Rivalry PLOT due to DRAUPADI
Logically it is to think who and why Mahabharata, many can be
named; most prominent among them is Draupadi.
Draupadi is the daughter of King Drupada (Yajnasena) of the
Panchala (Bareilly region) kingdom; hence she was named as Draupadi
(Drupadakanya) and Panchali. According to the Mahabharata, she took birth from
the sacred fire (Yajna), so she is also called as Yagnaseni. Draupadi is referred to by multiple names in
the Mahabharata; Krishna – one who has a dark complexion, Sairandhri – an
expert maid (her assumed name during her second exile in which she worked as
Virat kingdom's queen Sudeshna's hair-stylist), Nityayuvani – one who never
becomes old, Malini – one who makes garlands et.al. She took birth as a maiden
and never went through the stages of childhood; Draupadi’s mission and Drupada’s
intent is Mahabharata.
Drupada, son of King Prishata, and Drona (who later was the Guru for Pandavas and kauravas and fought
for Dhuryodhana) studied together under the tutelage of Rishi Bharadwaja, Drona's father. They become great friends and
Drupada assures Drona that once he becomes king, he will share half of his
kingdom with Drona. When Drupada got kingship after the death of Prishata,
Drona lived a life of poverty. Drona approached Drupada for help was refused to
acknowledge friendship and shuns Drona, calling him a beggar. Drona is later
employed by Bhishma to train the Kuru princes. After the military education of the Kauravas and the Pandavas ends, as his gurudakshina as requested by Drona, Arjuna defeated Drupada and subsequently
took half his kingdom. To avenge this, Drupada performed Putrakameshti yajna; from the sacrificial fire, Draupadi emerged as a
beautiful dark-skinned young woman (who would enter the Kuru family and divide
it) after her sibling Dhrishtadyumna (who would kill Drona).
King Drupada arranges a swayamvara for his
daughter Draupadi. To win Draupadi's hand, the king's invitees, all of
them royalty themselves, must string an enormous bow and shoot five arrows
simultaneously through a revolving ring onto the eye of a revolving fish. All
the kings fail to even string the bow; when Karna is about to succeed,
he was stopped by Draupadi, who refuses to marry the son of a charioteer.
The five sons of the late King Pandu of Hastinapur are
present at the swayamvara, dressed as holy men. As the other attendees,
including the Kauravas, protest at a Brahmin winning the competition and
attack, Arjuna and Bhima protect Draupadi and are able to retreat. When Draupadi
arrives with the five Pandavas to meet Kunti, they inform her that Arjuna won alms, to which Kunti says,
"Share the alms equally". This motherly command leads the five
brothers to become the five husbands of Draupadi.
Polyandry is justified here as in her previous birth,
Draupadi did “Ghora- Thapasya” (hard penance) and invoked Eswara (God Shiva).
She asked for a husband with 14 qualities (the main 5 are Moral values,
physical strength, skilled, handsome and intelligent). Shiva said all these
qualities cannot co-exist in one man and he can’t bless instead will have this
consequence. There was protest from many including Drupa and Pandavas. But
Vyasa and Krishna played their role to convince all.
Earlier Upon the news of Pandavas' death at
Varnavrat, the title of crown prince had fallen to Duryodhana. Upon revealing that they
are alive Dhritharashtra invites the Pandavas to Hastinapur and proposes that the
kingdom be divided. The Pandavas are assigned the wasteland Khandavaprastha,
referred to as unreclaimed desert. With the help of Krishna, Pandavas rebuilt Khandavaprastha
into the glorious Indraprastha. The crown jewel of the
kingdom was built at the Khandava forest, where
Draupadi resided in the "Palace of Illusions". Yudhishthira
performed the Rajasuya
Yagna with Draupadi by
his side; the Pandavas gained lordship over many regions.
A lesser known fact is Draupadi's role as an Empress.
Trained in economy, she took upon the responsibility of looking after the
treasury of the Empire and ran a citizen liaison.
Duryodhana and his entourage were exploring the keep
during their visit to Yudhishthira's Rajasuya Yagna. While touring the grounds,
an unsuspecting Duryodhana fell prey to one of the many illusions that could be
seen all around the palace. When he stepped on the apparently solid part of the
courtyard, there was a splash and Duryodhana found himself waist deep in water,
drenched from head to foot by the hidden pool. The myth is, Draupadi and her
maids saw this from the balcony with amusement, and joked Andhasya Putra
Andhaha meaning 'a blind man's son is
blind'.
--------------------------
Dies Game and Exile - DRAUPADI
Insult suffered by Duryodhana is often considered to
mark a definitive moment in the story of Mahabharata. It is one of the
driving reasons for the dies Game, Exile and that ultimately led to
the Kurukshetra War.
Together with his maternal
uncle Shakuni, Duryodhana conspired to call Pandavas to
Hastinapur and win their kingdoms in a game of gambling. There is
famous folklore that the plan's architect, Shakuni had magic dice that would
never disobey his will, as they were made from the bones of Shakuni's father.
Duryodhana together with his brothers, Karna and
Shakuni conspired to call the Pandavas at Hastinapur and win their kingdoms in
a game of gambling. Shakuni, the gambler, winning by unfair means played
against Yudhishthira and win at the gambling table what was impossible to win
at the battlefield.
As the game proceeds, Yudhishthira loses everything
at first. In the second round, Yudhishthira's brother Nakula is stake, and
Yudhishthira loses him. Yudhisthtira subsequently gambles away Sahdeva, Arjuna
and Bheema. Finally, Yudhishthira puts himself at stake, and loses again. For
Duryodhana, the humiliation of the Pandavas was not complete. He prods
Yudhishthira that he has not lost everything yet; Yudhishthira still has
Draupadi with him and if he wishes he can win everything back by putting
Draupadi at stake. Inebriated by the game, Yudhishthira, to the horror of
everybody present, puts Draupadi up as a bet for the next round. Playing the
next round, Shakuni wins. Draupadi was horrified after hearing that she was
staked in the game and now is a slave for Duryodhana. Draupadi questions
Yudhishthira's right on her as he had lost himself first and she was still the
queen. Duryodhana, angry with Draupadi's questions, commands his younger
brother Dushasana to bring her into the
court, forcefully if he must.
Dushasana drags Draupadi to the court by the hair.
Seeing this, Bheema pledges to cut off Dushasana's hands, as they touched
Draupadi's hair. Now in an emotional appeal to the elders present in the forum,
Draupadi repeatedly questions the legality of the right of Yudhishthira to
place her at stake.
In order to provoke the Pandavas further, Duryodhana
bares and pats his thigh looking into Draupadi's eyes, implying that she should
sit on his thigh. The enraged Bhima vows in front of
the entire assembly that he would break Duryodhana's thigh, or else accept
being Duryodhana's slave for seven lifetimes.
Karna calls Draupadi "unchaste" for being
the wedded wife of five men, adding that dragging her to court is not
surprising act whether she be attired or naked. He orders Dushasana to remove
the garments of Draupadi. Arjun tries to help Draupadi but Yudhishtira forbids
him. Arjun vows to kill Karna for insulting his wife
After her husband’s fail to assist her, Draupadi
prays to Krishna to protect her. Dushasana attempts to disrobe her,
but she is miraculously protected by Krishna, and Dushasana finds that as he
continues to unwrap the layers of her sari, the amount of fabric covering
her never lessens. Dushasana is eventually reduces to exhaustion, as the awed
court observes that Draupadi is still chastely dressed. At this point, a
furious Bhima vows to drink the blood from Dushasana's chest, at the pain of
not seeing his ancestors/entering heaven. This vow unsettles the entire court.
The only Kauravas who object to the
disrobing of Draupadi in the court are Vikarna and Vidura. Queen mother Gandhari enters the scene and counsels Dhritarashtra to
undo her sons' misdeeds. Fearing the ill-omens, Dhritarashtra intervenes and
grants Draupadi a boon, gives them back their wealth, and grants them
permission to go home.
Amused by the sudden turn of events, Karna remarks
that they "have never heard of such an act, performed by any of the
women noted in this world for their beauty." He taunts the Pandavas by
praising their wife, as she had rescued them "like a boat from their
ocean of distress"
Having restored their pride and wealth, the Pandavas
and Draupadi leave for Indraprastha. Shakuni, Karna and Duryodhana later
convince Dhritarashtra to invite Pandavas for a new game of dice, with modified
rules, in which the loser would be given an exile of 12 years followed by a
year of Agnathavasa, meaning "living in incognito". Yudhishtira yet
again accepts the invitation and loses and goes on an exile with his brothers
and wife Draupadi.
While the Pandavas in exile were in
the Kamyaka forest, they often went hunting, leaving Draupadi alone.
At this time Jayadratha, the son of Vriddhakshatra and the
husband of Duryodhana's sister Dussala, passed through Kamyaka forest
on the way to Salwa Desa. Jayadratha met Draupadi and then started
beseeching her to go away with him and desert her husbands, forced her onto his
chariot. Pandavas caught and shaved Jayadratha's head at five places in order
to publicly humiliate him and sent him back.
While on the last one year of Ajnana vasa (stay
hiding); one day Kichaka, and the commander of king Virata's forces, requested her hand in
marriage. Draupadi refused him. Many attempts to disturb was ended in Draupadi’s
curse Kichaka with death by her husband's hand. Later Kichaka trapped by
Draupadi to come to the dancing hall at night were Bhima (in the guise of
Draupadi), fights with Kichaka and kills him.
------------------------
Kurukshetra War and aftermath - DRAUPADI
Students of Drona, when trained had only one role;
defeat his enemy Drupada. Thus, Drupada got defeated and half of the kingdom
got under Drona. Now it is Drupada’s turn to fight back to Drona, more on their
students. They can only be won only when they are divided. Drupada needs a
trump card here. Hence, Draupadi was born. Her mission was to create jealousy
among the first cousins, the Kauravas and Pandavas, which will make her a cause
for war through humiliation and let the brothers kill other brothers. Drupada’s
classical example of Divide and Conquer can only be achieved by a woman whose
beauty has no match on this planet.
The plot of the swayamvara hiding Arjuna’s identity,
though Arjuna knows that Drupada whom he defeated is the father of Draupadi,
got her married. The dies game and the plot created for the war is to make
Bheema’s pledge to kill Kauravas. Thus, Kurukshetra war is a requirement of
Drupada through Draupadi.
During the war, Draupadi stays at Ekachakra with
other women. On the 16th day, Bhima kills Dushasana, drinking his blood and
fulfilling his oath to Draupadi.
There is a popular myth often depicted in well-known
adaptations on Mahabharata. It says that, Draupadi washed her hair with her
brother-in-law Dushasana's blood, as a mark of her vengeance against the
molestation she had suffered at the dice-game. Though an extremely powerful and
symbolic theme, this incident does not appear in Vyasa's Sanskrit
Mahabharata.
Ashwathama, in order to avenge his father's as well
as other Kuru warriors' deceitful killing
by the Pandavas, attacks during his surprise
raid on Pandavas camp at night with
Kripacharya and Kritavarma. Aswathama killed Shikhandi, Dhrishtadyumna and Upapandavas (Draupadi had five sons, one son
each from the Pandava brothers. They were known as Upapandavas; Prativindhya, Sutasoma,
Shrutakarma, Satanika, and Shrutasena. Ashwathama killed Upapandavas. None of
the Draupadi's children survive the end of the epic.)
In the morning, Yudhishthira hears the news and
asks Nakula to bring Draupadi
from Matsya kingdom. Draupadi vows that if the Pandavas do not kill Ashwathama,
she would fast to death. The Pandavas find Ashwathama at Vyasa's hut. Arjuna and Ashwathama end up
firing the Brahmashirsha astra at each other. Vyasa intervenes and asks the
two warriors to withdraw the destructive weapon. Not endowed with the knowledge
to do so, Ashwathama instead redirects the weapon to Uttara's womb, killing the Pandavas' only heir. Krishna
curses him for this act. As a punishment, Ashwathama was asked by Vyasa to
surrender the gem on his forehead to Pandavas.
After the cremation is done Yudhishtira is crowned
the king of Hastinapur and he in consultation with Dhrithrashtra is running the
Kingdom and is loved by all people. When Yudhishtira becomes the king of
Hastinapura, Draupadi again becomes the queen.
Afterwards Dhrithrashtra and Gandhari make their mind
to retire to woods and to do penance. After pacifying by Vyasa, Vidura, Yudhishtira
is ready to let them retire to woods and after performing due rituals they are
ready to leave for the woods then Vidura and Sanjaya also wants to accompany
them and seeing this Kunti also Accompanies them to woods.
Thus, Draupadi became the senior queen at
Hastinapura.
When her husbands retired
from the world and went on their journey towards the Himalayas and heaven, Draupadi
accompanied them, and was the first to fall on the journey. When Bhima asked Yudhishthira why Draupadi had
fallen, Yudhishthira replied, "O best of men, though we were all equal
unto her she had great partiality for Dhananjaya. She obtains the fruit
of that conduct today, O best of men."
The Draupadi Amman sect (or Draupadi
devotional sect) is a tradition that binds together a community of people in
worshipping Draupadi Amman as a village goddess with unique rituals
and mythologies. The sect believes that Draupadi is the incarnation of goddess
Kali. Fire walking or theemithi is a popular ritual enacted
at Draupadi Amman temples. At the ancient religious festival of Bangalore
named Karaga, Draupadi is worshipped as an incarnation
of Adishakti and Parvati in the nine-day event.
There are over 400 temples dedicated to Draupadi in
the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka and other countries like Sri
Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, Réunion, South
Africa. In these regions, Draupadi is worshipped mainly by people of
the Vanniyar caste. There are a few processions and festivals
which are conducted for about 3 weeks a year. The most famous festival is in
the village Durgasamudram, Tirupati of Chittoor district.
191129 – 2019 November 29
www.drtps-shiksha.in
+919502038875
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