Extra Credit Reading Notes - Mahabharata Part B
Focus on One Person - Draupadi
The thirteenth year is spent in disguise so Draupadi lived as Queen Sudeshna’s, of the court of King Virata, maid named Sairandhri
At the end of the year, the queen’s brother requests Draupadi to be sent to him and he tries to rape her
One of her husbands, Bhima, promises to avenge her so he pretends to be Draupadi and crushes the queen’s brother into a ball
Draupadi claims she has a celestial husband and he did this
After the queen’s brother died they wanted to burn Draupadi with his corpse but her husbands save her
Draupadi and her husbands climb the Himalayas in order to return the Gandiva Bow to Varuna, and Draupadi falls to the wayside for loving her husband Arjuna more than the others
Nicely Worded Sentence
“Finally he agrees to single combat, a duel with Bhima, and Bhima breaks Duryodhana's thigh as he had vowed years ago.”
This sentence is nice because of the setup around it. They had mentioned Bhima’s promise two other times in the story, once when Duryodhana first offended him and then again right before he was going to battle Duryodhana. It was a nice tie-up for that story arc. Also, the statement “as he vowed years ago” has a very powerful connotation attached to it.
Bibliography
Kincaid, C. (1921). The Indian Heroes: Mahabharata - The Princes of Elephant City.
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