The episode of Draupadi's Cheerharan-the attempted act of disrobing of Draupadi, the wife of Pandavas in
the presence of august gathering in the court of King Dhritarashtra is the
worst evil that the human civilization has witnessed. This shameful incident
ultimately became the defining moment in the history of mankind leading to
destruction of entire Kuru dynasty in the battle of Mahabharata some five
thousand years ago. In the court of king Dhratarashtra, the dharma was buried to
its deepest level by the protectors of dharma themselves; by the so called righteous
persons like Yudhishtheera, Bhishma Pitamaha, Kripacharya, Dronacharya and the
blind king Dhratarashtra himself. All these great warriors had surrendered and joined
the greedy and evil designs of Duryodhana. They all became helpless puppets like
the blind king and could not protect the honor of a helpless woman, the
daughter-in-law of the dynasty. On losing Draupadi in the gamble by
Yudhishtheera, Dushashana was ordered by Duryodhana to drag Draupadi to the
court and disrobe her. Dushashan blindly follows the orders and drags her to
the court. Once there, Draupadi faces inhuman treatment and abuses from Duryodhana
and Karna. Dushashana makes an unsuccessful attempt to disrobe her in the
presence of everybody by unwrapping her saree (Indian garment which ladies
wear) but Lord Krishna timely saves her honor by miraculously extending the
length of the saree infinitely when she invokes him for her help.
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| Draupadi Cheerharan PIC: daily.bhaskar.com |
Pandava brothers, Yudhishtheera,
Bhim, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva were invited by Duryodhana under a conspiracy
hatched at the behest of his maternal uncle Shakuni to Hastinapur from their
divided kigdom Indraprastha to play a gamble, a game of dice and win over the
kingdom of Hastinapur. Yudhishtheera falls in the trap and agrees to play the
game of dice with Duryodhana where Yudhistheera loses all the kingdom of
Indraprastha, his four brothers and himself in the game of dice to Durydhana. Duryodhana
could plant this win with the support of his evil maternal uncle, Shakuni through
his equally evil designed magic dice and his dirty tricks. Yudhishtheera could
have withdrawn from the game at this stage as he was left with nothing to lose
further. At this point, Duryodhana reminds him that the Pandavas have their
wife (Draupadi was wife of all the five Pandava brothers) left with them and
they could put her on the stake in the game to win over all back what he has
lost. Duryodhana again falls prey to the evil designs of Shakuni and loses
Draupadi too. Thereafter, Duryodhana humiliates Pandavas and orders a servant
to bring Draupadi in the court as now along with all the five Pandava brothers,
Draupadi too has become his slave. Draupadi who was undergoing her menstrual
cycle, refuses to come to court with the servant but ask him to get the answer
from Yudhishtheera whether he had lost himself first before losing Draupadi.
She doesn’t get an answer and so does not comes to the court. Annoyed
Duryodhana then sends his brother Dushashana to drag her to court by pulling
her hair. Dushashana follows the command and disgracefully drags her to court by
pulling her hair. In the court too, Duryodhana, Karna and Dushashana misbehave
and abuse her badly. Duryodhana asks Dushashana to disrobe her in the presence
of everybody including the elders in the court. She is named as a whore by
Karna since she was the wife of five Pandavas and as such she does not have any
honor left with her whether she is clad or naked.
When Draupadi was dragged to the
court and being disrobed by Dushashana, Bhim gets very angry and takes a pledge
that he will not show his face to his ancestor until he drinks the blood of
Dushashana. Duryodhana further provokes Pandavas while making an indecent gesture
by baring his thigh and inviting Draupadi to come and sit on his lap. Gravely
annoyed Bhim again makes a pledge to break Durydhana’s thigh and if could not,
he would remain slave to Duryodhana for his entire life.
Draupadi incessantly cries in the
court for justice from everybody present, Bhishma Pitamaha, Kripacharya,
Dronacharya , Vidur and Dhartarashtra. She makes emotional appeals repeatedly to
the elders present in the court that she is the daughter-in-law of the kingdom
and therefore nobody has any right to dishonor the dynasty. She questions
everybody and her husband Yudhishtheera too that what right her husband has to
lose her when he himself is lost first in the gamble. Even otherwise, she
questions how a husband can own his wife as his personal property and put her
on stake in the gamble. She claims that she was the wife of all the other
brothers too and therefore, has Yudhishtheera taken any permission from his
brothers to put her on the stake? Nobody is able to give any satisfactory
answer to Draupadi and they simply lower their heads in shame. At this moment, Vikarna,
a brother of Duryodhana seeing the grave humiliation to Draupadi ask the elders
assembled in the court to answer the questions of Draupadi but Duryodhana force
him to keep shut and sit down. While she was pleading with all the elders, the
Pandavas kept their silence passively except that only Bhima raised his objection
and shouted at his elder brother Yudhishtheera that if he was not his elder brother,
he would have torn apart the hands of a person who played the game of dice to lose
his wife in the gamble. When Dushashana started disrobing Draupadi, the
helpless women prays to Lord Krishna (who was not present in the court) to
protect her dignity and honor. A miracle happens as Dushashana goes on unwrapping
the saree of Draupadi but it never ends and extents infinitely saving her from
disrobing and disgrace. Dushashana repeatedly tries to disrobe her but fails
and gets exhausted in the attempt. The dignity and honor of Draupadi is saved
by the invisible Lord Krishna but those visible in the court proved utterly impotent
to save her honor. They all acted as mere slaves to Dhratarashtra and
Duryodhana. Deeply hurt, Draupadi rises to curse the Kuru dynasty. However, she
is stopped by the queen mother Gandhari, the wife of Dhritarashtra and mother
of Kauravas.
This is the story but if we analyze
the characters of those present in the court, it is very intriguing and saddening
to note that although all the great warriors present in the court were very
learned persons with lots of wisdom and moral values, nobody could rise to
oppose the misdeeds of Duryodhana. Among the Kauravas, only Vikarna could rise
against his own brother and challenge the evil act. Another person who raised his
objection was Vidura who had called Duryodhana a snake and a demon committing
the gravest crime in dishonoring Draupadi but he could not get any support from
others. Dhratarashtra was equally blind in wisdom too in additional to his eye
vision and acted purely as a mere puppet at the hands of his evil son
Duryodhana. Moreover, as Duryodhana was winning step by step, he was enjoying
the game and was overjoyed when Pandavas had lost the kingdom. Karna, the
another son of Kunti (mother of Pandavas) but sided with the wrong side with
evil Duryodhana abused Draupadi and called her a whore with five husband and said
she can have another sixth husband as Duryodhana. The helpless Bhisma Pitamah though
committed to protect the throne had failed to dare Durydhana to commit the
inhuman act. He also justified the gamble and said that Yudhishtheera as a
husband had a right on Draupadi to lose her in the gamble. In the game of the
dice, the upholders of dharma acted as mute spectators to the dirty tricks of
Shakuni and Duryodhana. In the process, the dharma was totally eclipsed by the brightest
warriors of the dynasty. The moot point is that when the opportunity arises in
the life to take a firm stand, one must not hesitate and become a mute
spectator or a puppet in the hands of destiny. History does not and never pardons
such people.
It is a fact that whatever is
destined to happen is bound to happen. Unless the shameful acts of dragging and
attempting to disrobe Draupadi in the presence of the great warriors were not
committed, the possibility of the Mahabharata war was remote. The Draupadi
Cheerharan-the disrobing of Darupadi, a shameful episode itself proved to be a
defining moment in the history leading to the battle of Mahabharata. Mahabharata
war was destined to happen and so the divine knowledge as immortal as hidden in
Shrimadbhagwad Gita was to be delivered by Bhagwan Krishna for the benefit of
mankind.
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