Hinduism 
Was Draupadī ever disrobed?
by Pradip Bhattacharya

Cherchez la femme could well describe the mainspring of action of the world’s greatest epics: the topless towers of Ilium burnt because of the abduction of Helen; golden Lankā went up in flames because of the abduction of Sitā; millions of women were widowed because Draupadī was molested. The gambling match episode in the Sabhā Parva of the Mahābhārata is stamped indelibly on public memory not so much because Shakuni, playing for Duryodhana, cheated the Pāndavas of their entire possessions but because of a horripilating incident that remains unique in literature: their common wife, Queen Draupadī, being dragged into public view by Duryodhana’s orders and sought to be stripped by Duhśāsana at Karna’s behest (Sabhā Parva 61). The logic Karna advances is that the gods ordained only one husband for a woman while Draupadi is bound to many and is, therefore, a bandhakī (prostitute). Therefore, there is nothing wrong in bringing a public woman, whether clad in a single cloth or naked, into the assembly hall. It is Karna who asks Duhśāsana to strip the Pāndavas and Draupadī of their garments. Hearing this, the Pāndavas cast off their uttarīya (upper garments). Duhśāsana began to pull at Draupadī’s single cloth in the midst of the assembly hall, with everyone watching.  She was saved in this perilous extremity when Krishna covered her with an unending stream of cloth.

This is an important issue because the Critical Edition rejects the celebrated passage as an interpolation. The editor, F. Edgerton, feels that “cosmic justice” is implied. The text, as presented here, has neither any prayer by Draupadī to Krishna, nor any explanation of the miracle of endless replacement of garments. This is how the text reads (II.61):

“40. Then Duhśāsana, O king, forcibly pulled off Draupadī’s garment in the middle of the assembly, and began to strip her.

41. But whenever one of Draupadī’s garments was removed, O king, another similar garment repeatedly appeared.

42. Then there rose a mighty roar of approval—a terrible roar from all the kings watching the greatest wonder in the world.”

In the variant recensions, Draupadī calls out to Govinda, Krishna and “Gopījanapriya”, the last epithet being an indication of a post-Harivamsa addition by a poet familiar with Krishna’s childhood dalliance with the milkmaids of Vrindāvana. In the vulgate, Krishna springs up from his bed in Dvārakā and rushes on foot, deeply moved by Draupadī’s appeal. This recurs when she, faced with Durvāsā’s demand for food in the forest, invokes Krishna. Referring to these passages, Sukthankar comments: “They undoubtedly represent a later phase of Krishna worship.”^[1]

The first question is about what Draupadī was wearing. When she was dragged from the inner apartments, Draupadī appealed to Duhśāsana (II.60.25) to refrain as she was draped in just a single cloth (ekañco vāso) and was menstruating. Duhśāsana’s responded that whether she be menstruating, wearing a single cloth (ekāmbarā) or none (vivasanā), she was their prize and their slave, so her dress would have be that befitting a slave (60.27). She urges him not to undress her (vivastrā, 60.30). There is a reference to half of her cloth slipping (patitārdhavastrā 60.28) but also specifically of her upper cloth (uttarīya) slipping when she is dragged into the assembly hall (60.47).

There is a hint about how Draupadī is saved in verse 544* in the appendices of the Critical Edition, which might be the oldest interpolation: “Yājñasenī cried out for rescue to Krishna, Vishnu, Hari and Nara. Then Dharma, hidden, the magnanimous, covered her with a multitude of garments.” This is repeated in 553*: “Thereupon hundreds of garments of many colours and whites appeared, O lord, due to the protection of Dharma.” This refers back to II.60.13 where, when summoned to the assembly hall, Draupadī reflects, “In this world dharma is alone supreme. Protecting, he will provide peace.”

The enigmatic statement gives rise to many speculations, one of which possibly led to the interpolated passage bringing in Krishna. However, we recall that the god Dharma is reincarnated as Vidura, who is the first to protest against the dice-game and the summoning of Draupadī. Does he clothe her? Or shall we imagine ‘dharma’ as referring to the outraged sensibilities of the assembled audience who throw off their upper garments to cover Draupadī? Finally, as Duhśāsana tires, evil omens erupt as jackals howl and asses bray, moving Dhritarāshtra to intervene. 

In the course of his examination of this episode, Hiltebeitel^[2] devotes considerable energy to establish that Krishna’s intervention to protect Draupadī’s modesty is part of the original text. Hiltebeitel marshals circumstantial evidence by way of two later references from the Udyoga Parva in which both Draupadī (V.80.26) and Krishna (V.58.21) refer to her appeal, “O Govinda”, for rescue. However, while doing so he admits that neither mentions the stripping. Why, then, should Krishna have intervened with the miraculous provision of garments if Draupadī was not being stripped?

Moreover, when they meet for the first time in exile, Draupadī specifically mentions being dragged by her hair, but does not mention any pulling at her garment (III.12.61-63, 121). Krishna responds that had he been present he would have prevented the fraudulent dice game. There is no mention of any appeal from Draupadī regarding the stripping reaching him—telepathically or otherwise. Whenever Yudhishthira recounts the sufferings they have undergone, it is always Draupadī being pulled by her hair that he mentions, never any attempt to strip her. When Krishna and Yudhishthira mention to Sanjaya the atrocities suffered, it is not mentioned (V.29.40 and 31.16), nor when Krishna speaks to Yudhishthira before the peace-embassy (V.73.18-19). Even when Draupadī herself, furious at everyone favouring peace, lists her sufferings, she does not mention what should have been the climactic outrage of stripping (V.82.25-26). Kuntī, listing her sorrows to Krishna, mentions five times Draupadī being dragged into the court in a single garment, but does not mention any stripping (V.90.50-51, 57, 82, 86 and V.137). Krishna, in his embassy to the Kauravas, mentions Draupadī being dragged into court, but there is no reference to disrobing (V.95.59). When Duhśāsana boastfully displays to Bhīma the arm by which he dragged Draupadī by the hair, neither he nor Bhīma, who rips it off, refers to the grosser offence by far. When Krishna criticises Karna, facing death for his misdeeds, he refers to menstruating, single-cloth-clad Draupadī being summoned to the assembly hall, but does not refer to any stripping and his instigating it, which ought to have been counted as the most heinous offence he had to answer for. Even at the end, when Yudhishthira provokes Duryodhana to emerge from Dvaipāyana lake, he refers to Draupadī being verbally abused and dragged (karshanena), but says not a word about her being stripped (IX.30.187*).

Professor Satya Chaitanya points out that in the Sabhā Parva 72.20 Dhritarāshtra tells Sañjaya that the Brahmins did not perform the sandhyā rituals on the day of the dice game, furious at Draupadī being pulled about (parikarshane). Later, in the Vana parva, Sañjaya repeats his master’s word parikarsha to describe the outrage suffered by Draupadī with no reference to disrobing.

There is, however, a solitary confirmation of Hiltebeitel’s stance, which he has missed out. This occurs in IX.58.10. Dr. John D. Smith has pointed out^[3] that as “Bhīma is gloating after fulfilling his vow to overthrow Duryodhana and tread on his head” he says,

“Those who brought the menstruating Draupadī and who made her naked (avastrām) in the assembly—see those Dhārtarāshtras slain in battle by the Pāndavas because of the torture on Yājñasenī.”

Smith admits that, “it is strange that Bhīma says this at this point and does not say anything similar after fulfilling the more relevant vow against Duhshāsana. But again, this is what the text actually says.” Yet, in the earlier verse (58.4) Bhīma only refers to Draupadī being brought into the assembly hall clad in a single cloth (Draupadīmekavāsasam) and mocked. A good instance of the editors of the Critical Edition nodding?

Besides this, earlier on in the same parva (IX.4.16-17), Duryodhana tells Kripāchārya that there is no point seeking peace because, “Wearing a single cloth and covered in dust, dark Draupadi was wronged by Duhshasana in the middle of assembly hall under the eyes of the entire world. Even today the Pandavas still remember how she was naked (vivasanām) and wretched (dinām); those enemy-destroyers cannot be turned from war.”^[4] This is the only instance of Duryodhana referring to Draupadī being stripped. However, other manuscripts have vimanasā instead of vivasanā.

None of the Purānas—not even the bhakti-cult’s Bhāgavata, nor Harivamsa—refer to the stripping. In the Devī Bhāgavata Purāna, which adds significant material to the Pāndava story, Janamejaya only refers to Draupadī being dragged by her hair by Duhśāsana twice (IV.1.36 and 17.38) while using the word dharshita, violated (IV.1.38), to describe what Kīchaka did to her—an interesting sidelight that warrants study.

If we look to the earliest post-Mahābhārata evidence, we find that in Bhāsa’s plays Dūtavākyam and Dūtaghatotkacam^[5] (c. 4^th century B.C.) there is no reference to the stripping. In the former, Duryodhana displays to Krishna a vivid painting of the dice-game showing Draupadī keshāmbarākarshanam (Draupadī dragged by the hair and garment” (I.7), while in śloka 18 Krishna says, “it is the scene of Draupadī’s hair being violated (keshadharshanam)”. In the latter, Ghatotkacha upbraids Duryodhana saying, “Nor do Rākshasas ever touch the brother’s wife on the head” (I.43).

The Shiva Purāna (III.19.63-66) presents a later concoction regarding the episode: the stream of garments was the result of a boon given, once again, by Durvāsā because Draupadī had torn a portion of her garment to cover the sage when his loin-cloth was carried away in the Gañgā.^[6] Satya Chaitanya^[7] has pointed out that the Jaiminiya Ashvamedhaparva, again a late work (c. 10^th century A.D.), carries a reference to the disrobing:

“Around midnight one day, in Hastināpura, Yudhishthira thinks of Krishna who is in Dvārakā at that time and Krishna instantly reaches Hastināpura. Draupadī, who comes and greets Krishna after the others have received him, says his coming like this should not surprise anyone—he has come to them like this (in their hours of need) earlier too. She mentions here two occasions when this has happened. One, when he came and saved them from Durvāsā. And the other, when he appeared ‘in the form of clothes in the assembly’ (vastrarūpī sabhāmadhye).”—2.62

The internal and external evidence, therefore, indicate that the incident of stripping that has so powerfully ruled the popular imagination and featured on stage, paintings, films and television, was not part of the original text but was added by one or more highly competent redactors.

The publication in the ABORI vol.86, 2005 printed in 2006.

References

December 10, 2006  

Illustration by Ashok Dongre

Top | Hinduism

The Week of December 10, 2006     
Half a Brain and Whole Lies ...  by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
The Manmohanomics Algorithm! by Naagesh Padmanaban  
Pakistan's Dilemma of Strategic Identity by Col. Rahul K. Bhonsle
The Battle of the Begums by Dr. Subhash Kapila
Balancing the Scales of Justice by Ishita Russell
Development at the Cost of Life: Do we want this? by Siddhartha P Saikia
Criminalization of Politics is Threat to Nation by Bijay Shankar Patel
Gandhari: A Curse and a Prayer by Satya Chaitanya 
Was Draupadī ever disrobed? by Pradip Bhattacharya
Ganga Plains: World's Largest Flood Plains by VK Joshi 
Neurobiology as a Career by Pallavi Bhattacharya
Buddhaland: The Inner and Outer Journey by Julia Dutta 
This! The River of Life by Julia Dutta
A Rebel of Innocence – 2 by Ashwini Ahuja
Sun for the Bones by Neeta Lal
Sustainable Water Future by Neena Bhandari
I Work Hard - So Why Ain't I Rich by Michael Levy
Invest with a Genius by Heinz Riehl
Hindu-Muslim Laagey Raho by Ramendra Kumar
Walk to Freedom by Elsa Sherin Mathews
Mine-blown Lives by Fatima Chowdhury 
Anti-Woman Court by Amabelle Plaza-Laminero
New Face of Arab Women Priyanka Sacheti
Miss Tibet for the National Cause by Andrée-Marie Dussault
  

Recommend This Page!

Analysis | Architecture | Astrology | Ayurveda | Book Reviews | Buddhism | Cartoons | Cinema | Computing | Culture | Dances
Environment | Fables | Family Matters | Festivals | Hinduism | Health | History | Home Remedies | Humor | Individuality | Jagoji
Literary Shelf | Memoirs | Musings | Opinion | Parenting | Perspective | Photo Essays | Places | Ramblings
Random Thoughts | Recipes | Sikhism | Society | Spirituality | Stories | Teens | Travelogues | Vastu | Vithika | Women

Home | Bolography | BoloKids | Columns | Hindi | Kabir | Poetry | Quotes | Workshop | Writers | Contribute | Search | Contact

Boloji.com includes IndiaNest.com and PoeticNest.com
Privacy Policy | Disclaimer
No part of this Internet site may be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.