Draupadi reimagined
Who was the woman who had five husbands, was born from fire, and became the reason millions died? It was Draupadi, the princess of Panchal and the queen of Hastinapur.
Considered a Goddess by many and a legend or myth by some; Draupadi plays an important role in Mahabharat, an epic written around the 4th century BC in India.
With large black fiery eyes, blue locks and beautiful dark complexion, Draupadi, was not born from a woman’s womb, she emerged as a fully grown woman of 25 years of age through a yagna (fire sacrifice).
The yagna (fire sacrifice) was conducted by King Drupad, the ruler of Panchal. He was humiliated by his childhood friend Drona, and sought revenge. So, with the help of sages and gurus, he conducted a fire sacrifice for a son who can kill Drona.
That’s how Draupadi was born, alongside her brother, whose destiny was to avenge his father.
Just a few years after she was born, a svayamvara, ceremony where a princess chooses a man to be her husband from a group of men, was held for her (yes this actually used to happen in India), where Arjun, a great archer, completed an impossible task and won her hand in marriage.
When Arjun, the great archer, took Draupadi to meet his mother, he said to her, “Mother, look what I've brought!” His mother, without opening her eyes, said, “Whatever it is, make sure you share it with your brothers equally.”
During those times, it was considered a sin to defy your parents. So, Draupadi also got married to Arjun’s four brothers. Through an agreement, it was decided that Draupadi would spend one year with every brother, one by one, and then repeat this cycle.
It was all part of her destiny, as Draupadi in her previous life had lived a lonely life. She prayed to the most powerful God Shiva, and through her intense prayer, God Shiva agreed to give her a boon.
So, she asked for a husband who always tells the truth, a husband who is powerful and strong, a husband who is skilled and fearless, a husband who is handsome and a husband who is wise.
But as she had said "husband" five times and God Shiva believed that no man could have all these qualities combined, He told her, "You will not get one husband but five, as there is no man who can have all these qualities." That’s how Draupadi got five husbands.
Yudhishthir, the eldest of the Pandav brothers, became the king of Indraprastha. Draupadi, who was good with numbers and had great intellect, became both the queen and finance minister of Indraprastha. All the Pandav brothers loved and respected her, considering her their dearest one.
Although Draupadi plays an important role in Mahabharat, and can be considered a feminist icon there are very few instances where we have the chance to understand what she thinks or feels.
As women were mostly considered the supporting characters for the male leads, the focus on women was minimal. What they did or said was only deemed important when it affected the male characters.
As times and cultures have changed since Mahabharat was written, perspectives have changed too. Lord Krishna, arguably the most widely revered God in Hinduism, himself said, "Change is the law of the universe."
Therefore, when contemporary writers write these epics through their own point of view, some of us feel more connected with the original literature. The original will always remain the most correct and revered version, but through this, we are able to understand different perspectives on this great literature.
What Veronica House in her book, Medea’s Chorus: Myth and Women’s Poetry Since 1950, states, fits perfectly here:
Myth is neither inherently misogynistic nor paternalistic. It is an imaginative rendering of a culture’s beliefs, which implies that as a culture changes, the wellsprings of the culture’s imagination should change along with it to remain viable. When women in this study engage in mythic revision, they are doing far more than re-writing stories. They are embarking on the radical work of cultural transformation, work that confronts latent assumptions and drives modern culture to venture into new psychological landscapes.
That’s why I love the book The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.
The Palace of Illusions is Mahabharat’s retelling through Draupadi’s point of view. This book not only discusses the way Draupadi influenced the events in Mahabharat, but also how she felt during these events.
There is, of course, no factual way to know what Draupadi felt, except the glimpses we see through the Mahabharat. However, the Palace of Illusions helps us imagine what Draupadi must have been like and make sense of her character.
Draupadi was a strong and revered queen. Some blame her for starting a war which killed millions, but she was just one of the causes of the war and not the sole reason.
Draupadi was a woman who was with her husbands through thick and thin, at one point she even protects them from slavery!
She is still worshipped in parts of India today! So is she a feminist icon from centuries ago? Yes! Yes! And yes!
The story of Draupadi and her husbands makes us question the gender roles and the ethics of our contemporary world. What is your opinion on this? I’d love to know!
