Did Draupadi dishonor Duryodhana, thereby causing him to dishonor her?
Hare Krishna Question Did Draupadi dishonor Duryodhana thereby causing him to dishonor her Answer Answer There are degrees of dishonor so for example if somebody if a king is walking by and suppose the passerby doesn't stand up when the king is walking by and then because of that the king comes back and kills that passerby kills his family, burns down his kingdom burns down his house and destroys every single thing related with him now we could say that because the passerby didn't stand up that's why the king did it but there is no sense of proportion over here it is not that the king just because this, ok the king passerby did not stand up when the king is passing by there is some amount of dishonor over there but that is so miniscule in comparison with the kind of devastation that the king has wreaked on the innocent passerby so similarly even if Draupadi dishonored Duryodhana, now where could she have dishonored it was in her swayamvar she had no, she did not target Duryodhana, Duryodhana just could not meet the target and that's why he could not win her hand so if Duryodhana saw it as a dishonor that is not Draupadi's problem later on when after the Rajasuya Yagya got over then all the other all the guests left but Duryodhana stayed on for a few days and he would go around in the Mayasabha in the palace and assembly which had been created by the Mayadana at the instruction of Krishna and he was seething with envy at that time when he he had wanted to be the, he had expected to be the heir of the Kuru dynasty and not only had he not become the heir but he had been displaced by cousins who had become far more, far far far more celebrated wealthy and prosperous than him so he just could not tolerate that and he was seething with anger and envy snapping at all the servants and being overall in a foul mood and at that time when he was going through the Mayasabha at one particular point, he felt there is a door over here but he went over there but there was no door, there was a mirror and he hit his head and it hurt and now there are some titters over there at that time on seeing it, another point he thought that there is straight water there is normal floor over there and there is water over there and he slipped and fell over there and when that happened, people started laughing so Draupadi is also there at that time and she also laughed at that time and now in some some fictional some some fictitious retellings of the Mahabharata it is depicted as if Draupadi at this time jeered Duryodhana by saying andhe ka beta andha that a blind father's son will be blind a blind man's son will be blind now Draupadi did not say this and it is not if you look at overall Draupadi's character she is a strong willed woman but she is not derisive like this it will be completely out of character for her to say such a thing and certainly she would not say such a thing in the presence of a virtuous husband like Yudhishtir who would definitely not approve of that so she just laughed and she was not the only person who laughed actually the Pandavas were there, they laughed and other guests were also there who laughed so now if somebody slips and falls a fully grown up man slips and falls in the water now yes it is just a joke now there is no need to take it so seriously there is no need to make a whole big issue out of it and certainly for a man just think of a sense of proportion if a man slips and falls in a puddle and then there are some people over there among them there are some girls, the girl laughs and because of that the man tries to take revenge by stripping the girl naked and trying to molest and violate her now that would be horrendous we would be outraged that anyone would consider this an equitable retribution for that minor infraction so to say that first of all Draupadi did not dishonor Duryodhana Duryodhana was himself in an irritable envious mood and because of that when what was what is this a small joke that he took he blew it all out of proportion and he felt that the Pandavas had dishonored him and especially Draupadi was so beautiful and he felt that the Pandavas had got Draupadi and he had not so his envy boiled over so we can understand why he would have felt angry infuriated but there is no this is no justification for the utterly disproportionate and totally outrageous act that he did in the public assembly of trying to have Draupadi disrobed so to say that because first of all Draupadi did not dishonor Duryodhana and even if Duryodhana perceived it as a dishonor still he had absolutely no justification to dishonor Draupadi in this way for a woman honorable woman to be publicly publicly stripped now in a conservative society at that time it would mean that she would practically not be able to show her face to anyone her life would be ruined to ruin a respectable woman's life just because one slipped in water and then was laughed at but there is no sense of proportion in this and to try to say that this caused this is to have no sense is to have complete lack of sense of proportion in reaction thank you.