Gita 01.18 The Pandavas lost Pandu but gained Drupada as a father figure

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 Text 18 Here Sanjay is continuing the description of specific Kaurava Pandava warriors who are blowing their conches in response to Bhishma's signaling the beginning of hostility by blowing his conch and other Kauravas also blowing their conches so here it is said that who are the people I mentioned over here Drupada, Drupadeyas Sarvasah Prithvipate that Drupada there is Drupada and Drupadeyas, so it's a nice play of words over here whereby it's mentioned that Drupada Drupada is the grandfather and Drupadeya refers to his grandson that is the son of Drupadi the son of Drupadi she had five sons, one from each husband Sarvasah Prithvipate they were all great kings Saubhadrishch Mahabahu and there was also the son of Subhadra that is Abhimanyu who was especially heroic Shankham Dharmu Prathak Prathak so this Shankham Dharmu applies to all the previous two verses also because it's one continuous thought that is being phrased over here so in this verse the sheer span of people who are fighting in the war is mentioned so we have three generations here Drupada Drupadeyas, those two words again we see the poetic beauty of the Bhagavad Gita here when it uses these two words Drupada that sounds very similar and they are we could say they are phonetically similar and they are they are also blood relatives the father and the grandfather and the grandson of course there were further generations up and further generations down also in the battlefield assembled to fight now it's interesting to say that when the war took place it was not just some small regional conflict it was a huge huge war between the strongest forces across the universe and as they fought they all recognized that life in and of itself is complicated and for Kshatriyas to choose sides in this particular battle was difficult at one level most of them agreed that the Pandavas side was more Pandavas cause was more virtuous but then in those times often alliances were solidified by the mixing of bloodlines with political lines that means when two kingdoms would join together at that time they would ally they would also form some kind of marriage between a son and a daughter and that way the alliance would get thickened however that alone was not the factor although it was significant factor in this case Drupada his daughter Draupadi was the Pandavas queen and naturally his support was fully there for them in fact after the Pandavas came from exile and finished their incognito exile in Virat it was Drupada who came there immediately and Drupada they discussed elaborately with Drupada Pandavas would offer great respect to him because he was like their father figure father figure for them and he he he felt strongly that the Pandavas had to stake a claim so there was no message from the Kauravas even after the exile was over so they were staying at the kingdom of Virat and then Drupada also came there because Abhimanyu was married to Uttara the son of the king of Virat and then after that son of Virat actually then at that time Drupada consulted with, discussed with the Pandavas and he sent his own Brahmin priest to deliver a strong message to Dhritarashtra about honoring his side of the deal that after the Pandavas go to the forest for 13 years in exile they had to get the kingdom back and they did not give the kingdom back, war became inevitable so Drupada was a prominent figure for multiple purposes in the Mahabharata Drupada was especially mentioned earlier by Duryodhana to antagonize Drona because especially Drona and Drupada had tensions among them so it did eventually transpire that Drona killed both Drupada and Virat he fought fiercely he killed Drona and then eventually Drona's son Dhrishtadyumna killed, sorry, Drupada's son Dhrishtadyumna fulfilled the destiny for which he had been born by killing Drona so here Drupada is mentioned also as prominent figure on the Pandava side both in terms of his age and his prowess the Panchala kingdom was quite a powerful kingdom at that time and it was important for the Pandavas to have a powerful ally Drupada had been by their side from the very time of Draupadi being handed one by the Pandavas, Arjuna actually even before that when Drupada had seen the valor of the Pandavas especially of Arjuna on the war field at that time Drupada had desired to have Arjuna as his son-in-law and he had been immensely grief stricken when the Pandavas had been reportedly killed in the fire at Varanavarth of course there had been some lingering rumors that the Pandavas had slipped away and were living incognito so when Drupada arranged for the assembly for the Swayamvar of Drupadi he arranged the conditions in such a way that only Arjuna would be able to meet those conditions Arjuna was known the world over as a champion archer and the idea was that if Arjuna was incognito he would emerge because archery contest was something which he would naturally want to participate in and then when that happened and Arjuna won the hand of Drupada Drupada gave full support to the Pandavas in getting their rightful half of the kingdom at that time now for a son, for a father to see a daughter whom he has cared for throughout her life, who is a royal princess for her to be subjected to the immense austerities and anxieties of forest life it must have been very painful for him, at the same time he would have felt proud about her dutifulness in sticking by the side of her husband even amid such duress so then he saw that the Pandavas were still being deprived of their rights he felt actually incensed and for him a lot was personally at stake it was not just a matter of political alliance with a particular group of people, in fact he knew that at that time the main rival to the Panchal kingdom was the Kuru kingdom and the Kuru kingdom under the Pandavas would become far more powerful than it was under the Kauravas because the Kauravas were not really allowed by anyone they were feared and they were used by others depending on whichever way the political winds were blowing and Drupada knew that if the Pandavas came to power then it would well be that he would have to pay tribute to the Pandavas as had happened earlier when Yudhishthir had performed the Rajasuya Yajna his might was no match to the might of the Pandavas but still he was concerned overall about the well-being of his daughter about the cause of Dharma and of course from a political perspective he knew Duryodhana might attack him because Duryodhana had nothing at stake but the Pandavas would never attack him because the Pandavas were related with him lovingly so thus Drupada with his full forces was there to assist the Pandavas and he also blew his conch shell in full determination to signify that he too was going to fight fiercely on behalf of the Pandavas Hare Krishna.