She Who Must Be Obeyed Draupadi : the Ill-Fated One

Part IV: Five Holy Virgins, Five Sacred Myths She Who Must Be Obeyed Draupadi : The Ill-Fated One Pradip Bhattacharya Draupadi’s emergence by Aditi In the first two parts of this quest we explored three of the five kanyas, Ahalya, Tara, and Mandodari of the Ramayana, seeking to understand what makes them so special and, while en-route Pritha-Kunti, discovered in the Mahabharata her grandmother-in-law Satyavati, another remarkable woman sharing features that characterise the kanya. In the third instalment, we saw the remarkable character of Kunti, the first recorded instance of a redoubtable Single Mother. Now we meet the last of the five “virgins,” the heroine of the Mahabharata: Draupadi. To help us through the thickly interwoven maze of relationships, let us lay out the broad linkages: The sage Parashara forces blind Dhritarashtra born from Shura of the Yadavas of himself on the fisher-girl, Ambika who shut her eyes in Mathura Pritha, whom he Matsyagandha-Satyavati, who is aversion during intercourse and gifts away in childhood to his ferrying him across the Yamuna pale (jaundiced) Pandu from childless friend Kuntibhoja who Krishna (dark) Dvaipayana (born- Ambalika who became pale from renames her Kunti. The sage on-an-island) Vyasa. shock at Vyasa’s ugliness. Durvasa gives her an incantation Shantanu, king of Hastinapura, Satyavati, therefore, insists that (mantra) whereby she can marries Ganga Devavrata- Ambika make good her lapse but summon anyone, even a god, for Bhishma, who abjures the throne the princess sends in her maid begetting a son. To experiment, and vows celibacy so that to Vyasa instead Vidura the she invokes the sun god Satyavati agrees to marry his veritable soul of righteousness. Surya Karna, born with father. The younger Pandu rules as celestial earrings and armour, Shantanu marries Satyavati Dhritarashtra is disqualified whom she sets afloat in a basket Chitrangada (killed in a duel) and because of his blindness. Vidura in the river Ashvanadi, as she is Vichitravirya who becomes king becomes the conscience-keeper unmarried (see Part II). in adolescence, with Bhishma as of the ruler. Karna is rescued by a childless regent. Dhritarashtra marries charioteer Adhirath and his wife Vichitravirya marries Ambika and Ambalika, princesses of Gandhari (whose father Radha, after whom he is called Kashi (Benares) whom Bhishma Bhishma terrorised into giving Radheya. Duryodhana makes abducts for this purpose. The her in marriage. She blinds Karna ruler of Anga and his fast youth dies without progeny. herself by tying a cloth over her friend. Bhishma refuses to break his eyes permanently) 100 sons A son of Shura is Vasudeva, vow and practices levirate on the called Kauravas (Duryodhana, whose sons Balarama from widows as requested by the Duhshasana, etc.), one daughter Rohini and Krishna from Devaki, Queen-mother, Satyavati. She Duhshala, and another son are Pritha’s nephews. summons her illegitimate son Yuyutsut from a Vaishya In a svayamvara Kunti marries Vyasa who has become a sage maidservant during Gandhari’s Pandu. Immediately, Bhishma by now. Reluctantly he agrees pregnancy. Gandhari’s brother, pays heavy bride-price and to impregnate the two widows scheming Shakuni, becomes brings Madri as Pandu’s second their advisor. wife. Pandu is childless, being “” signifies “leading to the birth of” No.144 19 cursed to die in coitus. In grief, Jealous of their cousins’ claim Dhritarashtra asks the Pandavas he exiles himself with his wives to the throne, the Kauravas to make their home in the forest in the Himalayas. Dhritarashtra conspire with Shakuni of Khandavaprastha. Krishna rules. At Pandu’s insistence, and Karna to kill them. The assists the Pandavas in building Kunti uses the mantra to summon Pandavas flee into a their capital Indraprastha by Dharma Yudhishthira; forest where a rakshasi Hidimba clearing the forest. VayuBhima; Indra Arjuna. marries Bhima Ghatotkacha. The Kauravas deprive the At Pandu’s plea, Kunti Advised by their grandfather Pandavas of their kingdom in a teaches the mantra to Madri Vyasa, the Pandavas reach the game of dice, in which Draupadi who invokes the twin Panchala kingdom where is staked and lost by Yudhishthira. The Pandavas are Ashvinikumaras Nakula Arjuna wins the hand of sent into exile for 13 years. and Sahadeva. These are the five its king Yajnasena-Drupada’s Arjuna marries Subhadra, Pandavas. miraculously born daughter sister of Balarama-Krishna Pandu forces himself on Yajnaseni (emerging from the Abhimanyu who married Uttara Madri and dies in coitus. sacrificial altar)-Krishnaa (dark)- daughter of king Virata in whose Entrusting her sons to Kunti, Panchali-Draupadi. She becomes court the Pandavas take shelter Madri dies, too. Kunti returns to the common wife of the five in exile Parikshit who becomes Hastinapura with the five brothers at Kunti’s command and king of Hastinapura at the end Pandavas. is Krishna’s special friend, sakhi. of the epic. Yajnaseni-Krishnaa-Panchali to them for restoring his confidence by a skiey heavenly announcement If Kunti’s is a death-in-flames, her after his humiliating defeat by that this lovely, dark (hence, one of daughter-in-law Draupadi is fire-altar Gandharvas and rescue by the exiled her names is Krishnaa) lady will born. Like Ahalya fashioned by Pandavas. Yajnaseni’s complexion destroy all Kshatriyas. She appears, Brahma, ocean-born Tara, Mandodari resembles the blue and red therefore, to fulfil not Drupada’s created by Vishnu or Parvati, and tree- (nilalohita) kritya of the Rig and purpose but that of the gods, engendered Marisha (wife of the ten Atharva Vedas. Like Janamejaya’s responding to the Earth’s anguished Prachetas), she is ayonija-sambhava, serpent-holocaust ritual performed by prayer to lighten her burden of not of woman born. Like Athena priests in black robes, the rite oppressive Kshatriyas. Despite being springing cap a pie from Zeus’ head performed for Drupada draws on non- aware of this announcement—or and Durga taking shape from the shrauta (sacred) tradition, a departure being conscious of it—the gods- combined fury of the gods, Yajnaseni from the auspicious vedic sacrifice engendered Pandavas wed her and emerges in the bloom of youth from and partakes of the nature of destroy the Kauravas, whose birth is Yajnasena-Drupada’s yajna vedi, abhichara (black-magic), death- entirely human. Her marriage to the sacrificial fire-altar, which is dealing, because of which Upayaja, son of Yama-Dharma, Yudhishthira, repeatedly cited as a simile for her whom Drupada approaches first, reinforces her ominous links with hour-glass figure. Her manifestation refuses to perform it. Here, too, there death. Even her very first appearance does not require the matrix of a human is a resemblance with Kunti because is as Shri in the Adi Parva (I.196), in womb and ignores the absence of Durvasa’s boon to her is described the context of a twelve-year sacrifice Drupada’s queen who does not as abhicharasamyuktam…varam Yama, the god of death, performs on respond to the priest’s summons, as mantragramam (I.113.34), the banks of the Ganga, during which her make-up is unfinished. invocations linked by black magic. In there is no death in the world. Shri is It is significant that Draupadi particular, it is linked to Yudhishthira’s a mysterious femme fatale weeping emerges gratuitously at the end of a birth. Pandu specifically urges Kunti tears that turn into golden lotuses in sacrificial rite performed to wreak to summon Dharma with abhichara the Ganga, luring the intrigued Indra vengeance—that, too, on the rites, upacharabhicharabhyam into the presence of Shiva playing dice Brahmin Drona—like the kritya (a dharmam aradhayasva (I.39, 42).1 with his consort. Indra, not woman created by sorcery to slay an Born to Destroy recognising Shiva, berates him for not enemy) sent by the prince of Kashi Draupadi’s emergence is an showing respect and is despatched against Krishna to avenge his father’s unintended bonus for Drupada who into a nether-world-like cave to join death and the kritya invoked by performed the rite for obtaining a son four other arrogant Indras demons to bring suicidal Duryodhana to kill Drona. Her birth is accompanied (Vishvabhuk, Bhutadhama, Shibi, No.144 20 Shanti, and Tejasvi), all sentenced to An Amorous Lover her entire life parcelled out among five be reborn on earth as the Pandavas Dark like her great grandmother- men within the sacrament of marriage.5 accompanied by the cherchez la in-law Gandhakali and gifted with She shares with Satyavati and Kunti femme Shri as Draupadi.2 blue-lotus fragrance wafting for a full an imperishable, ever-renewable Lovely and Enchanting krosha like Yojanagandha, she virginity: “Panchali,” as she is called when “knows”—like her mother-in-law The divine rishi, narrating this she appears from the altar, is pregnant Kunti and great grandmother-in-law wondrous, miraculous and excellent with double meaning: “of Panchala” Satyavati—more than one man. Like event said, and “puppet.” This presages how she Kunti she is also described as an Lovely-waisted and noble-minded lives her entire life, acting out not just amorous lover: Draupadi bhratripati indeed, 3 her father’s vengeful obsession but ca pancanam kamini tatha. Dr. she became virgin anew after each as an instrument of the gods to bring Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri records an marriage” (I.197.14) account narrated by Pandit Anantalal death back to the world. Is there a link with the Vedic marital Thakur in which Duryodhana’s wife She is the

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