Draupadi: Epic Characters of Mahabharatha

By Sri Hari

Draupadi was king Drupada's daughter born of fire and was destined to bring the end of the Kauravas. She accepted Arjuna to be her husband in the swayamwara but later on became the wife of all the five Pandavas . Sage Vedavyasa convinced Drupada that Draupadi was Swargalakshmi incarnate and that by marrying the five brothers she was marrying five Indras. Upon Narada's advice , the brothers drew up a code of conduct. One of the codes was that Draupadi was to take turns and be the wife of one brother for one year. If any other brother intruded while she was with one, the intruder was to go to the forest for twelve years as a punishment. Arjuna had to go through this punishment once during which he got Subhadra as a wife. Draupadi was quite angry initially but later became close to Subhadra. During the game of dice played between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Shakuni provoked Dharmaraja until he bet his wife. Draupadi was furious and challenged everyone present to think of Dharmaraja's right to wager her when he had lost all rights including one over himself. Sri Krishna came to her aid when things got out of all control. In spite of not receiving any help from her brave husbands, when told to ask for boons, she asked for all her husbands' freedom from slavery. Suryadeva blessed the Pandavas with a divine vessel, the akshayapathra, which would supply them with unlimited quantity of food for twelve years during their stay in the forest. Until Draupadi had her meal, the vessel would remain inexhaustible. She once asked Krishna how he could tolerate all the evil being perpetrated by the Kauravas and gave him four reasons why she needed to be protected by Him. Krishna promised to fulfil her wishes. And true to that, she became the empress when Dharmaraja was crowned king after the great Mahabharatha war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana
• Release date: May 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9788194018544

Book preview

EPIC CHARACTERS OF MAHABHARATHA

Draupadi

Written by

SriHari

Translated by

Prof. G. S. Mudambadithaya

© Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana, Bengaluru. All rights reserved.

Published by:

Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana

C/o. Bharatha Darshana,

163, Manjunatha Road, 2nd Block,

Thyagarajanagar, Bangalure 560 028,

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FOREWORD

Sri Srirangasadgurave Namah

Sri Vedavyasa’s immortal work, the Mahabharata, is our national epic reflecting like a golden mirror, the internal and external forms of the character and culture prevailing in the land of Bharata from times immemorial. It is hailed as the fifth Veda as it portrays the battle between the demoniac and the divine forces ending in the triumph of the latter, and announces to the whole world the universal truths of life. At places it orders with the tone and tenor of a paramount monarch. At some other places it teaches through stories and episodes and examples like a bosom friend and in some other places it brings home truths in the manner of a sweetheart. It is therefore a Sruti and Smriti and an Itihasa and a Purana and a Kavya, all embodied in one single work. It is an inexhaustible sourcebook for various literary works in Samskrit and local languages. On account of its extraordinary size of 18 parvas and the weightiness of its contents, it is appropriatly called the Mahabharata. Regarding the exhaustive teaching of the fourfold goals of life recommended by the founders of our culture, it has been rightly announced about this book as follows:

Whatever is found here is found elsewhere and what is not found here is found nowhere else.

We bless the efforts of Bharatha Samskrithi Prakashana to acquaint young minds with the prime characters of the above extraordinary work through these little vibrant volumes. It has derived inspiration from the 32 volumes of the Kannada version of the Mahabharata published by Bharatha Darshana, a premier publishing house, solely dedicated for the cause of the Bharathiya culture. The language of these booklets is very simple and lucid, so as to enter the hearts of the young minds and lead them on to the reading of the original. We hope that the younger generation will be able to analyse and judge these characters in the right perspective, elevate themselves and become good citizens of our nation.

We come across a large number of elderly people also who do not have a correct knowledge of the characters of the great epic. We hope that these little life-sketches based on the original Mahabharata, will serve very useful to them as well.

We fervantly hope that Bharata Samskruthi Prakashana will bring out many such useful publications in the future

With Narayanasmaranas

Sri Sri Srirangapriya Sripadasrisrih

Astanga yoga Vijnana Mandiram

Bangalore

Date : 09-07-99

DRAUPADI

ॐ

The land of Panchala was ruled by king Prishatha. Drupada was his eldest son. He was also called Yajnasena. Sage Bharadwaja was