Arjuna and Ulupi: Mahabharata Katha

The Pan­da­va broth­ers had agreed that Drau­pa­di will spend one year in the palace of each of the broth­ers. If incase any of them hap­pens to inter­fere with that, they would spend 12 years in exile.

Arju­na once heard the a few brah­manas weep­ing who had been robbed of their cows. Arju­na promised to bring back their cows but unfor­tu­nate­ly his weapons were in Yud­histhi­ra’s cham­ber. Since Drau­pa­di was spend­ing time in Yud­histhi­ra’s palace, Arju­na could­n’t enter the same. Bound by Dhar­ma to save the Brah­manas’ cows, Arju­na dared to enter the cham­ber of Yiud­histhi­ra. He quick­ly entered the cham­ber, took his weapons and left the palace immen­di­ate­ly. After defeat­ing the rob­bers, Arju­na returned the cows to the Brah­manas. Return­ing to the palace, he sought the bless­ings of Yud­histhi­ra to leave the palace. Yud­histhi­ra plead­ed to Arju­na that he need not fol­low the agree­ment so strict­ly and he was okay with Arju­na enter­ing their cham­bers. He assured Arju­na that he had done noth­ing wrong and infact had done the right thing is help­ing the Brah­manas.

Arju­na stuck to his deci­sion and left on a 12 year exile. While Arju­na was bathing on the banks of Gan­ga, he was dragged into the riv­er by Ulupi, the daugh­ter of the King of Nagas. She took him to the beau­ti­ful palace which was decked with jew­els. She also expressed her desire to mar­ry Arju­na. Arju­na was shocked at this and men­tioned that he was mar­ried to Drau­pa­di and that he was lead­ing a life of celiba­cy in exile. Ulupi was stub­born and said that she would give up her life if Arju­na did not mar­ry her. Arju­na bound by her love, mar­ried her. Ulupi gave a boon to Arju­na say­ing that the crea­tures under the water will always be Arju­na’s friends. Ira­van was the son born to Arju­na and Ulupi.

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