingdom of Manipura and on his way, he heard about a warrior princess (she is later revealed to be Chitra, or Chitrāngadā, the main protagonist of this story). Arjuna himself being a warrior, instantly fell in love with her even without seeing her, because of her skills.
On the other side, even Chitra came to know that Arjuna was coming. Arjuna, being the greatest warrior and a fine gentleman, any girl would easily fall in love with him, and so did Chitra.
One fine day, she went out on hunting and saw Arjuna, and instantly fell in love with him, but there was one problem. The king of Manipura had only one daughter, he did not have any son, so right from childhood days Chitra was raised and brought up like a son, she was an excellent warrior and a great archer, and due to this her appearance was a bit Masculine.
Chitra thought that she lacked “Feminine” qualities, and with this thought crossing her mind, she was sure that Arjuna, who was a prince, would never marry such a girl. So (according to the play “Chitra” as I mentioned above), she goes to the god of love, Madana, and the god of seasons, Vasanta and asks them to make her so beautiful that Arjuna breaks his vows (including the vow of celibacy), and marries her.
Had I but the time needed, I could win his heart by slow degrees, and ask no help of the gods.
I would stand by his side as a comrade, drive the fierce horses of his war-chariot, attend him in the pleasures of the chase, keep guard at night at the entrance of his tent, and help him in all the great duties of a Kshatriya, rescuing the weak, and meting out justice where it is due.
Surely, at last, the day would have come for him to look at me and wonder, “What boy is this? Has one of my slaves in a former life followed me like my good deeds into this?”
I am not the woman who nourishes her despair in lonely silence, feeding it with nightly tears and covering it with the daily patient smile, a widow from her birth. The flower of my desire shall never drop into the dust before it has ripened to fruit. But, it is the labor of a lifetime to make one’s true self known and honored.
Therefore, I have come to thy door, thou world-vanquishing Love and thou, Vasanta, youthful Lord of the Seasons, take from my young body this primal injustice, an unattractive plainness. For a single day, make me superbly beautiful, even as beautiful as was the sudden blooming of love in my heart. Give me but one brief day of perfect beauty, and I will answer for the days that follow.
This was an excerpt from the play “Chitra” written by Rabindranath Tagore. In this scene, Chitra pleads gods to make her beautiful, even if it’s just for a single day. The gods are so pleased by her prayers that they instead of making her beautiful for one day, make her most beautiful, charming and attractive for one year, and Arjuna, as expected, falls in love with her.
Arjuna Marries Chitra
Arjuna is in love with Chitra, and now is the time to talk to her father about their relationship. So Arjuna goes to the king of Manipura to tell that he is in love with her and wants to marry her.
Pandavas’ lives were full of troubles, and now you must have guessed that there’s another bad thing going to happen, right?
The king told him the story of his ancestor who did not have a child and undertook severe austerities to obtain offspring. Finally, Lord Shiva granted him a boon that he will have a child, and each of his coming generations will have only one offspring. So he told Arjuna that even though Chitra is a girl, she has been brought up just like a boy, and being a girl since she can’t rule the kingdom, her son is expected to be the next ruler. So he said Arjuna that even if he marries Chitra, he must not take the son with him as his son will be the ruler of Manipura.
Arjuna agrees to the condition and marries Chitra.
The Married Life
Time passed by, they came quite close and tried to understand each other. Arjuna was very surprised and impressed by Chitra’s knowledge and skills about warfare. But Chitra had this constant fear in her mind about what will happen when he comes to know that she is not that beautiful in reality, and her appearance is just an illusion.
This is the part where we get the true message from this story.
Even though Arjuna was married to Chitra, he kept on thinking about another girl, whom he came to know from the villagers that she was a warrior princess. He constantly kept on hearing about her valour and warfare skills, and unknowingly, he fell in love with that girl (or rather, her skills) even though he had never seen her.
Now Chitra understands her mistake and makes the confession, that she is that warrior princess, and since she was raised like a boy, she was much masculine and she had this fear in her mind that Arjuna would not accept her because (she thinks) she is not beautiful enough, so she prayed to the gods and achieved a boon of becoming very beautiful for a year.
Chitra admits that she might not be the most beautiful woman, but promises to be the most loving wife. She also tells Arjuna that she is pregnant.
This scene is very beautifully described in Rabindranath Tagore’s play, Chitra
I am not beautifully perfect as the flowers with which I am worshipped. I have many flaws and blemishes. I am a traveler in the great world-path, my garments are dirty, and my feet are bleeding with thorns. Where should I achieve flower-beauty, the unsullied loveliness of a moment’s life? The gift that I proudly bring you is the heart of a woman.
Here, have all the pains and joys gathered, the hopes and fears and shame of a daughter of the dust; here love springs up struggling toward immortal life. Herein lies an imperfection which yet is noble and grand. If the flower-service is finished, my master, accept this as your servant for the days to come!I am Chitra. No goddess to be worshipped, nor yet the object of common pity to be brushed aside like a moth with indifference. If you deign to keep me by your side in the path of danger and daring, if you allow me to share the great duties of your life, then you will know my true self. If your baby, whom I am nourishing in my womb, be born a son, I shall myself teach him to be the second Arjuna, and send him to you when the time comes, and then, at last, you will truly know me. Today, I can only offer you Chitra, the daughter of a King.
Arjuna, instead of being angry, falls in love with her more deeply than ever, he is filled with joy and ecstasy and states that now his life is truly full.
This teaches us a very important lesson that Love is not an attraction towards outer appearance or the physical beauty, rather it is an attraction towards the heart of your loved one.
In the end, the time came when Arjuna had to leave but he could not take the child with him, so Chitra also decided to stay back with her child.
Indeed, their story tells us that love is not about outer beauty, it’s about the inner beauty…
That’s it, thanks for reading till the end, I hope you loved the blog.
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