Born Of Fire: Draupadi

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. This is an old English adage. Draupadi was scorned, so she became a cause for the destruction of the Kauravas. Draupadi was the second most important female character after Kunti Devi in the Mahabharata. The most ignonimous insults that can be heaped on a woman was subjected to Draupadi.  Draupadi was most tortured, ill-treated and insulted lady character in the epic Mahabharatha.. In a way the Mahabharata starts and ends with Draupadi.

Mahabharata contains many twists and turns and the birth of Draupadi was one. She was born out of the “yagna” fire. The king of Panchala, Drupada, wanted a son who could kill Drona who had insulted him and he consulted two sages- Yaja and Upayaja to perform a suitable yajna to favour him a son. At the end of the yagna, Drupada was favoured with a son and a daughter. The boy was named Drishtadyumna and the girl was named Krishnaa and was also called Draupadi as she was Drupada’s daughter. When Draupadi grew up to a young lady,  king Drupada announced her swayamvara.  Arjuna (due to circumstances  the Pandavas were in the Brahmins’ disguise on the advice of Veda Vyasa at that time), won the hard test of archery and also won Draupadi.

Here life took a turn for Draupadi. The pandavas were very happy and when they returned home they announced to their mother Kunti who was in the kitchen. “Mother we have brought a special alm.” Kunti mistook it for eatable and said “Good. Share it equally among yourselves.” Hearing this the Pandavs were worried and they consulted Lord Krishna and many sages who told the Pandavas to fulfil their mother’s wish, even though the wish was announced by mistake. This is how Draupadi became Panchali (wife of the five pandavas).

Draupadi’s marriage didn’t end with happiness. Difficult days started as the Mahabharata had to happen. Fate decided a devious way in Draupadi’s life in such a way that good prevailed over evil. Yudishthira lost everything including Draupadi and his brothers in the deceitful game of dice. Duryodhana announced that Draupadi was his servant and asked his younger brother Dushyasana to bring Draupadi court. Dushyasana, being an evil mind,  brought her forcefully by holding her hair in spite of her opposition and disrobed her before the full court. Draupadi prayed hard to lord Krishna and he covered Draupadi by thousands of unseen sarees until dushyasana was tired. Deeply pained by this, Draupadi took an oath that till she apply the blood of kauravas to her hair and comb her hair with their bones, she will not fold her hair. Bhima, unable to control himself announced that he will fulfil her oath. This was the unseen beginning of the Kurukshetra war.

As per the agreement of the game of dice, Pandavas went to the forest and completed twelve years of their life in forest and one year of Agnyatavasa (incognito life ) and returned to Hastinapura and requested Duryodhana for their share of kingdom, but duryodhana refused to fulfil his part of the agreement. Thus the kurukshetra war became inevitable. The kurukshetra war was the ultimate game of fate where good prevailed over evil.

In the kurukshetra war, all the Kauravas were defeated and killed. Bheema as he had vowed, killed dushasana which fulfilled  Draupadi’s oath.   Draupadi’s difficult days were not over.  All her five sons called upapandavas were killed by kauravas unethically.  But the war was not completed because Ashwatthama, the son of Drona was still alive. He had a divine jewel on his head. He had it from birth. Until the jewel was removed he couldn’t be killed. Arjuna succeeded in removing the jewel and was about to kill Ashwatthama. Draupadi stopped Arjuna from killing him and said he was equal to Arjuna’s guru as he was the son of Drona, and he was the only son of Drona. Drona was already killed in the war and Ashwatthama’s mother was still alive and killing him also, causes unbearable grief to his mother.

Although Draupadi suffered unbearable insults, one can find a compassionate mind in her.