Ever wondered what it would be like if the Mahabharata were written with Draupadi as the narrator and the entire story being her perspective?
I've been thinking about it for the past few days.. musing over all the incidents that actually happen to Draupadi and all the predicaments she faces as a woman. How did it feel to be soo close to God? In my opinion, she is an epitome of pure devotion to God and she is the perfect example of true surrender. Lord Sri Krishna was her best friend and mentor. Apart from that, how would she have felt when, in her Swayamvar while several kings could not lift up the bow, Karna, the son of a "mere" charioteer managed to lift it and string it? What was it like to be treated like an object and introduced to her mother-in-law as bheeksha..and what did it feel like to be cheated and married to 5 men, while she garlanded only one? What must have been her mental trauma when she realized that she was pawned again like an object in a game of dice.. and was called a whore that slept with 5 men and nearly stripped in a court despite her husbands and grandfather and the king being present?
Draupadi, I think is the real heroine of the Mahabharath. She is a very strong and powerful character.. vain, proud, strong, wanting to avenge the injustice meted to her and highly devoted. When her husbands lose focus of the war towards the end, she reminds them of her promise that she will not wash/comb her hair until Dushasan's blood touches her tresses. She is an icon of feminity and female strength.
I think it may be interesting to read a feministic view of the great epic!
4 comments:
I urge you to read Bhimsen episodes... Draupadi is shown in a slightly different light... infact, everyone in the epic is shown in a human way...
Hmmm... I thought the first few lines made some sense and then suddenly the post went downhill starting from "Apart from that...". From the tone of the article, it is very clear that you haven't read the sanskrit version and must have gone by some english version/heard somewhere as a kid/saw some TV serials on it/dreamt. It is all the more distressing given your blog is named akaraaha.
Yuddhistara a.k.a Dharmaraja was the epitome of Dharma and he never dithered from that path.
1) According to dyuthakreeda (the game of dice), it was perfectly within the law to get back all he lost by putting his wife as a bet. In fact, you can find similar stories about women being pawned in Nalopakhyanam, Harischandra, ... The way she was treated later by Karna and his goons was inappropriate and cannot be blamed on the Pandavas.
2) "Beeksha" if it was used was a very appropriate term. After all what you get as daanam is biksha, isn't it? Even today, Kanya dhaanam happens. If some idiot calls her a whore, why do we catch on to that and try to argue against Veda Vyaasa's work?
3) Yudhishtara doesn't lose focus of the war and Mahabharatha was not about vengeance. It was about Dharma and in this case if the goals were obtained through peaceful means, then it was more ideal than thousands of folks getting killed.
Then question may arise why she had to go through all the troubles then when she didn't do anything -- the answer can only be attributed to her previous karma. Even the Pandavas had to undergo pain. Arjuna had to become Brihunnala (a hermaphrodite dancer), Bheema had to become a cook, an emperor like Yudhishtara had to become a pundit... In the current age, we may think that they didn't face significant punishment, but we are talking about a different age and time where these were considered extremely lowly acts.
The only hero (gender neutral) of Mahabharatha is naithikadharma, which can be approximately translated to natural justice.
Unfortunately, our Indian factories (I mean schools) churn out ppl with arithmetic and english speaking capabilities. Why our education system doesn't consider teaching subtle points of our Puranas is beyond me.
The day is not far off when there will be promiscuous (not modern) women who will justify their promiscuity and label themselves as Kaliyuga Draupadi/Kunti... :-)
Well Doctor, thanks for taking the time to post a big comment. Yes, I have not read the sanskrit version. I dont know the language that very well to read an epic, although I'd love to.
argh, my flamebait didn't work!
Anyway, I thought I will let you know about this:
http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?answer=42673
Just to ensure that you can prevent folks like me from viewing your articles surreptitiously :)
--Dr. Evil
Post a Comment