Draupadi, the Woman : Epitome of Feminity and Feminism - Part 4

Draupadi Vastraharan

Duryodhan ordered Dusshasana to drag Draupadi by her hair to the royal court before the great assembly of people and then to disrobe her completely. Karna calling her a public woman whose being clothed or naked is immaterial. Draupadi looked at all elders in the court - Dhritarashtra, Bheeshma, Drona, Kripa and Vidura - with her eyes shouting for help. But all elders were silent. The subjects were stunned. Her husbands sat with their heads bowed. Draupadi had a marvelous blend of intensity that suits kshatriyas and forgiveness that fits devotees. She was very intelligent and knowledgeable. She had a brilliant mind, was utterly "one-in-herself" and did not hesitate in reprimanding the Kuru elders for countenancing wickedness. When Dusshasana was dragging her by the hair to the court, she ridiculed him to show his prowess against her husbands. She also boldly reprimanded the elders present in the court and appealed to them to do justice. She cried out to her silent husbands. But nobody came for help. Finding no response, with quicksilver presence of mind she seizes upon a social ritual to wrest some moments of respite from pillaging hands.

Her speech drips with sarcasm. The elders whom she ceremoniously salutes, deliberately using the word "duty", have remained silent in the face of Vidura's exhortation to do their duty and protect the royal daughter-in-law. At last Duryodhan's brother Vikarna supported Draupadi but Karna derided him and questioned his support for her. Thus, despite being humiliated, Draupadi won morally. Nobody could refute her logic. She said "where righteousness and justice do not exist, it ceases to be a court; it is a gang of robbers". In response to Draupadi's volley of harsh words, Dusshsana grinned and uttered wicked words. Bheema (the third Pandava) exploded like a volcano now. He thundered in anger, and promised to burn the hands of Dusshasana. Dusshasana should have respected Draupadi, his sister-in-law, like his own mother. But instead, the wicked Dusshasana began to pull at her saree. Draupadi's weeping and wailing would have moved a stone to mercy. Draupadi turned to Lord Krishna as her husbands bowed their heads in shame. She threw out both hands and with both hands in salutation she cried to Krishna, and miraculously the more Dusshasana pulled her robe, the more it was still there on her person. Several meters of the robes he pulled, yet it was still there. Dusshasana was tired drawing her saree but he could not find the end of it. This shows us the bond between a brother and sister or the promise of security. Draupadi gave to Lord Krishna one small strand from her saree to tie on his injured finger, during a duel with the cruel Shishupala. At that moment, Krishna had promised Draupadi of constant security. Lord Krishna kept his promise during this trying moments of Draupadi and gave her an endless saree, one which could never be removed and thus protected her honour.

The injury of Lord Krishna's finger has another popular origin in mythology: During the celebrations associated with the Sankranthi festival, Krishna was partaking the freshly harvested sugarcane offered to him by Gopis in accordance with the customs of the festival. To squeeze the juice out of the sugarcanes, Krishna had to cut them. While doing so, he inadvertently cut his little finger. Seeing blood on his finger, Satyabhama - Krishna's wife - with her characteristic pride, ordered the Gopis to go inside the house to fetch some cloth to bandage the finger. Draupadi who was also there, however, out of her love and concern for Krishna, immediately tore off a piece of cloth from the end of her new saree and bandaged the Lord's finger. For Lord Krishna this signified Raksha bandhan and he immediately took Draupadi as his sister. Draupadi was a great devotee of Lord Krishna, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-pervading.
Having failed in his efforts to disrobe Draupadi, Duryodhana's patted his thighs and ordered Draupadi to sit on his lap, since she was supposed to obey his orders as she was now a slave to him after her husband, Yudhishtira had lost him in the game of dice. On hearing this, Draupadi cursed Duryodhana of a death with a broken thigh. Draupadi also took a vow that she would not oil or tie her hair until she could wash her hair with the blood of Dusshasana, after he was killed. At such a moment, Bheema, the third Pandava, lashed out and vowed to avenge the insult that Draupadi was subjected to. Bheema killed Dusshasana in the war of Kurukshetra and Draupadi eventually washed her hair with the blood of Dusshasana. Bheema also broke the thigh of Duryodhana in the final battle of Kurukshetra. Eventually convinced by Vidur, Dhritharashtra scoffed at Duryodhana and asked Draupadi for any three boons. But Draupadi simply sought that her husbands should at once be freed from slavery and as the second boon she asked for their weapons. When Dhritharashtra asked her to ask for more. She replied that her husbands were strong and capable to win all the rest that they had lost by themselves.