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In the south of the Vindhya ranges, along the banks of the Payoshni river, sat one of the many kingdoms ruled by the powerful Yadava clan, Vidarbha.

Not only was it a prosperous and powerful kingdom, it was also the land where many great women like Damayanti, the wife of King Nal. Lopamudra, the wife of the great sage Agastya and a Rishika in her own right. Rajkumari Indumati, the mother of Raja Dashrath, grandmother to Lord Ram and the Queen of Kosala— were born.

And then, in Dwapar Yuga, came a time, when Goddess Mahalakshmi incarnated on Earth, again, as Rukmini, the Princess of Vidarbha.

During the Dwapar Yuga, Vidarbha was ruled by the generous King Bhishmak and his wife, Shuddhamati. They were blessed with five sons: Rukmi, Rukmarath, Rukmamali, Rukmabahu and Rukamakes.

Despite having five sons, the emptiness of not having a girl child saddens them. After all, it is the presence of a daughter which makes a house blossom.

This wish of theirs was soon going to be fulfilled by the goddess mother, manifestation of Adishakti herself and Goddess of Fortune, Devi Lakshmi. She was soon going to fill their home with prosperity and happiness.

Then on the fortunate day of Vaishakha Ekadashi. The King of Vidarbha, Bhishmak was returning to his capital Kundinapuri when he stopped at the city of Kaundinyapur of Vidarbha.

He asked his army to stop and told them that he was going to the river nearby.

It was dawn. Bhishmak was offering his prayers to Lord Surya when a big and beautiful lotus caught his attention.

It wasn't any ordinary lotus, it was a divine one. It had thousands of large petals in it. It floated and stopped where Bhishmak was standing.

Out of curiosity, Bhishmak went near it and keep on opening the petals of the lotus and then found a divine big golden box in it. The box had a lot of jewels attach to it.

He opened the box and found a divinely beautiful looking babygirl in it, who was sleeping. Her complexion was just like melted gold. She was absolutely godly in appearance.

He looked at her affectionately as he took her in his arms. When a divine voice in the sky announced the reason for the birth of this little girl.

"O the King of Vidarbha, this very girl child is none other than the Mahamaya— Mahalakshmi, who has chosen your family as her's. Accept her as your daughter."

"She shall be called as, Ruciranana, the one who has a beautiful face, expanding like a lotus flower. Vaidarbhi, for being the Princess of Vidarbha. Bhaishmi, daughter of Bhishmak. Vidarbha-Raj-Nandini, daughter of Vidarbha Rajya. Maanini Mani, jewel among women or supreme reservoir of love."

"Goddess Lakshmi is forever united with her Lord. In the avatar of Lord Ram, she was born as Goddess Sita and now when Narayan has taken birth as Krishna, she will be Rukmini. 'Ruk' means golden, 'Rukmini' means the lady who has golden complexion."

"In all the expansions of Narayan, Lakshmi is inseparable from him. Thus she's here to accompany the hero among the Chandravanshis, the Supreme Lord himself, Govind, will marry your daughter, Vaidarbhi Rukmini, who was a direct expansion of the Goddess of fortune."

It was a prophecy through the sky, and then disappeared.

The King looked at her and declared,
"My daughter, the Princess of Vidarbha, Rukmini."

Beautiful and courageous, she was going to be the inspiration in her own way for all the women.

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The city of Mathura was glittering. The huge arena was filled with the crowd of people— where Kansa, the King of Mathura had organized the Dhanush Yagna. Though powerful, he clearly looked frightened of his charming and divine nephew Krishna and his elder brother Balram— whom he had invited for the Yagya.

Kansa's real intention of organizing the yagna was to kill Krishna. Many were unknown to this, including Rukmini, the beautiful Princess of Vidarbha who was seated among the royals.

The royal family of Vidarbha was also invited by Kansa. Rukmi, the crown prince of Vidarbha was Kansa's allie.

She fiddled with the hem of pink uttariya, looking at the boring sight of arena, where in the middle the divine bow of Lord Shiva was kept. Until, she heard people murmuring among them about someone specific.

"Did you hear, that handsome young boy killed the gaint mad elephnt?"

"Yes, I did. That boy name is Krishna and that elephant was set loose by Maharaj himself, to kill the young cowherd!"

"Isn't he the same boy, about whom the prophecy happened years ago? That Kansa will be killed by him."

"I guess so..."

Rukmini's attention drifted back to the front, when she heard of Krishna, along with Balram entering the arena.

"You seems suddenly interested, sister," Rukmakes teased.

"Perhaps," she smiled playful at her brother, who was youngest among her five brothers.

Her eyes were glued to the arena in front of her, where the wrestling event was about to take place.

Her eyes landed on the two brothers— the younger one was charming, dark-complexioned, with black curly hairs, a peacock feather adoring his mukut and was dressed in yellow clothes while the elder one was fairer in complexion and was adorned in midnight blue clothes, which matched with his white complexion. He looked extremely attracted.

Soon enough, Kansa's wrestler courtiers, Mushtika and Chanur indulged into intense fight with Krishna and Balram.

Though extremely strong, it was getting hard for the two wrestlers to win against the two divine brothers. Soon enough, Krishna demolished the giant Chanur, while Balram took on Mushtika with his fatal blows.

Rukmini was amazed to see the skills of the two brothers, but she was still trying her best to see their faces— specially of the dark one— which she was unable to, due to the huge crowd.

These exploits were not sufficient to worsen Kansa's fears and endear the two brothers to the people of Mathura, when Krishna walked towards the spot where the mighty bow of Rudra was placed. He picked up the immensely heavy bow with little effort as if it was a feather and split it up like a dry twig.

People broke into murmurs, because what the handsome dark-complexioned boy did, extremely astonished all of them.

Rukmini too was extremely surprised. She wondered that how could someone broke this divine bow, so easily, which belonged to Lord Shiva himself.

"Doesn't he looks like Lord Ram?" She thought, referring to Krishna.

When Rukamakes nudged her, to look at their father, King Bhishmak. He looked not so happy, he shook his head in disbelief as he looked at his eldest son, Rukmi.

Bhishmak never favored Rukmi's friendship with Kansa. He didn't even want to take his family to attend this event and now, it seemed like he was not going to sit there anymore. Which turned out to be true.

He stood up from his seat, and said to Rukmini and her brothers, except for Rukmi, "Let's go home, my kids."

"If Rukmi wants to stay, he sure can." Bhishmak added.

Rukmini wanted to stay too. She wished to see Krishna more, she wished to meet him. She wanted to know more about him.

But she couldn't understand, why she wanted all this. What happened to her suddenly?

"Rukmini," her father called dearly.

"Coming Pitashri." She nodded, as she began to walk out the arena, not before taking a last glimpse of Krishna, but the only thing she could see, was his morpankh.

We would meet soon, priye.

She heard.

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