Draupadi - Epic Characters of Mahabharatha - E-book - ePub

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.