Enigmatic Draupadi: Unraveling The Epic Heroine

Draupadi, Panchali, or Yajnaseni. A woman of substance and enamor, Draupadi was the daughter of King Drupad of Panchal, who wasn’t blood-related and was not a regular woman but rather a woman who was born out of fire. She flipped the pages of history and changed the trajectory, which sparked a movement of worship, awe, rage, or acceptance.

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Draupadi. She is a woman who needs no introduction. Call her Panchali, Krishna, or Yajnaseni. Her story is the heart of the epic Mahabharata. Draupadi also had other names, including:

1. Krishna — ‘one who has a dark complexion’. It is the birth name of Draupadi.
2. Panchali—'one from Panchala’
3. Yajnaseni — another patronymic derived from Drupada’s other name Yajnasena or the name can also mean ‘one born from a Yajña (sacrificial fire)’
4. Drupadkanya— ‘the daughter of Drupada’
5. Sairandhri — ‘an expert maid’. During her covert life, Draupadi used this pseudonym.
6. Parshati — ‘granddaughter of Prishata’, or ‘daughter of Prishati’. Both the names—Parshati and Prishati—are derived from Prishata, Drupada’s father.
7. Nityayuvani — ‘one who remains young forever and never becomes old’
8. Mahabharati — the virtuous wife of great descendants of Bharata (Pandavas)
9. Agnisutā — ‘Daughter of fire’
10. Kalyani — ‘One who brings fortune’. Yudhishthira addressed her by this name.
11. Malini—fragrant, one who makes garlands.
12. Panchavallabha — ‘Beloved of the five Pandavas’
13. Pandusharmila — ‘Daughter-in-law of Pandu’.

Draupadi was a woman that every god, ogre, celestial, and Yaksha desired. She was known for her beauty, and there was no doubt that people fell in love with her, but her fate had already been written long before she knew what lay ahead for her. Without Draupadi, the great Mahabharata would be lacking something. Because of her dark complexion and beauty, people called her Krishna, which was also her birth name.

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The origins and backstory of Draupadi are fascinating. She did not emerge from a mother's womb but rather from a yajna (sacrificial fire). After losing to the third Pandava prince Arjuna on behalf of Guru Dronacharya and ceding half of his kingdom, King Drupada of Panchal became enraged and began planning his retaliation. He dreamed of having a son strong enough to destroy Drona. He had no one who could defeat this guru and bring about his downfall.

Thus, Drupada consulted a wide range of seers before consulting Yaja and Upjaya, two great sages, in his quest for a powerful heir. They initially declined, but after a year of service, they consented to carry out a yajna. After the yajna was finished, a handsome young man carrying a sword emerged from the flames. And trailing behind him came a woman of unparalleled beauty and enchantment.

Draupadi was not directly born from the fire, but she sprung from the altar of the fire. Initially, Prishati, Drupada’s consort, was supposed to consume the sacrificial offering. Still, she refused because she had saffron paste in her mouth, and she told the sages to wait until she washed and came back. The sages poured out offerings on the altar of the sacrifice at her premature request.

The holy pyre became devoid of Prishati’s untimely absence; hence, Drishtadyumna and Draupadi weren’t directly born from her womb but from the sacrificial fire. A divine prophecy that Drishtadyumna would kill Drona and Draupadi would destroy the entire Kaurava clan followed their birth.

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Many people continue to believe that Draupadi was the primary cause of the turbulent Kurukshetra War. Perhaps, but why condemn her for that? If she was the torchbearer of vengeance, then Krishna, the presiding deity of that realm, used her promise to destroy evil and restore Dharma. Draupadi had a difficult life from the time she was born until she died.

She was a formidable lady, arguably the most audacious heroine ever, and equal to the Pandavas themselves. Rising from the flames, Draupadi was a woman just like any other. She had the looks of a goddess, the brains of a genius, and the virtue of a lotus flower. In Indian mythology, she is often cited as the earliest example of a feminist figure. At the time of her birth, a celestial voice proclaimed, “This unparalleled beauty has taken birth to uproot the Kauravas and establish the rule of religion”. While her father was still a young man, the events that would eventually lead to her birth were already taking shape.

It was a curse and a boon she had received in a previous life, not Kunti's careless words, that led to Draupadi’s eventual marriage to the rest of the Pandava brothers.

Draupadi is the only character in the epic who can be seen as a sati transitioning into a kanya. Legend has it that in her previous life, she was Nalayani (also known as Indrasena), and she was married to the cranky sage Maudgalya, who suffered from leprosy. She was so devoted to her violent spouse that when he accidentally dropped a finger into their rice, she simply picked it out and continued eating.

Maudgalya, pleased, granted her a boon, and she asked that he fulfill her wishes in five different beautiful guises. Due to her never-ending list, Maudgalya eventually gave up and became a monk. When she protested and insisted he keep their relationship going, he cursed her with eternal rebirth and five husbands to quell her insatiable intimate desires.

After that, she devoted herself to a life of severe penance in the hopes of gaining Lord Shiva's favor. He bestowed a blessing on her. To make sure her request was heard, Nalayani said it five times: "I want a husband." In her next incarnation, Shiva continued, she would have five husbands. She was blessed with the ability to regain her virginity after each marriage. Nalayani, the sati, became Yajnaseni, the Kanya, by standing up for herself as a woman and refusing to live a life of blind subservience to her husband.

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According to other sources as well, Draupadi made a request only once but added a long list of qualities that she wanted in her husband. Lord Shiva said that it would be impossible to find one man with all these qualities. Hence, she would have five husbands in her next life. All of them would be the qualities she had enumerated.

She was the rebirth of Maya Sita (shadow Sita, the wife of Lord Rama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and an icon of the Ramayana), according to the Brahmavaivarta Purana. Maya Sita was Vedavati, reincarnated following her molestation at the hands of Ravana, and she was going to become the "Lakshmi of the Indras" (one of the forms of Goddess Lakshmi, the eternal consort of Lord Vishnu) in heaven.

Whether or not Draupadi had friends in other places, her relationship with Lord Krishna remained strong until the end, or until nearly Krishna's death and Pandava's retirement. Both Draupadi and Krishna were Sakha and Sakhee to each other. He was always there to save Draupadi when she fell into the abyss, and their relationship was precisely platonic.

Lord Krishna and his brother Balrama were also invited to Draupadi's swayamvara, but they stayed on the sidelines as spectators. Krishna first met Draupadi after her marriage to Arjuna in the potter's hut, where all of the Pandava brothers were disguised as Brahmanas and staying with their mother Kunti.

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Draupadi is said to have married each Pandava brother individually over several days, with each ceremony involving elaborate rituals. Her love for Arjuna was unlike anything else, even though she eventually came to accept the rest of his brothers as her husbands.

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Arjuna's marriage to Subhadra and her subsequent arrival in Indraprastha are two examples. Having broken the pact, Arjuna was forced into exile when it was his turn to live with Draupadi. He had already gone through three more marriages by the time he came back. Upon discovering that Arjuna had abandoned his vow of celibacy and married Subhadra, Draupadi was deeply incensed and began to question his actions.

Arjuna and Draupadi had to let go of the circumstances and behave appropriately, even though their words were more expressive than their deeds of love for one another. While Draupadi was still not in a mood to forgive her husband, Subhadra, to save Arjuna, went as a simple cowherd girl, and it was Arjuna who told her to dress up like that.

Draupadi saw Subhadra's love and affection and pardoned her, accepting her as her younger sister. Arjuna knew Draupadi’s anguish and also asked for her forgiveness. He cared deeply for her and always let her join him and Krishna in their private conversations. Draupadi was the only one allowed, and not even Subhadra.

She had also been granted the extraordinary privilege of maintaining her virginity throughout her entire life. After a year with each Pandava, she would walk through the fire to reclaim her virginity.

Draupadi was a gentle soul who was frequently portrayed in a negative light. She was a woman of flamboyant personality and extraordinary bravery. Draupadi's standard response to being criticized or disrespected was a curse.

Even Gandhari cursed Krishna, saying that his entire clan would perish—which is exactly what happened—but Draupadi's curses were a clear sign of power and self-respect because she was treated like a queen and an empress as the wife of Yudhishtira.

Some stories have it that Draupadi cursed Ghatotkach the one time he visited his father's kingdom with his sister Hidimbi and did not greet her or acknowledge her presence. Hidimbi warned him against greeting such a licentious and dishonorable woman as Draupadi. As a result of this, Draupadi cursed Ghatotkach to die young, and Hidimbi did the same for her sons. A fight between two queens over nothing nearly destroyed the Pandava dynasty.

Draupadi was also possessive of her husbands, so she barred all but Subhadra from settling in Indraprastha. However, no one truly asked Draupadi what she desired or preferred. Even though she was forced to marry all of the Pandava brothers due to her previous life, she suffered the most as a woman.

When Duryodhana accidentally slipped and fell into the water at their kingdom of Indraprastha, it was not Draupadi but rather Bheema, Arjun, Nakula, and Sahadeva, along with their servants, who laughed at him. Even though she was left out of this fit of laughter, she and her maids watched the scene and laughed in silence. Duryodhana was jealous of his cousins and wanted to usurp all their wealth.

He once told King Dhrithirashtra that Draupadi was so selfless that she would serve food to the poor even when she was hungry herself, but she would not eat her share. Duryodhana's unbridled envy of the benefits the Pandavas enjoyed, including Draupadi, was a major factor in the escalation of events that culminated in the Mahabharata.

Yudhishtira lost his right to Draupadi the moment he gambled on her. She begged everyone to save her soul and told them to stop this heinous action. But none listened and kept on watching Dushashana as he pulled her sari. What followed is common knowledge, as Draupadi's cheerharan is the most heinous act committed in the entire Mahabharata.

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Draupadi cursed the whole clan, but this was not the primary reason for the Kurukshetra battle. There are a multitude of causes that can be attributed to it. She advocated for herself when nobody else would, and Lord Krishna was the only one who backed her up. Draupadi had almost given in to her fate after being subjected to so much violence, hatred, and strange contact. Despite the Pandavas' indifference, it was her own belief in herself that allowed her to piece her life back together.

The Pandavas were forced to spend 13 years in exile after losing Indraprastha, their wealth, and everything they owned in a Shakuni-conspired dice game. Despite losing faith in her husbands after her cheerharan incident, Draupadi made the decision to go with them.

While staying in Kamkya Forest, Jaydratha, king of Sindhu and Dushala's husband, was en route to the kingdom of Salva and attempted to kidnap Draupadi. The Pandavas manage to save her, but they do not part with Jaydratha. Instructing his brothers to spare Jaydratha's life, Yudhisthira returned with Draupadi. Draupadi's consideration of Dushala led to his release from captivity after he had his head shaved as a punishment.

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Jaydratha could have been killed, but they chose not to. Draupadi endured unimaginable pain, but she remained silent out of respect for her family. When the Pandavas—including Draupadi—went into hiding during their final year in the kingdom of Matsya, Keechak, the brother of Queen Sudeshna, caught sight of Draupadi and expressed a desire to wed her. Keechak tried to molest her while being drunk, but she managed to flee. The Pandavas learned of this, but they delayed killing him on Yudhisthira's orders so as not to reveal their identities too soon.

Draupadi was the one who went through the most hardship, and when she really needed her husbands to step up, they kept putting her needs off. Perhaps it was predestined, but there must have been a turning point. When Karna referred to her as a whore and a woman without morality, the Pandavas took no action. He proposed the idea of stripping Draupadi.

Although everyone was ultimately killed for their crimes, the Pandavas may have been able to prevent some of the violence by speaking up and demanding accountability. When compared to Draupadi's permanent stain, Pandava's silence falls short.

Having a heart, Draupadi also pardoned Ashwathama's deeds and let him decide his fate after he murdered her children and her brother Dristadyumna.

This extraordinary "virgin" never requested for herself. Her unwelcome birth and sudden placement in a polyandrous marriage appear to have left her acutely aware that she was playing a significant role at the end of an effete era and the beginning of a new one. Knowing this, Draupadi gave her whole self as a burning sacrifice in that holocaust, over which Krishna presided.

Draupadi is the most nuanced and divisive figure in the entire epic. She was defiant and stood up for herself, even though everyone else tried to bring her down. If the Mahabharata is a finely wrought tale of hate and love, violence and noble ideas, bravery and cowardice, gentleness and beauty, victory and defeat, then Draupadi is its crowning achievement. Her imposing presence casts a shadow over the epic poem and the catastrophic battle it depicts.

As empress, she was very hands-on, managing the kingdom's wealth. Draupadi had a good head for business and could settle scores like a pro. During their exile, she famously spoke with Satyabhama, Krishna's favorite wife, about all the things she had to do as Empress.

She might have played a significant role in everything that occurred, but the purpose of the Mahabharata was to elevate Dharma above Adharma and to destroy evil to establish good. Draupadi was merely the spark that set everything ablaze. What was supposed to happen did, and it all worked out for the best.

It is possible that Draupadi was not everyone's idea of a dream girl. Because of her pride and her preference for Arjuna, she was the first to witness her downfall and death. She altered the course of history and planted the seeds for future generations. Her work serves both as a cautionary tale and a reminder that women have the potential to be both a person's savior and their undoing.