Draupadi - Devil or a Darling ?

In a society where honour was and is seen as the utmost important thing a woman should live or die for, what wrong is it if Draupadi pulls the string to the extent of a war.

It so happened while driving on busy roads of Delhi that my driver (trainer) mentioned about "women"driving. "It's all because of these women. They drive as they wish, rushing madly through the gaps". Whenever he made this comment, he almost always immediately (came very naturally to him as if it was hardwired in his brain) passed another comment on women, saying - "wars were fought 'for' women and 'because'of women. Many empires fell cause of them. You see, in Ramayana it was Sita and in Mahabharat it was Draupadi." Oh, it didn't shock me as that wasn't the first time I heard such an opinion. It comes naturally to an average Indian mind (both male and female). May be it is in the way in which the stories from epics were told. Or may be it is the most easiest way to understand a situation, conveniently ignoring various nuances in the story.

Two things to note here are - one,  tales from epic like Mahabharat tuned our opinions in a particular way. Two, it almost always taken for certain that an alternative view cannot exist. But what surprises me is neither of the two. Though Draupadi did fight to uphold her honour and avenge injustice, how the society managed to propagate the wrong message for centuries. Instead of appreciating her character for giving a tough fight, she has been accused as being the main driving force for the war. 

In a society where honour was and is seen as the utmost important thing a woman should live or die for, what wrong is it if Draupadi pulls the string to the extent of a war. Also, it is not that simple. There were multiple characters, varied vested interests, power struggles, ego clashes, fight for name and fame, etc which played a role in the final war. Why did we give a clean chit to all other characters?

Why is that the greatest warrior of the times, and the man of his word, Bhishm usually not accused to have let many misdeeds happen right under his nose. In the guise of guarding his vow, to protect the throne of Hastinapur, or for reasons unknown he never stood by Draupadi. What message is Acharya Drona giving us, who spent more than half his life avenging against King Drupad. May be he is telling us how ego should be pursued at any cost. The writer of the epic himself, Vyasa, seemed to have lost the plot somewhere as he failed to convey the message that the insult hurled at Draupadi is unacceptable. The blind king, Drutarashtra, is the culprit behind power and money struggles in many of the Indian families till date. He should be blamed to have not accepted his fate and for not being just with his brother's sons.

Why don't an average Indian naturally tend to accuse Karna for being a mute spectator during Draupadi vastraharan, and during Abhimanyu's death in the Padmavyuh? We only remember him for his loyalty, selflessness and sacrifice. Most importantly Pandavas themselves are not usually accused for their faults. Yudhistir, Dharam Raj, should have been ideally blamed for setting a trend for all those drunkards, gamblers and wife beaters (They might be honest to the core when sober). And his brothers, are more known to be loyal followers of elder brother rather than as those who forgone their wife's honour and self respect. Finally, the Lord Shri Krishn, a very close friend of Draupadi, portrayed as the sole protector of her, also tried to pacify Draupadi at various stages in order to convince her to cool down.

As we get into the nitty gritties of the story, there is no end to this blame game. No character is perfect. The so called Lord Himself, Shri Krishn, should have been notorious for cheating in the war. I might have sounded so far as if Draupadi has got nothing to be blamed for. Wrong. She too has enough on her plate. She insulted Karna in her swayamvar, she laughed at Dhuryodhan when he slipped into an illusive water fountain in her Maya Sabha and never apologised for any of her deeds. She was known for her arrogance and stubbornness. She has both negatives and positives in her, just like any other character in the story. However, her character seems to have been made the victim of her own blemishes. I also believe that Kunti and Gandhari should also be accused of not standing by their daughter-in-law. They symbolise all those women who consciously or subconsciously are responsible for perpetuating patriarchy in the society.

While on the one hand, Draupadi's honour was at stake and on the other none in her close circles seem to be understanding her plait. I don't see what other options she had other than fighting all alone and by vowing a revenge. I personally experienced this phenomenon in many Indian families, where mothers discourage their daughters to let their hair loose, as it is believed that they bring in disgrace, dishonour and bad luck to the family (just as Draupadi did, when she vowed to let her hair loose till she avenges her insult). We should instead appreciate her for fighting in a male dominated society in many a ways. She was the only female character in the entire story, who has a male friend (Shri Krishn). She was the only one, again, to have dared to reveal her feelings for another male (towards Karna). She was far ahead of her times, in not just accepting polyandry (fivehusbands) but for striving to be what she really is, free and honest, in a cage like society.

My aim is not to find faults with each of the characters, no doubt they are all great in their own ways. My idea is two fold, one I am just trying to highlight how one sided, how biased our story telling has been. Just to enable the readers to appreciate my point better, I would like to draw parallels between Mahabharat story telling in our country and a recent phenomemon, an epic like series Game of Thrones. Almost every character in it is shown from more than one angle. It would let the audience think in various dimensions. Two, how stories heard and told over centuries, impact our every day life. This is just one story, there might be many more stories and characters propagating misconceptions in the society.  Just imagine where our society would have headed had Mahabharat started on the note - 'There lived a Princess Draupadi, stunned the world by being born unexpectedly in a yagna, but later realised to have born for a cause. Born to beat the stereotype in the society and to wage war against injustice'. We would never know !