Draupadi

In the epic Mahabharata, Draupadi is the daughter of King Drupada, and becomes the wife of the five Pandavas. When Yudhisthira becomes the king of Hastinapura, Indraprastha and the Emperor of India at the end of the war, Draupadi again becomes Queen.

Birth

Draupadi and her brother Dhristadyumna emerged together from a sacrificial fire that the king had lit to gain a means of revenge on Drona, to whom he had lost half his kingdom.

Drupad had prayed for a son, but Draupadi emerged as well. When she did, a divine voice said she would be the reason for the destruction of the Kauravas. When Draupadi grew to be a young woman she was considered very beautiful, mainly for her glowing dark skin, large dark eyes and graceful figure.

It is believed that Goddess Kali had given a part of her powers to her, for the destruction of the Kauravas. As Drupada was the ruler of the kingdom of Panchala, Draupadi was also known as Paanchali. She was named by Brahmanas as "Krsnā" due to her radiant dusky skin {the Lord Krishna was also dark-skinned) and is very often referred to and addressed by this name in the Mahabharata.

Marriage to the Pandavas

While in exile, Kunti, mother of the Pandavas often advised her sons that they share everything they have (or obtain) equally amongst themselves. During that time, Arjuna attended Draupadi's swayamvara and won her hand in marriage. When he returned, he triumphantly declared "Look mother, what I have brought!". Kunti, unmindful of what Arjuna was referring to, unassumingly asked her son to share whatever it is with his brothers. Thus, in order to obey their mother's order all five accepted Draupadi as their wife.

According to another source, when Sage Vyasa visits the family, he explains to Draupadi that her unique position as the wife of five brothers results from a certain incident in her previous birth. She had in that lifetime prayed to Lord Shiva to grant her a husband with five desired qualities. Lord Shiva, pleased with her devotion, tells her that it is very difficult to get a husband with all five qualities that she desired. But she sticks to her ground and asks for the same. Then Lord Shiva grants her wish saying that she would get the same in her next birth. Hence she gets married to five brothers each who represents a given quality.

Draupadi's Cheer-Haran

Draupadi’s Cheer-Haran, literally meaning stripping of one’s clothes, marks a definitive moment in the story of Mahabharata. It is the central reason of the Mahabharata war, the rivalry between Pandavas and Kauravas being the more general cause.

Yudhishthira and his four brothers were the rulers of Indraprastha under the sovereignty of Emperor Dhritarashtra. Dhritarashtra’s son Duryodhana who resided in the capital of the empire Hastinapur was always jealous of his cousins. Together with his brothers, his friend Karna and maternal uncle Shakuni, he conspired to call Pandavas at Hastinapur and win their kingdoms in a game of gambling. Shakuni was an inveterate gambler and very skilled at winning by unfair means. The idea was that Shakuni will play against Yudhishthira and win at the gambling table what was impossible to win at the battlefield.

As the game proceeded, Yudhishthira lost all his wealth and kingdom one by one. Having lost all material wealth, he went on to put his brothers at stake one by one and lost them too. Ultimately he put himself at stake, and lost again. All the Pandavas were now the slaves of Kauravas. But for the villain Shakuni, the humiliation of Pandavas was not complete. He plods Yudhishthira that he has not lost everything yet. Yudhishthira still has Draupadi with him and if he wishes he can win everything back by putting Draupadi at stake. Yudhishthira walks into the trap and to the horror of everybody present, puts Draupadi as a bet for the next round. Shakuni rolls the dice and gleefully shouts “Look, I have won”.

Duryodhana commands his younger brother Dushasana to forcefully bring her into the forum. Dushasana barges into the living quarters of Draupadi who had just finished her bath and was drying her loose hair. Dushasan grabs her by the hair and brings her into the court dragging her by the hair. Unable to withstand the distress of his wife, an emotional Bhima even threatens to burn up Yudhishthira’s hands with which he placed Draupadi on stake. Arjuna pacifies him.

Now in an emotional appeal to the elders present in the forum, Draupadi repeatedly questions the legality of the right of Yudhishthira to place her at stake when he himself had lost his freedom and as a consequence did not possess any property in the first place. Everybody remain dumbfounded. Bhishma, the patriarch of the Kaurava family and a formidable warrior has only this lame explanation to offer to Draupadi - “The course of morality is subtle and even the illustrious wise in this world fail to always understand it”.

Kauravas now command Pandavas to strip themselves in the manner of slaves. Pandavas obey by stripping off their upper garments. Then Kauravas demand the same from Draupadi, who remains crying in her hour of test. Then to the horror of everybody present, Dushasana proceeds to strip Draupadi off her sari. Seeing her husbands unable or unwilling to help her, Draupadi prays to Lord Krishna to protect her modesty. Lord Krishna now works a miracle so that as Dushasana unwraps layers and layers of her sari, her sari keeps getting extended. Seeing Draupadi being violated so brazenly, Bhima in a roaring rage, vows to tear open Dushasana’s breast one day and drink his blood. Finally a tired Dushasana backs off without being able to strip Draupadi.

Duryodhana repeatedly challenges Yudhishthira’s four brothers to disassociate themselves from Yudhishthira’s authority and take their wife back. No one dares to denounce their loyalty to their eldest brother. In order to provoke the Pandavas further, Duryodhana bares and pats his thigh looking into Draupadi’s eyes, implying her to sit on his thigh. In impotent rage Bhima vows in front of the entire assembly that one day he will break that very thigh of Duryodhan in a battle.

Finally, the blind monarch Dhritarashtra's conscience is stirred, in part fearing the wrath of Pandavas against his sons. He intervenes and asks Draupadi to wish for whatever she desires. Draupadi asks her husbands the Pandavas to be freed from slavery. Dhritarashtra grants her wish and also restores to Pandavas all they lost in the game of dice. Free from the bondage Bhima, hotheaded as ever, immediately proposes to his brothers to slay all Kauravas present then and there itself. Yudhishthira and Arjuna prevent him from taking any rash action. After many words of reconciliation between Pandavas and Dhritarashtra, Pandavas withdraw to their kingdom along with Draupadi and their entourage.

Shakuni, Karna and Duryodhan later convince Dhritarashtra to invite Pandavas for a new game of dice, with modified rules. It was following the defeat in this new game that Pandavas were sent into exile.

Draupadi’s Cheer-Haran remains one of the most hotly debated passages from the Mahabharata. What was originally meant to show the virtuousness of Pandavas (who remained firm in their observance of pledge of servitude to Kauravas by not resorting to violence even in the face of gravest insult possible), has in the modern India come to showcase an example of Pandavas’ male chauvinistic attitudes (because they treated Draupadi as their property by putting her at gambling stake) and their strange prioritizing of virtues (Do pledges really matter more than the honor and safety of one’s family?). That the elders like Bhishma, Drona, Vidura and Dhritarashtra remained silent spectators of the entire episode adds valuable insight to their personalities too. In any case the passage must be seen in the light of the mores of the times of its writing which lay a few millennia ago.

Devotion to Krishna

When Draupadi's father, the King of Panchala began to look for a suitable match for Draupadi the first man to come to his mind was Krishna. Upon his arrival, Krishna meets Draupadi and is very pleased with her but as soon as he finds out that she is also referred to as "Krishna" he says "how can we be married if we have the same name?" Since Krishna is believed to have thousands of wives he asks Draupadi "do you really just want to be another wife?" Since they shared the same name Krishna explains that they must have some type of divine connection. At that time he pledges his friendship to Draupadi and vows to show the world the greatest example of friendship. This is quite possibly why Krishna helps Draupadi when the Pandavas lose her in a gamble.

Krishna calls Draupadi his sakhi, or friend. She is a total devotee, and another story says the reason he helps Draupadi is that she prayed with utmost devotion. Plus, when Krishna had cut his finger on the Sudarshan Chakra she had bound it with her Sari.

Also, Krishna is the one who opposes her marriage to Karna and promotes her marriage to Arjuna (when people oppose it because he is disguised as a Brahmin.

References

Eminent women in the Mahabharata by Vanamala Bhawalkar.
Marriage to the Pandavas
Mahabharata (1999) by Krishna Dharma

External links

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm
Draupadi, the Woman: Epitome of Feminity and Feminism by Madhuri Guin (the contents of this link cannot be viewed in India)

Characters in Mahabharata