Mahabharata – Draupadi – {Ep.239}

Today’s story is from the Mahabharata. It’s about Draupadi – her birth and her Swayamvar, featuring recipes for revenge served cold, and an insanely difficult archery contest!

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

In this episode, we’re continuing the story of the Mahabharata. I’ll give you a summary of the story so far, in case you haven’t heard it before. 

The Mahabharata is one of the two major epics from India. The other being the Ramayana, which we have also covered before.

The Mahabharata began with Bhishma, the crown prince of Hastinapur. Bhishma gave up his claim to the throne, in exchange for a new stepmother, because that’s what made his dad happy. That complicated matters for all the citizens of Hastinapur. They lost out a crown prince and only got vague promises instead about who might rule them in the future. A couple of blink-and-you-miss-them emperors later, Dhritarashtra sat on the throne. He was blind and because of that people were constantly worried. What if when signing orders of execution, he put his own name on the wrong dotted line? Such a tragic ending would be on-brand for the Hastinapur Emperor, considering all that had happened to his predecessors. And then who would rule them? Who would impose unfair taxes and arbitrary laws on them?

All of these succession problems must have finally taught the Hastinapur royal family a lesson. Because they overcompensated – Dhritarashtra had over a hundred children. But it wasn’t his eldest, Duryodhan, who was made crown prince, as much as Dhritarashtra wanted to.

That honor went to Yudhishthir, the nephew of Dhritarashtra, and the oldest of 5 sons of the previous Emperor, Pandu. You can imagine how that made Duryodhan feel. Still, trying to barbeque his cousins by burning their highly flammable palace was not the way to go.

Unknown to them, the Pandava brothers and their mother, Kunti, escaped and made it out alive. Instead of going back and confronting Duryodhan for his very cowardly attempt, they explored the countryside in disguise. Along the way, Bhima the Pandava got married, and the new couple even had a child. Later they moved to another place, where Bhima killed a local terrorist – Bakasura.

And now they have the next destination set on their itinerary. Which was a Swayamvar. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, allow me to explain. A prospective bride picks her groom from a lineup of eligible bachelors and the two are wed. No mangni and pat byaah. Meaning, no engagement, just a wedding. And the groom who is chosen does not get a say and they can’t weasel out of it. That’s probably where law enforcement agencies around the world got the idea of using a lineup to pick the person who then ends up with a very harsh sentence.

The Kingdom of Panchal is precisely the location where we’re continuing the story. 

But not at the time that Kunti and the Pandavas were slowly making their way towards the Swayamvar.

We’ll rewind the clock a bit to the birth of the lady whose Swayamvar it was. Ah, but don’t be thinking we’re going back several years. As it happens, Draupadi wasn’t born all that long ago. She was born fully grown up. But more on that in a bit.

The scene is the royal throne room. King Drupada and Queen Prishati were talking to a couple of traveling rishis. Drupada was sitting on the throne. He definitely wasn’t lying down on a couch. But for all practical purposes he might as well have been in therapy, because that is the way the conversation was going.

A wise old rishi, whose name was Upayaja, stroked his greybeard and began somberly “King Drupada, to summarize my psychoanalytic deconstruction, you have developed a hyperactive preoccupation, an idee-fixe, if you will, regarding your interpersonal discord with Dronacharya in light of his hostile takeover of half of your Kingdom. In your protracted state of vindictive rumination, the potent stimulus of perceived betrayal has activated retaliatory predispositions, ego defense mechanisms and the ardent pursuit of justice as a compensatory mechanism for the perceived breach of trust. You are seeking closure through the orchestration of punitive actions against your transgressor.”

The second rishi, who was named Yaja, nudged Drupada’s secretary who was standing nearby. The rishi whispered, “What’s Upayaja on about? What’s the scoop on Dronacharya pilfering half of the kingdom?” The secretary quickly told Yaja to refer back to Episode 195 on the Stories from India podcast. The tl;dr though, was that back when they were BFFs, Drupada had rather rashly promised half his future Kingdom to Dronacharya. Later Drupada found that he could not only not keep his promise, but that he couldn’t even bear to part with a single cow. Dronacharya was so deeply offended that he went about the country training as many princes as he could. Until he found the Pandavas best fit for the task. The Pandavas’ Gurudakshina or tuition fees was the task of conquering half of the Kingdom of Panchal. They managed to do it easily enough because they were the Pandavas. And then how was Drupada supposed to feel? Perfectly natural for him to seek revenge.

Upayaja was continuing to ramble. “You need to engage in a dialectical discourse to achieve a harmonious viewpoint between yourself and Dronacharya”

Bur Drupada wasn’t buying it. “He plotted revenge for years and years. Even if I talk to him, he may say everything is okay and still hold another grudge. No, what I need is something permanent. I need a way to destroy him.”

The two Rishis said that was possible, but it needed a Platinum tier service. Drupada would receive a son. Someone who would destroy Dronacharya.

Drupada said he was familiar with the concept. Seeing as his eldest daughter, Shikhandini dreamt of nothing but revenge on Bhishma. Something about her previous life as Princess Amba, back in Episode 91. 

The Queen gently corrected her husband. “Dear. I thought we agreed. Shikhandi’s pronouns are he/him.”’

The Rishis said they could get started right away. Could they move to the Royal Yajna room?

The secretary interjected to say that Shikhandi was performing yet another yagna there right now. But Drupada had no qualms about displacing Shikhandi to the spare yagna room. Drupada recognized that Shikhandi had a fire in his belly about getting revenge on Bhishma, but that could wait. His own need for revenge on Dronacharya was the greater one.

So the group moved to the Yagna room right away, and the rituals began. A massive fire was lit up. Upayaja and Yaja seemed to know exactly what they were doing. And Drupada was all fired up. But the Queen not so much. She drew the rishis’ fire or ire by stepping away at the precise moment they needed her. The rishis had prepared the sacrificial kheer, or porridge. And the Queen was supposed to drink it. But she wasn’t around. Yaja got worried that the kheer wouldn’t retain its power if it wasn’t consumed. So he did the next best thing. Which was to toss the kheer from the frying pan into the fire. Why destroy the kheer, you ask? Ah, but don’t jump to conclusions. Mark the sequel. The kheer was not destroyed by the fire. Instead right then the fire grew into massive size. And curiously, there was something in the fire. Two figures. The figures stepped out of the fire and greeted everyone. Drupada had been hoping for a son, but he had gotten a son and a daughter. He resolved that his son, Dhristhadyumna was going to be his instrument of revenge against Dronacharya. But unknown to him, his daughter was going to play the more central role in this epic. They named her Krishnaa, but later that changed to Draupadi, and even Panchali.

You may think that getting fully grown adult children might scare the parents. Shouldn’t they have panicked and worried that their children might be similar to the curious case of Benjamin Button? What if their children aged backwards? That might cause a few embarrassing stares at the Kings’ and Queens’ clubhouse at tea-time.

But this was not unusual at the time. If you recall a couple of Mahabharata episodes ago, Bhima’s son Ghatotkacha had a very accelerated growth. But a more compelling example is that of your humble narrator himself. Many of you probably already heard that Brahma, the creator of the Universe, is my dad. He has created many as fully grown adults, including me and many of my siblings.

So anyway, that’s how Draupadi came to be. There were pros and cons to not having brought up these children. All the tantrums of the growing years were completely bypassed. But on the other hand Drupada and Prashati hadn’t had any chance to bond with their children at all.

Drupada had already planned his moves. “Dhristadyumna, you’re going to be trained at all kinds of warfare. And Draupadi – we are going to get you married to Arjun”

Draupadi didn’t know Arjun from Adam, But it didn’t matter to her. If this Arjun guy did not prove worthy of her, there wasn’t any chance of her marrying him. But then she found out more about this Pandava.

She seemed skeptical, “Dad, let me get this straight. Arjun is Dronacharya’s favorite student. He’s the one who humiliated you by defeating your army and taking over half your kingdom and handing that off to his teacher. And you want me to marry him?”

“Yes, of course,” Drupada said. But didn’t offer an explanation.

“And…?” Draupadi prompted. “You’re okay with that? There must be a catch here. Are you trying to get me to lure Arjun into a false sense of security and poison him or something? If so, I’ll have you know, I take all vows very seriously. Including wedding vows…”

“But my dear daughter, that is my master plan! There will be a massive war at some point. It’s bound to happen. Just feel how this epic has been trending so far. I am willing to bet half my kingdom there’ll be a war.”

“You only have half a kingdom left,” she pointed out.

“All the more reason to take my words seriously,” Drupada retorted. “Imagine how much more painful it will be to Dronacharya if he’s destroyed by the brother in law of his favorite student. And if we’re lucky, Arjun himself will fight against Dronacharya. He will despair and that is what we want”

Draupadi shook her head. She didn’t understand this line of thinking. But eventually she came around. Especially when she realized that this Arjun guy did seem to be quite a hit. Especially with his legendary archery skills which she happened to read about in the latest version of the “Bow and Arrow” magazine.

She consented to the marriage. But before Drupada could even take the proposal to the Pandavas, there was breaking news. Hot off the press, it was reported that the Pandavas had been killed in an accidental fire in their new palace. The news reporter interviewed the fire superintendent who said that he had completely ruled out any kind of foul play, and hey in completely unrelated news, he was quitting his job because he had just… umm… won the lottery. Yeah, that’s what it was. It was definitely the lottery and not an incentive from anyone for fudging the truth about any accident investigation.

So that’s how Draupadi and Drupada’s hopes of her marriage with Arjun were ended. Only temporarily, because as you listeners know, Arjun was alive and well. Drupada and Draupadi did not.

Fast forward to the present. After much deliberation, Drupada decided that he’d better get some political advantage out of a swayamvar. As I explained before this was an event where a bride could pick her groom out of the assembled guests. The chosen groom did not get a say. Some of the guests who attended such meetings felt it was a bit of a russian roulette. Most would have been happy however, because the bride was usually a Princess. So there was power and wealth they could look forward to, even if they didn’t particularly feel that they were made for each other. 

There was one group of folks who had reasonably consistent expectations from the Swayamvar. These were the scholars and the spiritual folks. Brainy chaps, don’t you know? They came, they ate, they mingled, exchanged the latest spiritual ideas, they applauded when the Princess picked her match, took their goodie bag and went home. The Princess always picked someone who was born and raised as a warrior, like her own family.

As the Pandava brothers walked into the Swayamvar arena, they noticed various bookkeepers offering punters a chance to make some money here. Duryodhan seemed to be the favorite, his close friend Karna was a close second, followed by Jarasandha, Sishupala and a few other miscellaneous Kings here and there. No one was offering any kind of odds on a scholar. 

The youngest pandavas, Nakul and Sahadev, rather fancied Arjun or Bhima might actually win, if it was a skills based contest. They asked one bookmaker for the odds, but all they got in return was laughter. “A scholar? Jyada time nahi waste karna ka. Aage chalo,” the rude bookkeeper dismissed them.

Drupada had spared no expense. In the worst case, this was going to be a massive PR boost for his kingdom. The entire Swayamvara arena was decked out in Panchala’s colors. There was no shortage of food. There were live musicians all around in different areas of the arena, for a full surround sound effect. When Draupadi entered the scene, she arrived on an elephant richly dressed in Gold jewelry. I mean Draupadi was wearing rich gold jewelry. And come to think of it, the elephant too.

Dhristadyumna and Shikhandi as the brothers of the bride took on the task of explaining the contest. Everyone gathered around a curtained area in the center of the arena.

The brothers unveiled the curtain and explained what the contest was. This was an archery contest. There was a fish on a spinning wheel up on the ceiling. 

“Sounds a little fishy to me,” Duryodhan complained.

Draupadi’s brothers explained that to win, an archer would have to hit the eye of the fish. There were murmurings in the crowd.

“Holy Mackerel! Are you mocking us?” one Prince shouted. “No one could do this, not even Arjun”

And when Dhristadhyumna added that the eye of the fish had to be hit without looking up, some of the Princes threw their arms up in frustration. They would have walked out too, if they hadn’t had a glimpse at the dessert menu, which was to be served after the marriage.

Duryodhan said this was a fine kettle of fish he had gotten himself into. All he wanted was to get married to Draupadi, was that too much to ask? Now that Hastinapur was his, why couldn’t all these other kingdoms start revolving around what he wanted?

Karna said, not to worry. It wasn’t like shooting fish in a barrel, but he could still manage it. And then if Draupadi came to pick him, he’d attempt a redirect to Duryodhan. After all, nothing required the contest winner to be the groom. Bhishma had done it once, and abducted three Princesses at their swayamvar on behalf of someone else. So there was precedent certainly.

The contestants lined up and got ready. Outside the bookkeepers were hastily adjusting their odds. The moment Dhristadyumna had said archery, Karna’s favorability had shot up.

But it was Duryodhan who stepped up to the bow. He didn’t get very far.

“This bow stringing business is nonsense. Who makes bows that need stringing anyway? All my weapons manufacturers provide pre-strung bows. What a colossal waste of time!”

Jarasandha tried, so did Shishupala. None of them got too far.

Karna stepped up next. He expertly picked up the bow and expertly began stringing it.

There was a soft cough. “Not you,” Draupadi said.

Karna didn’t have time to even react. A couple of ushers politely, but firmly ushered him away.

“Hey, why not him?” Duryodhan protested. “He’s a bonafide King”

Draupadi gave him a cold stare. Was this entitled brat thinking that he could teach her the rules now? And at her own Swayamvar?

Other Kings and Princes tried. No one even came close.

The queue was now empty, and no one was even bothering to try. And people were getting restless. There were suggestions that the hosts should serve dessert without waiting. Alternatively, let everyone have a second shot. And Drupada seriously considered it. There was no other way but to keep the goodwill.

He was still debating when a scholar came up. He didn’t really ask for anyone’s permission. He strode right up to the bow and began stringing it.

Karna was getting highly strung too. “He’s actually doing it!” he said to Duryodhan. “The way he’s tying the string, such technique, excellent wrist movement. He’s going to get it done.”

“Relax Karna,” Duryodhan said. “So maybe he knows how to string a bow. That’s very different from being able to hit the eye of the fish”

The scholar had the bow ready, and he tested the tension in the string. It seemed perfect! He now stood right under the wheel. The fish was still spinning round and round. But Arjun wasn’t looking at it directly. He was looking down. And in the little puddle of water below which somewhat reflected the spinning wheel above. The scholar slowed his breathing down. And concentrated. This was no different than all those years ago, back at University where his professor had asked him to hit the eye of a bird a mile away. Back then the bird had been a fake one that was gently swaying in the wind. Here the fish was moving in a circle. Some quick mental trigonometric calculations later, the scholar was sure he had it right. 

Now, many of the Princes were protesting. How was Draupadi okay with this? She had refused Karna, but was okay with a scholar picking up a warrior’s weapon?

But the scholar heard and saw nothing. The only thing he saw was his target. The eye on the fish went round and round, all day long. At the crucial moment he released the arrow, it went flying into the air, there was a collective gasp as even the protesters stopped to observe it went straight and hit the target exactly in the center. 

There were loud cheers and applause from the audience. From the scholar’s 4 brothers. Duryodhan thought about this. 5 brothers?! One of them an archer, another built like a mountain. And two of them were twins. What are the odds, he thought. The Pandavas seemed to have had exact parallels in these 5 scholars. 

“Could it be Arjun?” Karna blurted out.

“Nah, I saw their corpses myself” the Crown prince of Hastinapur said

“How can you be sure? The corpses were burnt. Could you make a positive identification from that?”

“We couldn’t. Dental records, DNA matching all that doesn’t exist yet,” Duryodhan replied. “Besides, where’s Kunti? She should be here if they really managed to escape somehow.”

Karna was feeling deflated amongst other things. You would be too, if you thought you were the greatest archer in the world, and then suddenly have a complete nobody show up and demonstrate superior skills.

Draupadi on the other hand had already made her decision. Her garland went around the neck of this scholar. So what if she couldn’t have Arjun, this scholar was probably the better archer. There was the whole thing about him being a scholar and not a warrior. And there was still a babble of voices – several princes still going on and on about a scholar being allowed to compete.

“Shut it” she screamed. And instantly the babble died. Well that’s the way Swayamwars go. What the bride decides, the bride gets. And Draupadi’s strong personality did make the order easier to swallow.

“So my dear husband, my name is Draupadi. What’s yours?” she asked.

“Arjun,” he replied. “Prince Arjun”

Draupadi felt an intense excitement run through her body as she realized yes – this was the Pandava prince after all! But alive?! How? 

She had a million questions she wanted to ask. But those will have to wait until we are ready to pick up the Mahabharata again.

We’ll end it here for now.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Previous Mahabharata episodes are linked in the show notes and on the site sfipodcast.com, check them out.

https://sfipodcast.com/category/mahabharata/

Especially check out Episode 91 for Shikhandi/Amba’s story. There’s another story – Episode 195 that’s relevant. 

And Episode 195 for the backstory about Dronacharya’s feud with King Drupada.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll do the story of Tipu Sultan. We’ll see why this chap deserved to be called the Tiger of Mysore. Amongst other things, we’ll see how he deeply invested in keeping his R&D division full of rocket scientists.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Thank you for the wishes Prasanna, Darsh, Aniv, and Taal.

Adnya thank you for the heartwarming comment!

Shalu, thank you as always for your thoughtful feedback.

Darsh – Tipu Sultan’s story is finally coming up next week.

Bala – appreciate your patience.

Swara, thanks for the feedback. Dwarika’s story is a very interesting one, and something I’d love to cover soon.

Deepinjoy – I’m flattered that you think so. Thanks for the feedback

Taal – I really wish I could indeed do more episodes than once a week. Much earlier in the show, I had done mini-stories and character of the week segments mid-week. Taal and in fact all you listeners let me know if you’d be interested in something like that. Maybe a small segment featuring a special historical location in India.

I am a bit doubtful of being able to create two full episodes every week, as I do still have my full time job which involves traveling the universe, fixing things here and there, telling my stories in let’s just say, other forums. If any of you want to collaborate in stepping up the rate of these stories, do drop me an email or a DM and I’d love to explore what we can get done.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. If you want to send me an email it’s stories.from.india.podcast@gmail.com.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!