Women in Mahabharata - Chitrangada
She is the daughter of Chitravaahana, the King of Manipur which is but a little kingdom hidden away in the hills of the Mahendra range [Manikapatna, Odisha].
The way how she meets Arjuna has been dramatised by several poets in the modern times. Most notably, her story has been immortalized in the play 'Chitrangada' by Rabindranath Tagore.
His version, at its time, went a long way to improve the acceptance of the trans community within at least the upper-class Bengali society, where at the core of the play we have our heroine, that grew up as a man, finally realizing that she is a woman ["Bodhu kon aalo laaglo chokhe"]. This play was adapted into a film, with the same name, in a modern setting by Rituparno Ghosh, as an exploration of his own identity.
This play also carried the early feminist movement in Bengal: "Aami Chitrangada, raajendra-nondini. nohi debi, nohi shaamaanya naari". This play is also one of the primary reasons why most of her modern depictions are that of a 'warrior-princess'. Not that I don't like it, but it is a relatively newer concept.
Mahabharata does not subscribe to the above image. Here, Arjuna wanders into Manipur alone, having laid off most of his support, and is enamoured by the fact that women in this kingdom are allowed to roam the streets without male guardians. He has seen many strong women- his mother, his wife, many others behind the scenes as well I imagine, but he has never seen casual equality on the street. Hence, this simultaneously confuses and impresses him.
Here, he sees Chitrangada and follows her home after confirming her identity from the locals. He is very taken by her beauty and confidence, and approaches her father for her hand in marriage. He uses Uloopi's arguments made in his favour to gather the courage to court Chitrangada.
Chitravaahana is impressed to know that the Pandava Arjuna is interested in his daughter, but he places a condition. He recounts how one his ancestors, the king Prabhanjana, had obtained a boon from Shiva that their family henceforth will continue to have a single male child in every generation. He then reveals that his daughter Chitrangada had broken that streak, and the king hadn't had any other children.
Hence, he had raised her with the same care as a son, and "Putrika-hetu-vidhina sangy-ita Bharata-rshabha" [I considered her a putrika, O bull of the Bharatas]. Here, putrika simply signifies a daughter whose sons are adopted into her father's family and accepted as the heirs to that property. Chitravaahana has legalized this through a yajna, and for all legal purposes, Chitrangada is considered his son [it means that though she cannot own any property, the line of inheritance still flows through her, barring her from ever relocating to her potential husband's place].
Hence, Chitravaahana warns Arjuna, that even after marriage, he wouldn't be allowed to take either Chitrangada or her children out of Manipur, and that those children will be heirs to his kingdom and will legally have nothing to do with the Pandavas [i.e. the custody of all children will remain solely with Chitrangada, and Arjuna will not be allowed to even legally call them as his; he can only visit them here from time to time, not that Arjuna ever does, but still].
This arrangement suits Arjuna anyway since he is not much of a family man to begin with, and hence they get married. Interestingly, unlike with Uloopi, Arjuna hangs back in Manipur with Chitrangada for three whole years, and only remembers his 'vana-vasa' once she is expecting. This is when he leaves, but returns to Manipur in only a year, to see his newborn son- Babhruvahana [the one with a copper-ish complexion].
He hands his son to his father-in-law and leaves, "Here's your asked price for Chitrangada, now bye!" Before leaving, he only casually asks her to visit Indraprastha once with her son to meet his mother and brothers [interestingly, not Draupadi], but only when the rajasuya happens and they formally invite her father. She never bothers.
From some of his other words we understand that he never officially counted either Ghatotkacha or Iravana, as Arjuna declares that Babhruvahana is biologically [not legally] the Pandavas' first son, and his heart outside his body.
Sometime after this, Uloopi gets in touch with her and moves closer to Manipur so they can raise both their sons together in their father's absence. We see that over time, Uloopi comes to gain the same authority over Babhruvahana as Draupadi has over Abhimanyu.
In Kurukshetra, we see that even if Uloopi sends Iravana, Chitrangada keeps Babhruvahana at home, mostly out of the logic that he has nothing to do with that family legally, and hence is in no way obligated to endanger either himself or his army for a faraway conflict.
Later when Arjuna comes to conquer Manipur, as part of Yudhishthira's ashvamedha, Babhruvahana goes to receive him with hunility and gifts. This however, irritates Arjuna, and he asks his son to fight instead of humiliating him by submitting thus. His father serenades him with beautiful words like "stree-vat", "nara-adhama", and "I am not your father".
It seems like he is taking out his still-overwhelming grief over losing Abhimanyu, and his irritation at Chitrangada for not sending him to Kurukshetra on his last remaining son.
Angered by Arjuna's behaviour, Uloopi comes out to the battlefield, and orders Babhruvahana to fight his father (he needed an attitude check in any case).
Babhruvahana too, pretty hurt by his stranger-father's sudden harsh words, fights his heart out, and ends up nearly killing him.
Hearing this, Chitrangada rushes out to the field, screaming at Uloopi for 'murdering her own husband' and trying to 'bag a new husband', while Uloopi takes it silently. Chitrangada falls on a passed-out Arjuna's chest and begs Uloopi to heal him. Uloopi does so, after Chitrangada and Babhruvahana both threaten to kill themselves (she was just avenging all four of them for the abandonment).
Waking up, Arjuna becomes confused as he is unable to immediately recollect how and why he and Uloopi both ended up in Manipur. He even accuses Uloopi of trying to assassinate 'his wife and children' in Manipur. Babhruvahana now recollects his anger and tells his father to just ask Uloopi for clarification first.
Once Arjuna recovers enough, his son asks him to spend some time with his wives before returning as compensation for all these years. Arjuna declines but cordially invites all of them to visit Hastinapura during the yajna.
During the yajna, we see Babhruvahana escort both his mothers and then go to Kunti. An old Kunti is beyond overjoyed to meet him, since he is one of the few of her grandchildren who survived. She breaks down in tears holding him.
Out of gratitude (and guilt), Kunti immediately orders Draupadi and Subhadra to arrange new palaces for both of her newfound daughters-in-law, and requests them to stay back, since Uloopi has no one to go back, and Chitrangada's son is now well-established. Later, in fact, we see both of these two women hand-in-hand with Draupadi and Subhadra in taking care of old Dhritarashtra and Gandhari.
Here, Vyasa makes a rather dark observation. He notes that both Uloopi and Chintrangada are far more beautiful that Draupadi at this stage of their lives. This is because neither of them have faced the sheer physical ordeals that has rewarded Draupadi with a more haggard appearance, and they both still look much younger than they are.
After the Pandavas leave for the Himalayas, Chitrangada returns to her son in Manipur to live out the rest of her life.
