DAROPADI (DRAUPADI)

DAROPADI (DRAUPADI) By remembering (the Lord), Draupadi, the daughter of king Draupad was redeemed. (Gond Namdev, p. 874) In the court of Duhsasana, Draupadi was saved (by the Lord), when her clothes were being tåken off. (Mali Gauri Namdev, p. 988) Panchali (the daughter of the king of Panchal i.e. Draupadi) thought of the Lord in the royal court; the Merciful Lord removed her suffering and enhanced His own Honour. (Maru M. 9, p. 1008) Draupadi (also called Draupad-Suta and Panchali) was the daughter of Drupada, the king of Panchal. In her swayyamvara, Arjuna, one of the five Pandavas became the selected bridegroom.

But when the five brothers reached home with Draupadi, they told their mother of the great acquisition, she told them to share the same. Thus Draupadi became the common wife of all the five Pandavas. In the gambling match with Kauravas, Yudhishthira lost everything, his kingdom, his brothers, himselfand their wife Draupadi. Thus Draupadi became a slave. She was called by Duryodhana to come and sweep the room. When she refused, she was dragged by Duhsasana, the younger brother of Duryodhana by her hair. Duryodhana invited her to sit on his thigh.

Moreover, her garments were ordered to be tåken off. The Pandavas could not come to her help. In this state of predicament, she remembered Lord Kristina, who restored her garments as fast as they were torn. She vowed that her hair would remain dishevelled till she was not avenged by her husbands. After the twelve years of exile by the Pandavas, they had to remain incognito for another year. During this period, Jayadratha, the king of Sindhu, took away Draupadi forcefully.

Bhima and Arjuna followed him and suitably punished him. Within this thirteenth year, Kichaka, the commander-in-chief of Virata annoyed her by his importunities and insults. Bhima killed Kichaka and saved Draupadi. She had five sons, one by each husband. On the last night of the great war all these five sons were killed by Aswatthaman mistaking them to be the five Pandavas.

Arjuna avenged this act of Aswatthaman by taking from him the celebrated jewel, which he wore as an amulet. When the Pandavas retired from the world and went on their journey towards the Himalayas and Indra\’s heaven, she accompanied them but she was the first to fall on the journey. See : Durjodhana (Duryodhana) and Krishna

References :

1. Kohli, Surindar Singh (ed), Dictionary of Mythological References in Guru Granth Sahib, 1993