Draupadi's Trial

Draupadi stood frozen before Dussansana. These relatives of her husbands were like dogs fighting for scraps, and now they thought they had another bone to chew on with their latest trick. She wouldn't have it. They thought that they could trick her husband,  Yudhistira, with an invitation to a dice game with a sly player such as Sakuni and take everything that belonged to him. Yudhistira shouldn't have been able to lose her in a bet if he had already lost himself.

She lifted her chin, trying desperately to give herself a level of calm and confidence before a man who she felt would not listen to reason, but she would try. "Answer my question before I go anywhere. Did Yudhistira lose himself or me first? Because if he lost himself first, he would have no right to stake me or anything else." She felt her voice quiver as she spoke the words.

Dussansana's face held a sour grimace but his eyes were sly. They held a maliciousness that would ignore any reasoning she had to argue against slavery. "Stop your argument and come to the assembly."

He didn't answer her question. He barely acknowledged that she had asked it. She started to say more as he stepped closer. Retreating further into her room, she realized he had come here to take her by force. " I cannot go. I am clad in a single wrap because I am in the woman's month." She said this fearfully as she dashed further into the woman's apartments.

She felt a firm grip on her hair as she fell backwards. Dussansana had her by the hair and he proceeded to drag her into the assembly. He released her when she was in the center and she stood as proudly and as defiantly as any princess in distress could. She looked at everyone in the assembly in the eye. Her husbands stood by, as if chains bound them and all hope was lost while those jackal sons of the king watched her with greedy eyes. They didn't want her just to have another woman. No, they wanted her and her pain because it hurt the Pandavas and because they enjoyed torture.

"Is all morality gone? This monstrous act is not something to be watched as entertainment, and yet my husbands who should be protecting me stand as though they are dead. Will you not release me from this atrocity?" The words she spoke were desperate and heartbreaking, but she felt her voice crack several times as her throat tightened. The sorrow and fear for the future if these were the people who controlled her world made her almost give up any hope of reason.

Looking Bhishma, she knew he was a righteous man and anything he decided would be upheld by the king for a short time--at least long enough for her and her husbands to go home. Draupadi ignored the jackals who called her a slave and looked only at Bhishma, the family elder who could barely meet her eyes.

Finally Bhishma spoke, but his words held not confidence only confusion. "Daughter of Drupada, it is hard to say whether this is moral or not. Yudhistira entered this game willingly and offered the stakes. Sakuni is a subtle player but Yudhistira knew no caution. Whether he had the right to bet you after losing himself is questionable because his authority over his wife is questionable."

Draupadi felt herself flush in her anger. "How can you think he did this willingly? He had to accept the invitation because of his caste and he played a proxy without matching stakes. How can all of you wise men not see that?" Draupadi fell to the floor and wept. She heard the assembly arguing over her protests but she couldn't help but feel anything but lost and alone in a world without any semblance of morality. They used the illusion of it to try and gain what wasn't theirs and yet because her husbands tried to follow Dharma, they were bound to not protect her in this situation. They felt that since Yudhisthira had lost her in the bet, it would go against Dharma to defend her since she was no longer theirs.

Feeling that the argument of the assembly had reached a closure, she looked up and realized they were waiting for her to undress also. Dussasana came forward and wrenched her sari from her as she cried out, "I can expect no help from anyone here! God, Krishna, help me in my plight!"

Draupadi released her hold of her sari as she prayed. Dussasana laughed as he pulled her sari off. But Draupadi didn't feel air meet her skin, and in her prayer she felt a light warmth surround her as garment after garment was replaced. She still wore her original sari despite being surrounded by piles of clothing that Dussasana had taken off of her.

OU Home | Disclaimer | Copyright | Equal Opportunity | OU Web Policy