Mahabharata characters 60 Draupadi 1 Responding to vice with virtue

This talk is a part of the “Fascinating Mahabharata Characters” series. To know more about this course, please visit: bhakticourses.com

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Welcome back to the Mahabharata character series. We are now discussing about Draupadi.
Draupadi is the central female character in the Mahabharata. In fact, she is the only prominent female in her generation. The other wives of the Pandavas or Duryodhana’s wife Lakshmana or Karna’s they do not figure anywhere near as prominently as Draupadi does.
In the previous generations, Kunti and Gandhari also play some role, but their role is nowhere again as prominent as Draupadi’s. So, she is an extremely determined, devoted and exalted lady and right from her birth, her story is quite extraordinary. So, when she was born, actually Drupada had felt mortified when he had been defeated by Drona through his students and he decided to take revenge.
So, he with the help of Yajna and Upayuja, two powerful Brahmins, performed sacrifices by which he got a son who would kill Drona. But along with that, he had also desired to have a daughter who would marry Arjuna because he had been captivated by Arjuna’s chivalry, courage and expertise in archery and had felt charmed by him. Now, he felt if only I had a son like this, if I cannot have him as a son, let me have him as a son-in-law.
So, when Draupadi appeared along with Dhristadyumna, a wise spoke at that time, she will be the cause of the destruction of the world’s Kshatriyas. Now, we have to understand this sort of predictions carefully. She will be the cause, the word cause has multiple meanings.
Cause does not mean necessarily she was the provocation, but she was the fulcrum, she was the centre. The Kauravas and Pandavas fought because first the Kauravas felt jealous because the Pandavas had won Draupadi and then they felt jealous because the Pandavas had got so many things. We will discuss the whole story.
But basically, it was their insult to her that rebounded on them and as the Kurukshetra war destroyed the world’s Kshatriyas. So, they all died because of her karma. But now if somebody is going to be, if that statement is literal that then she is going to be the cause of destruction of the world and she would be auspicious.
Nobody would want her, even her father would not want her and what would speak of the world’s Kshatriyas coming later for her. So, they came because it is understood that is a way of glorifying her that she would be the centre, she would be the centre of the thoughts and attraction of the world’s Kshatriyas and there will be a conflict over her is incidental in the sense that she is not the cause for it, but she is the centre of it. Now, when she appeared, she did not have a normal childhood.
She almost appeared like a grown-up lady and as did Dhristivna and soon she was ready for her swayamvar. So, now in the meanwhile, a few years passed and Drupada wanted her to marry Arjuna, but the Pandavas, it was rumoured had died in the fire at Varnavarth. Drupada was disappointed but he thought that in case there is some chance the Pandavas have survived, then let me create a test for her swayamvar which can be passed only by Arjuna.
And we know how Arjuna actually gallantly passed the test, but he was disguised as a Brahmana and eventually she won the hand, Arjuna won her hand, she gave a garland and then because of Kunti’s words, it was decided she will wed all five wives, all five husbands. Now, little is talked in the Mahabharata directly about her feelings. There is an indirect reference and you know, actually her beauty was such that all the five Pandavas were attracted to her.
When Arjuna won her, the Pandavas thought that she will be Arjuna’s wife, but then Arjuna had thought that because the eldest brother should marry first, so she will be Yudhishthira’s wife. But when Kunti said that she had all of them, then the Pandavas realised she is going to be the wife of all of them. And her beauty, her submissiveness, her chastity won the hearts of all five of them.
So, now the story is told by Vyasa. Even Drupada is taken aback by this initially, when he is told. So Vyasadeva himself comes and tells the story that how she was Nallayani.
The Mahabharata itself describes about, it’s a long story in the Mahabharata of Nalla and Damayanthi. They were another virtuous couple, king and queen, who also were persecuted just as Yudhishthira was persecuted. And eventually Nalla and Damayanthi, they had a daughter who was Nallayani.
And this Nallayani worshipped Lord Shiva and she said, she wanted a husband with many virtuous qualities, 14 qualities. Primary of the five were, wanted a person to be virtuous, strong, expert in fighting and handsome and learned in scripture, wise in that sense. So now when Lord Shiva appeared after prolonged austerity before her, she was so anxious that she said, you will get, I want a husband, I want a husband, husband, husband, five times.
And when she said this, Lord Shiva said, you will have five husbands. She described five husbands, how is it possible? Now polygamy was there in the Vedic culture for many reasons. We discussed earlier how often the number of females would be more than the males and the males would either become, some of the males would become renunciate, some of the males would die on the battlefield.
And women were protected by males. So polygamy was there that way. But polyandry was, polyandry means one woman having many wives, many husbands, was relatively infrequent.
So she was also taken aback. She said, no, this will, Lord Shiva said, this is how your desire will be fulfilled and do not worry, it will not be adharmic. So then he said, but people will frown upon it.
He says, no, this will, your desire will be fulfilled in the future life. And then in that future life was, her life was Draupadi. So now Drupada initially accepted and Draupadi also accepted.
And she, you know, she took up the service, which was quite a demanding service for a wife to serve a husband is what women were trained for at that time. But to serve five husbands was no easy task. But she took it up with complete dedication and she won the hearts of all of them.
And naturally, because Arjuna had won her, she had a special space in her heart for Arjuna. But she served all of them and by the blessings of Vyasadeva and in accordance with by the blessings of Mahadeva, Lord Shiva, and in accordance with the words of Vyasadeva, when she met with her husbands one by one, she was married to all five of them over a period of time. And when she married them, each time after her marriage, and she spent some time with her husband, first husband, then she, by divine arrangement, regained her virginity.
And then she was with next husband. And like that, she lived with all the five husbands. And now, Pandavas came back and then they were given half the kingdom, the Khanda Prastha, which they made into Indraprastha.
And there, now, in the Rajyogya was the moment of the crowning glory for both Yudhishthira, for him the crowning glory was that Krishna was was acknowledged, acclaimed, celebrated as the Agra Purusha. But along with that, for everyone else, the fact that Yudhishthira was the world emperor and then Draupadi was his wife. So then there was the Abhishek that was done, her hair was decorated and bathed in the Abhishek that was done.
And it was a moment of crowning glory for the Pandavas and for Draupadi also. But it was also the moment of intolerable envy for Duryodhana. Now, there are some times when Draupadi seems to have provoked some people.
Now, of course, if you look at the scriptures carefully, it is said that Draupadi did not do that. As we have discussed earlier in the Mahabharata, it is mentioned that Draupadi did not refuse the suit of Karna, rather Karna tried and missed the target. And similarly, sometimes in some popular renditions, it is said that when Duryodhana was looking, examining the Maya Sabha, which Maya had given to Yudhishthira, so he slipped and fell in water, mistaking it to be land.
So some popular renditions in Mahabharata, in order to spice it up, say that she spoke, Andheka beta andha, so that the son of a blind man is blind. But actually Draupadi did not speak any such things. And she laughed, but it was a playful laugh, there was nothing malicious in it.
But Duryodhana took it maliciously. And then after that, her moment of greatest infamy and her greatest glory comes in the gambling match. So the Pandavas are invited and then they are set up and Yudhishthira loses everything including Panchali.
Now Draupadi had many names. And Panchali was her name because she was the princess of Panchal. Draupadi, of course, she was the son of Draupada.
Then there was, her name was Yajnaseni, the one who was born from the fire, Yajnaseni. And then her other name was Panchami, she who had five husbands. Her other name was also Krishna, because she had a darkish complexion.
And then, now beyond that, she was also very attractive. In fact, the Mahabharata repeatedly gives a description of her extraordinary beauty. And that also made her, there was one of the reasons why the Kshatriyas from all over had come at her swam, to try to gain her hand.
So now when she was lost, she was in her asana, she was staying in her quarters. She was in seclusion in a single cloth at that time because of circumstances. And Pratikamin was the messenger of the palace and a palace attendant.
And Duryodhana told him, go and summon Draupadi. Tell her that she has been lost in the gambling match and she should come here now and serve her new masters. So now Pratikamin realised this was a very improper, scandalous situation where first of all to bet a woman and then to lose her and then to summon her like this into assembly was unheard of.
So he was apprehensive and he went to Draupadi’s chambers and he told her, the assembly has summoned you because you were lost by Yudhishthira, gambling match. Draupadi was surprised. He says, how can, what man will stake his own wife? Did he have nothing else to stake? Pratikamin was sober and he said, actually he had staked and lost everything else.
He had lost his four brothers himself and then he staked you and lost you also. Now for a woman, her chastity is as important, if not more important than her life. And for her to go, such a condition would be a disgrace.
So it was a dishonour not only for her, but for her whole family, for her husband’s, for her father’s family, for everyone. So she thought fast and she immediately came up with a reasoning which would check the impending disaster. And she told Pratikamin that go and ask the assembly that if Yudhishthira had already lost himself, then what right would he have to gamble me? And Pratikamin went back and Duryodhana asked, where is Draupadi? He says, she has sent a question to the assembly and he repeated the question.
So everybody looked at Yudhishthira, they looked at the king, they looked at Vishwa, he remained silent. And then Duryodhana told Pratikamin, go and tell her that she should come here and ask the question personally to the assembly. Pratikamin went back to family and he was so fearful that actually she was herself apprehensive at what was happening.
But when she saw the Pratikamin’s fear, she consoled and comforted him and she said, you tell me what happened. And then she said, it seems the Kuru assembly is on the verge of disaster. The assembly has summoned you to come to ask this question.
And now what Draupadi’s reply is, is actually the essence of dharmic living. She replied four points. Surely, that Lord who is the ordiner of all things has ordained this also.
In this world, good and bad befall upon everyone, irrespective of whether they are living good or bad, good or bad befall everyone. Virtue is therefore the greatest treasure. It is not that we should worry whether good is happening or bad is happening.
We should worry whether we are living virtuously or not. And if we live virtuously, eventually virtue will bless us profusely. And now she is speaking this as much to herself as to the assembly and she turned to Pratikamin and says, tell this to the assembly and tell her that I trust that they are all people of virtue and let them decide what the answer to my question is.
I will act according to their will. So even in such a terrible situation where she was about to be dishonoured, Draupadi did not forget dharma. She remained faithful and she reminded dharma to the assembly who was sliding rapidly towards dharma.
And Pratikamin went back and this time Duryodhana was angry. He said, where is she? And he shouted at her. So Pratikamin replied, telling her message.
And they all looked at each other. And now the focus on Yudhishthira. So Yudhishthira, he looked at, initially Yudhishthira was completely dazed.
He just couldn’t believe what had happened. It was worse than a worst nightmare come to having lost everything, having himself become a slave, having made all his brothers a slave and now having lost his wife who was about to be disgraced. He looked like he was in daze as if demented.
But then he realised, he says that, now tell that chaste lady that even if she is a single cloth and even if she is in seclusion, she must come now because the king Duryodhana has ordered this. As he turned, she said this, Duryodhana told Pratikamin and told her, told him go and get her. So he said, but what should I tell her now? So because the question had been asked to the king Duryodhana, this fool is afraid of Bhima, he said.
Actually Pratikamin was not just afraid of the Pandavas or of Bhima, he was afraid of the adharma that was happening. But Duryodhana had such a Bhima-centred worldview. For him everything was about proving how I am better than Bhima or rather how Bhima is inferior to me.
And he wanted to show, I am not afraid of Bhima. And he turned towards Dushyasan. Dushyasan, you go and get Draupadi.
And Dushyasan immediately got up and marched towards Draupadi’s palace, the palace where the ladies were staying. And he was like a dog entering into a lion’s den. And he charged into her chambers and when Draupadi saw her, she screamed.
She started running away from there. She realised that her only saviour in this situation with the whole assembly was acting so unrighteously. Then she started running towards Gandhari’s chambers.
But Dushyasan, she roared and charged after her and caught her by her long hair and dragged her. And she shouted, O wretch, I cannot go in this condition dressed in a single cloth before the assembly. Let me go.
So Dushyasan started laughing sadistically. And he said, now you are our maid servant. Whether we want you to come in one cloth or no cloth, you will have to obey the orders of your new master.
And Draupadi was crying, mortified, horrified, humiliated. And Dushyasan shamelessly dragged her through the courtyards, through the alleys, right into the assembly hall. And she saw there the whole assembly waiting expectantly.
Her husband’s, their eyes were downcast. And they were looking devastated. Anushtha was looking devastated.
Bhima was looking infuriated. And Dushyasan dragged her and hurled her towards Duryodhana. She fell on the ground.
And she got up and she looked at her husbands, beseeching them for help. And the Pandavas had not felt as angry upon losing all their wealth, as they felt, all their wealth, all their kingdom, all their possessions, as they felt when they saw that glance of Draupadi, just filled with modesty and pride, which is all being. She was horrified what was happening.
And she immediately composed herself and said, she spoke with great decorum, O elders in the assembly, please forgive me for coming in this direction, in this condition. I have been forced to come here. And all of you are learned in scripture and you are devoted to virtue.
Many of you are devoted to sacrifice. Many of you are my seniors, my gurus. Therefore, I ask you, if Duryodhana, if Yudhishthira had already gambled, then how could he have staked and lost me? And everybody remained silent.
Now Dhritarashtra was complicit in all this. He did not speak anything. So Bhishma, realising that he was the eldest, it was the responsibility for him to speak.
And he spoke saying that, O Draupadi, the rules of dharma are extremely subtle. The wife always belongs to the husband. And yet if the husband has lost himself, whether he owns anything or not, that is a question that is open to answer.
He says, because of the subtlety and the complexity of the issue involved, I cannot give an answer. So Duryodhana was delighted by hearing this. Draupadi protested.
He said that actually Yudhishthira was bound by instruction and forced against his will to fight this match. And although he is not expert in fighting, still he was pitted against a gambler who is skilled, who is wicked and who is deceitful. Having been deprived of his senses, then he was deprived of his wealth and he has lost everything.
He said that now here Draupadi being the chaste wife, she could have censured her husbands. But throughout this whole incident, she stands by her husband. And that is remarkable.
He says, and I know that the king acts only according to virtue. And therefore I cannot find an iota of fault in my husband. So we may have conflicts with our loved ones, with those whom we are related and we cannot just wish away or wash away the conflicts.
We have to deal with them. But when we are in a public forum, then at that time we do not wash our dirty linen in public. At that time, we show united front.
So here, although at one level you can say it is all Yudhishthira’s fault that Draupadi was being humiliated like this, throughout Draupadi refuses to fault Yudhishthira. And Draupadi speaks like this. She says that I do not find any fault in Yudhishthira.
And she says, she begs to the assembly saying that, please tell, was I lost? And Bhishma doesn’t give an answer at this time. And she is asking again. So at that time, finally, when nobody gives an answer, Vikarna gets up.
Now Vikarna is one of the brothers of Duryodhana, but he is the least vicious among them. And he says that, O assembly, O kings, O elders, here this chaste lady has put up a very important question before us. We will be culpable if we stay silent.
When those who are afflicted come before assembly seeking relief and justice, we stay silent. We will fall to sin. Please answer her question.
He turned and looked at everyone. Everyone remained silent. And after a full minute passed of agonising silence, Vikarna said, if no one else will speak, then I will speak.
He says, I say that Draupadi has not been lost in the gambling match. He gave three reasons. He said, first, he says that when a person is under the influence of four vices, hunting, intoxication, womanising or gambling, at that time a person loses the sense.
And because of that, what the person does thereafter is out of character. And that is why it should not be taken seriously. Therefore, I feel that that is the first reason.
Secondly, he says, and not only that Yudhishthira had to gamble unwillingly bound by the instructions of his elders. And moreover, he said that actually he lost her after he had lost herself. So therefore, I feel Draupadi has not been won.
And the whole assembly erupted, applauding Vikarna for his courageous and principled stand. As the assembly was applauding and it seemed that there might be relief, Karna got up. Now, actually Karna throughout the epic often acts virtuously, but here we see him at his worst.
So Karna, he used his huge arms and said, silence, silence. And then he said, I have seen many things which are improper in this assembly. And your speech of Vikarna is one among them.
There are many, many elders over here and they have stayed silent. So you are immature. If they have not opposed Draupadi’s being gambled and won over, who are you to oppose? Still you have given some reasoning.
I will refute it. And then Karna spoke. He says, the gambling match was fair.
Yudhishthira could have walked away at any time. Nobody forced him to gamble Draupadi. And he lost her in a fair gambling match.
And the wife is always the property of her husband. Therefore, she has been won over. And the Pandavas were incensed on hearing this.
Now, Karna could see the temperature in the whole room rising and he felt. Now, he had also felt insulted because he had not been able to win the hand of Draupadi and he wanted to get back at her here. And he said, this Draupadi has been won now.
She is our maid servant. And, oh, Duryodhana, being her maid servant, she has to do whatever we tell her. Why not disrobe her? And ask the Pandavas also to remove their royal robes.
They are no longer kings. Royal upper cloths. They are no longer kings.
They are merely servants and slaves now. Karna spoke this. The whole assembly was agonised.
But no one protested. And the Pandavas slowly removed their upper cloths, which indicated that they belonged to royalty and put that aside. And then Duryodhana nodded.
For him, he just wanted to exert his power, exert his domination over the Pandavas. And Draupadi was a tool for her, for him. Through humiliating Draupadi, he was going to demonstrate to the whole world his power, his domination over the Pandavas.
And he told Dushyasana, he signalled to Dushyasana. Dushyasana marched towards Draupadi and he grabbed her sari, single sari she was wearing and started pulling her. So, Draupadi held on desperately to her sari, somehow trying to hold on.
But her strength was no match to Dushyasana’s strength. And she held on and as Dushyasana pulled, started being whirled round and round, her sari started slipping from her hands. And her body started becoming unclothed.
Realising that she was helpless, she looked at her husbands. Her husbands were having their heads hung low. You know, before, when Draupadi had a glance at them in dismay and horror, and fervently begging for help, at that time Bhima had exploded.
And Bhima had said, oh Yudhishthir, in our assembly, many times there are kings who are gamblers and they have loose women among their servants, but they don’t even gamble those women. He said, but you have turned to, you have done something which is even more despicable than what they have done. Even when you lost all of us and everything that we had, I did not feel angry.
But seeing how this tender princess, who is meant to be protected by us, is suffering now because of you, I cannot resist. And he said, it is Sahadev. Sahadev, burn, bring fire.
I will burn Yudhishthir’s arms. So at that time, Arjuna sprang up and caught Bhima’s shoulders and he said, oh Bhima, how have such words come in your mouth? Did you know that Yudhishthir, not know that Yudhishthir fought only because of being told to do so, being instructed by his elders? Now in spite of having all kind of provocation, he has not swayed from the path of virtue. Therefore, this act that he has done will bring him great credit.
Do not give joy to our opponents by censuring Yudhishthir now. So when Bhima heard the words of Arjuna, he looked at Yudhishthir and said, I am gloating. He calmed himself and said, oh my brother, what you are saying is right.
He said, if I had not known that Yudhishthir had been acting virtuously, already I would have destroyed him, I would have destroyed this assembly. It is only because of my reverence for Yudhishthir and for virtue’s sake that I stay silent. So Bhima had been about to explode and he had stopped at that time.
He had been restrained. And now when Draupadi looked at her husband, she realised that they were not going to help her. Aruksari was fast slipping from her body, her honour would soon be lost.
And she realised at this point that she would have only one shelter, her lord Krishna, whom she had worshipped, to whom she had natural devotion and she had always worshipped. Now she turned towards him. He had been trying to hold on to her saree.
She let go of her saree and she raised her hands and she called out, oh Keshava, oh Govinda, oh beloved of the Gopis, oh lord of Vrindavan, oh reliever of the affliction of the distressed, I am sinking into the ocean of the Kurus. Oh lord, oh soul of the world, oh creator of the universe, please save me who am sinking in an ocean of distress. Oh Janardhan, you relieve the world’s distress.
She called out fervently and as she called out, a most wondrous thing happened. What that was and how events went forward, we will discuss in our next session. Thank you.