Svayamvara

Now I have one question about Draupadi's Svayamvara. How can it be called a choice? The princess had to marry the person not whom she liked but the one who wins the archery contest. In the original version, it is said Draupadi didn't tell .She wouldn't marry Karna'. But Karna failed in the contest. Interestingly there were people of her grandfather's age who tried their luck with matsya yantra. Suppose one of them won, would she have liked the marriage? Even in Sita's svayamvara, it is not Sita's choice which culd prevail but the person who passed the Shivdhanus test would win Sita.

As per what Bhishma mentioned about Amba story to Duryodhana he said Amba and her sisters' svayamvara, it was Viryashulka meaning a contest was there where the most valorous prince will win all the three. Of course princes always fight with the help of armies despite being great heroes. Again princesses have no choice but to wed the prince who shos highest valor. And as per Bhishma's vow, he had every right to claim he is part of Vichitraveerya's army. And it is said Shalva privately asked Amba to marry him earlier itself. Amba probably wouldn't have believed Bhishma would come to the Svayamvara and would have believed Shalva being a great hero would have won against all others. Interestingly Shalva only dared to fight Bhishma. Both of them telling their love for each other would have made the Svayamvara condition meaningless as others would question them and it would have given very bad name to Amba's father.

And once Shalva found he lost, he was no more interested in marrying Amba and then we know what happened.

But then in how many svayamvaras, the actual choice of the princess was honored?

The swayamvaras of Sita, Draupadi and Lakshmanaa (Krishna's wife, not Samba's) were contests, but otherwise, princesses were usually given a swayamvara where they had a free right to choose anyone. This serial had badly misrepresented what princesses were allowed to do. There was no requirement that there be a contest @ any swayamvara - that was optional, not mandatory. This is how Kunti's swayamvara went, where she freely chose Pandu (there were no tests, contrary to what this serial showed). In some cases, kings could choose to skip the swayamvara completely and simply offer their daughters to friendly princes or kings, like Shalya did to Bheeshma or Virata did to Arjun.

Normally, most decent princes/kings did not visit swayamvaras they were not invited to. Bheeshma, Duryodhan/Karna & Samba were uncouth exceptions.