Mishra 36

Chapter-2

Yajnaseni

Pratibha Ray’s novel Yajnaseni, published in 1984, is the story of

Mahabharata told from the perspective of Draupadi. The era of the 1980s is known for

the repercussions of the aftermath of the colonial rule. The man-woman equation was

the one to be mainly analyzed in the context of changing scenario as “the euphoria of

independence having come to an end, people started viewing things in a different

way. The end of the colonial rule led to the realization on the mass of the people that

they are yet to get a ‘second freedom’. The forces of social justice are gathering

momentum on the Indian soil” (4), stated A.S. Rao in his Myth and History in

Contemporary Indian Novel in English (1999). The times also include not only

restoration of traditional norms but there was also a reassessment of conventional

beliefs in terms of redefining certain roles and equations. This chapter deals with

Pratibha Ray’s redefination and represention of Draupadi within such a time frame.

Ray’s Yajnaseni is written in epistolary form to understand the psychological

complexities of the mythological character, Draupadi. Draupadi has often been gibed

at as a woman with multiple husbands. Even today the name is uttered in a derogatory

sense to refer to women who choose to remarry for various reasons. The novel’s

epistolary form give’s its protagonist, Draupadi, a platform to voice her discontent at

a later stage in life in the form of a narrative. The letter, while ironically giving her a

space and the freedom to express her innermost desires to her confidant, Krishna, also

at the same time projects her as an oppressed woman. Her elite status may have given

her certain privileges of self-expression as a lettered woman, and yet, the reader

doubts if the letter ever gets written, or if it ever reaches its intended destination, its
 Mishra 37

addressee, Krishna. The doubts are well placed because although the novel is written

in the epistolary form, it begins in a self-reflexive mode by beginning with the end of

the letter. The entire content of the letter is Ray’s novel which begins with the last two

lines of the letter written by Ray’s Draupadi. It appears as if the writer of the letter

keeps going back to it without being sure if it is at all to find its addressee. The

continuous flow of thoughts which get narrated in the letter evolves a character who

appears to share some of the doubts and concerns of modem women.

In the novel Ray endeavours to cover the early developments in women’s

movements in India and to relocate the position of women in the Indian society. Ray

presents the protagonist Draupadi who curses “womanhood for the inequality in the

rales and laws of society for the sexes” (322). Ray’s novel, Yajnaseni: deconstructs

the great epic of Mahabharata, giving the mouthpiece to the protagonist, Draupadi, for

female justice. It doesn’t mean that Ray brings Draupadi out off the mythological

pages. Rather, by representing Draupadi, Ray represents a contemporary woman. And

in doing so, Ray tries to update a myth that has neglected female voice so far, as

supported by Pankaj K. Singh and Jaidev in their essay “Decentering a Patriarchal

Myth; Bhisham Sahni’s Madhavi” (1999), “Decentering this world is not disowning

it, but attempting to revise and recast it more justly and fairly. The fact that no single

myth has escaped reinterpretation or improvisation gives further legimacy to practices

of critiquing and updating myths” (30). Ray’s representation of mythical Draupadi

plays a central role in the understanding of the mythical character Draupadi and her

life.

It should be clear that representation, even purely “aesthetic”

representation of fictional persons and events, can never be completely

 Mishra 38

divorced from political and ideological questions; one might argue , in

fact, that representation is precisely the point where these questions

are most likely to enter the literary work. If literature is a

“representation of life”, then representation is exactly the place where

“life”, in all its social and subjective complexity, gets into the literary

work. (15)

Ray attempts to reinterpret myth through the character of Draupadi, who was

bom of a sacrificial fire. Her father King Drupad had performed a yagna to invoke the

gods for a son who would help him in defeating defeat his archenemy Drona. Though

they were bosom friends in their youth, later when Drona went to his friend Drupad

for financial assistance, Drupad insulted Drona and and drove him out. In order to

avenge this humiliation and the ungratefulness of Drupad, Drona not only attacked

Drupad’s kingdom but also defeated him in the battle, capturing half his kingdom.

Thereafter, Drupad had vowed to take revenge and performed a yagna to be granted a

son who could slay Drona. He was granted one, but along with the son, a daughter

also emerged from the sacrificial fire. She was named Krishnaa, for her dark

complexion. In a sense, her very birth may be considered to be tragic. She is bom

unasked from the sacrificial fire. Her real mother is the sacrificial altar, and her father

is Yajnasena. She asserts that, “From the sacred flames of the sacrificial fire a radiant

son, my brother Dhrishtadyumna, was bom and from the sacrificial altar I was bom,

like a blue lotus-coloured gem-Yajnaseni!” (7).

Through the narrative, Ray makes Draupadi question her identity as her birth

is exceptional. Her father Dmpad was much pleased as his sacrificial ritual was

successful with the attainment of a son and a daughter. Thereafter, both were named
 Mishra 39

Dhrishtadymna and Krishnaa respectively by Sage Upyaja. Her real mother was the

sacrificial altar. As her father is Yajnasena, she was named Yajnaseni. Her other

names are Panchali, Draupadi and Krishnaa, for various reasons. Ray refers to this

naming pattern as it is also mentioned in Sarala’s Mahabharata: “Drupad’s name is

Yajnasen, therefore his daughter name is Yajnaseni. Daughter of Drupad is Draupadi.

Also named Panchali as bom in Funchal” (Aadiparva 189). She is called Panchali as

she was princess of the Panchal State. She is Draupadi as she was Drupad’s daughter.

Likewise she is called Krishnaa, as she shared Lord Krishna’s dark complexion.

When she was bom from the sacred flames of the sacrificial fire, there was a prophecy

about the purpose of her birth. The prophecy predicted her to be the preserver and the

destroyer as well:

God had given me a body of unprecedented loveliness and a

heart full of goodness. Opening these lovely eyes as I was

gazing at this entrancing creation, I heard the utterances of the

sages and ascetics performing the sacrifice- my birth was not

from my father’s seed but from the sacrificial altar built for

fulfilling a vow. From even before birth, I was destined to

avenge my father’s insult! I was destined to the weapon for

preserving dharma on this earth and destroying the wicked. It

was for this that I was bom ... (8)

Although other characters who occupy important space in Mahabharata appear

in Ray’s version, but they are in the margins, and it is Draupadi, with her conflicts and

assertions who occupies the centre stage. She is given the ‘autobiographical voice’ in

the narrative to interpret the events which are interwoven in the story of the great
 Mishra 40

dynasty. She endows the audience with the poignant journey which she undertakes

from being the daughter of King Drupad, to the wife of five noble men. She reflects

on the challenges she has to face and sacrifices she has to make as the wife of five

Pandava brothers, while still remaining faithful and loyal to each one of them. If

letters may be accepted as life writing, Rosalind Coward’s remarks in support of

‘autobiographical voice’ of‘contemporary women-centered novels’ in his essay “The

True Story of How I Became My Own Person” (1989) can explain Draupadi’s voice

in the novel as the collective voice of all oppressed woman: “the autobiographical

voice of [the] contemporary women-centred novels often appeals to a collectivity. I

am, but I am a representative of all women. The history of my oppression is the

history of all women’s oppression” (46).

Draupadi is enveloped in the characteristics conferred to her by Ved Vyas but

with novel dimensions to which the audience of the recipient generation could relate.

Ray chooses not to discuss the Great War of Kurushetra. The inner voice of Draupadi,

which is silenced in Vyasa’s Mahabharata, finds vent in Ray’s version. Draupadi

questions herself in the process of narrating the sacrifices that she has made and

wonders about the scanty returns for preserving the dignity of others. She expresses

her suppressed anger when she complains about all those who, in their silence, had

turned into accomplices in the act of disgracing her: “He who insults another’s wife is

the worst of men. But he who silently supports such insult, encourages it, is a great

sinner” (183).

In Yajnaseni Draupadi is an assertive narrator who is aware of her condition

and discerns the facts hidden underneath the apparent reality. For Ray, Draupadi is a

mythic character but still holds relevance as an embodiment of a real woman of

 Mishra 41

contemporary times as she goes through the sufferings of life accompanied by the

compulsions of having to make moral choices. Her decisions and choices had, in fact,

shaped the destiny of the great Kuru Empire. The novel presents Draupadi as a victim

to many of her husbands’ irresponsible and thoughtless actions. The game of dice is

the worst of many such acts. When she was put upon the stake in the game of dice by

Yudhishthir, the eldest Pandava brothers to who she was married, she mused in

anguish and angry rebellion:

... was woman merely man’s movable or immovable property? Was I

part of Yudhishthir’s movable or immovable property, male and

female slaves, horses and elephants? Being a woman did I not have

right even over myself, my own soul? If they had rights over this body

of mine, did it mean they could do as they wished with me? (235)

Ray’s rewriting of Draupadi highlights the issue of woman being considered as a

commodity or “property” as in this case where she is gambled away any other object

of possession. Judith Butler observes in her work Bodies that Matter: On the

Discursive Limits Of “Sex” (1993) that “propriety and property is precisely the option

open to the feminine when it has been constituted as an excluded impropriety, as the

improper, the propertyless” (38).

Not only does the narrative unfolds woman as property but also reveals the

absence of Draupadi’s mother from the narrative. Draupadi in Ray’s novel is

significantly without a mother. In earlier versions of the epic, after Draupadi was bom

of the sacrificial fire, Drupad’s wife pleaded Sage Upayaj to make Draupadi and

Dhrishtadhyumna such that they both understand and refer only her as their mother, as

she wanted to safeguard her motherhood. She utters, “Lord! Bless me so that both the
 Mishra 42

children consider none except me as their only mother” (Pratham Khanda 412) [My

Translation], There is no mention of Draupadi’s mother in the entire narrative of

Yajnaseni. Ray tries to uplift women through the character Draupadi by representing

her in the modem context but within patriarchal limits as she highlights Draupadi‘s

father but not her mother in the novel. The telling absence of the comforting and

protecting image of a mother in the novel all the more highlights the oppressive power

of patriarchy. The novel, in this manner becomes more effective in conveying to the

reader the psychological effect of living a loveless life.

Ray focuses on woman’s anguish, pain, sorrow, and anxiety in her [Link]

story begins from the end in the style of a self-reflective narrative and starts with

Draupadi’s narration of the last journey of the Pandavas: “‘Finis,’ Your dear Sakhi”

(1). These words begin the novel in an unconventional manner with the end of a letter.

In the very beginning Ray’s Draupadi shows her dissatisfaction in expressing her

emotions to her friend, Krishna, in the letter. She feels as if she has not written

anything in the letter, even after she has completed it. She thinks that there can be no

conclusion to her painful narrative: “still, the last word cannot be said. Finis has been

written to the letter. Moment by moment as I slide down the path of Death I begin to

read the letter again. Perhaps the secret of this creation is infinite, unplumbered,

curiosity about life!” (2). As proved by the numerous rewritings of her life,

Draupadi’s story can never come to a conclusive end.

Ray’s novel is based on the Mahabharata by Vedvyas and the Odia

Mahabharata by Sarala Das. However, she also works on her imagination to dramatize

events which do not occur in the earlier versions mentioned. At times, the sequence of

events are also mixed up or deliberately contrived to help the narrative. This letter is
 Mishra 43

her only companion on the road to her death, which is inevitable. Even though she has

preserved her dharma as a wife throughout her life at the end it is only Krishna who

remains her friend, philosopher and guide. Not only her life but also her relation with

Krishna is mysterious which she admits as an eternal relationship, as in: “the skies

have no beginning and no end. The ocean neither wastes away nor increases. The sun

neither rises nor sets. Your heart’s desire is neither fulfilled nor left empty. Our

relationship too have no name and no end” (01).

Through this character Ray attempts to question the relation of woman to

“dharma” (ethical obligation). ‘Dharma’ in India, has been variously understood as a

complex term in Hinduism, referring to any conduct that upholds the order of society

related to ethical laws, rules, customs, as well as individual obligation. The novel

challenges received ideas about women as upholders of “dharma” and sources of

creation and destruction. They have also been seen as causes of great wars: “Should

only woman be forced to the medium for preserving dharma and annihilating evil

throughout the ages? Is it woman who is the cause of creation and destruction? Sita

had to become the medium for the destruction of Lanka and the establishment of

Ram’s rule” (8).

Ray represents Draupadi as any ordinary woman who suffers throughout her

life because of her staunch faith in dharma. When Draupadi was bom from the sacred

flames of the sacrificial fire, there was a prophecy about the purpose of her birth, that,

she would be both a preserver and destroyer. As she cites “this woman has taken birth

to avenge your insult. She has appeared to fulfil a vow. By her, dharma will be

preserved on this earth, Kshatriyas will be destroyed. She will be the destroyer of the

Kauravas” (8).
 Mishra 44

This is also the case in Vyasa’s Mahabharata when he narrates the purpose of

Draupadi’s birth: “While she was emerging out of the sacrificial fire, there was a

prophecy in the sky that her name was Krishnaa, she is the greatest and the most

beautiful among women and she is bom to destroy the Kshatriyas” (Prathama Khanda

491) [My Translation]. In the novel, the very purpose of her birth being evident,

Ray’s Draupadi is worried about her future but challenges it too. Her heart rendering

proclamation echoes the inner darkness of her heart which she desires to enlighten by

earning justice for herself and her sacrifices. Draupadi’s goal to preserve dharma and

to destroy Kauravas creates fear in her heart, although she is happy about it. She prays

to Lord for strength to bear the humiliation which she is very much aware of, “I

prayed, “O Lord! If my birth is for preserving dharma on earth then give me all the

insults and calumny that are to come, but also give me the strength to bear them

aH”(8).

In Yajnaseni Draupadi writes to her Sakha (closest friend), Krishna. She

narrates in the letter the story of her suffering from the end to the beginning, about all

her trials and tribulations, the difficulties she faced as a woman, as the wife of five

husbands, and the frequent insults hurled on her by friends as well as enemies. As she

walks along with her husbands on the rough terrain of the Himalayas in their journey

towards heaven, Draupadi falls down and is shocked at the callousness of her

husband. None of them turns around or stops to help her. She is aghast as Yudhishtir

justifies her fall by accusing her of loving Arjun more than her other husbands. Her

self-doubts posed before Krishna in the letter, and her questions about the causes of

her suffering are expressed in the words:

 Mishra 45

What agonies did I not suffer for preserving dharma? I had thought on

the strength of my adherence to dharma and fidelity as a wife I would

be able to accompany my husband’s to heaven. Yet, I had but touched

the golden dust of Himalaya’s foothills when my feet slipped and I

fell! Five husbands but not one turned back even to look .... (02-03)

As the narrative unfolds we also get glimpses into Draupadi’s complex

sentiments. Not withstanding her suffering she makes lots of complains against her

position in the society and the various cultural norms which define her identity. J.

Hillis Miller in his Narrative (1995) mentions the process by which men and women

assimilate cultural norms through narratives: “once a man or woman has reached

adulthood, with the help of all the narratives with which a growing youth is

surrounded, he or she would then be fully assimilated into the culture, with a definite

self and a definite role in society” (74),

Usually, a first-person narration is restricted in its narration as the narrator

cannot plainly state the inner opinion or approach of others. On the contrary, Ray’s

Draupadi as a first-person arrator is unrestricted in its approach because Ray rewrites

Draupadi as a real individual with an authority to speak the truth. This novel has been

narrated in first person enumerating her devotion bordering on love for Lord Krishna,

her shock at being made the wife of all five Pandavas, her grief, her rage and her

anguish. Ray’s first person narratives unveil the falsehood of marriage when

Draupadi’s five husbands could not protect from disgrace.

Through the rewriting of the mythical Draupadi, Ray criticizes the dark side of

Swayamvaraa which is a cultural event where the royal princess chooses her bride­

groom. But Draupadi is not given that right to choose her husband. Her father and
 Mishra 46

brother had already predicted and decided beforehand that Arjun would be her suit for

which she was bom, and the contest was designed accordingly. But, for Draupadi was

not fated only for Aijun. To her distress, she was bound to accept Arjun’s four

brothers as husbands. Ray’s Draupadi as a social construct grudges the undisputed

rights of men, and she complains against the prescribed social norms for women. As a

consequence she becomes representative of all women who are denied the right to

make choices and forced to accept decisions made by the male members of their

family. Myra Jehlen writes in her essay “Gender” (1995): “uncovering the social and

cultural assumptions of literary language actually complicates reading. For when we

take fictional characters to be universal, they subsume the particular traits and

attributes of different kinds of people” (264).

Paradoxically speaking, the narrative’s strange interplay describing Draupadi’s

attraction towards Kama and at the same time her shrinking from his insulting

remarks make her appear more human than the image of the sati that is given to us by

the mythological character. When her father tells her that only Krishna could be a

suitable match for the perfect woman, Draupadi, also known as Krishnaa because of

her abiding love for the God, starts dreaming about him as her prospective husband.

But when Krishna tells her that Arjun is actually the man meant for her, although it

sounds unconvincing, she becomes totally devoted to Arjun even before the

Swayamvaraa. For Draupadi, the most beautiful moments of her life were those which

she shared with Aijun when he was taking her to his mother after “winning” her at the

swayamvaraa. Her life changed forever after she was forced to accept all five brothers

as her husbands. The novel’s representation of Draupadi is similar to Mitchell’s

 Mishra 47

concept that representation is a “complex” business and “an extremely elastic notion”

(13).

While rewriting the “complexity” of Draupadi’s character, Ray incorporates

the ‘elastic notion’ by stretching the mythical Draupdi to an ordinary woman fitting

the various situations of modem times. As Karve puts in her views about mythical

Draupadi: “[h]er sensitive pride, her willingness to sacrifice herself, and her

faithfulness to her husbands were qualities appropriate to her country, time, and clan.

She was extraordinary, but this very extraordinariness was bom out of the ordinary

vlaues of her time” (97). Time has changed but not the plight of women as the

mythical Draupadi is quite similar to an ordinary woman of our time.

Ray tries to highlight Draupadi’s identity as a ‘sati,’ a former practice in India

whereby a widow threw herself on to her husband's funeral pyre, which has generated

much controversy through the ages. In Dvaparyuga she was considered sati by

characters like Ved Vyasa, Krishna, Kunti, Dhritarastra, Drupad, Dhristadyamn, and

even by her five husbands; but not so by Duryodhan, Dusashana, Kama, Keechaka

and others. Similarly, even in Kaliyuga Draupadi continues to be in controversy:

Dvaparyuga was about to end. The day Abhimanyu’s son Parikshit was

anointed king on the throne of Hastinapur from that very day the

Kaliyuga commenced. It is said that my name will be counted as one of

the five Satis, renowned for Chastity. Men and women of Kaliyuga

will laugh scornfully saying, “If with five husbands Draupadi could be

a sati, then what is the need for fidelity to one husband?” With many

husbands why can’t the women of Kaliyuga be satis? ... (3)

 Mishra 48

Nevertheless, Ray’s Draupadi declares in the novel that her ideal is Sita, wife

of Lord Ram, in the Indian epic, the Ramayana. Sita is the glory of the Raghu

dynasty. She has been visualized and portrayed as woman’s pride. Inspite of being a

‘chaste’ woman, and wife to only one husband she has not been included in the list of

Satis- Ahalya, Tara, Mandodari, Satavati and Draupadi. Whereas Draupadi is

considered a sati even with her five husbands. Through Draupadi, Ray wants to keep

intact the notion of‘satitva’ and Draupadi’s claim to it.

Although Ray’s Draupadi’s ideal is Sita, she disagrees to Sita’s silent acceptance of

her husband’s verdict. Sita had not protested when her husband had doubted her

chastity and abandoned her. Draupadi on the other hand, is the opposite of Sita, in

voicing her protest against injustice. But Sally J. Sutherland remarks in her article

“Sita and Draupadi-Aggressive Behaviour and Female Role-Models in Sanskrit

Epics” (1989) that “it is the conduct and character of Sita, not Draupadi, that is

regarded as normative in Hindu Society” (63). She wouldn’t compare herself to Sita

in all matters: “But why compare myself with her? Would I be able to live like her,

silently bearing the agony, burning up within... and I was just Panchal princess

Yajnaseni - not even knowing this little, whether I had any husband at all. Why

should every incident of her life be repeated in mine?” (36)

Ray thinks that marrying five husbands is a challenge to the whole community

of womanhood and asserts that even after marrying many men, the sexual purity of a

woman could be maintained. She remarks: “if a woman confined to the inner

chambers, having no opportunity to see the face of a man other than her husband, was

faithful, some possibility of her chastity being in doubt remained. But even after

having married many men if she could remain faithful to them then she could be
 Mishra 49

called sati” (93). Ray’s Draupadi says in a challenging tone, “if the need should arise,

I too, accepting more than one husband can show that despite having more than one

husband a woman can be trustworthy, obedient and chaste” (98). Sarala Das was of

the opinion that no woman was worthy of trust. Through Draupadi, Ray criticizes the

society of the past, and the present as well, that judges a woman’s chastity with the

number of husbands she marries. Ray believes that chastity should not depend on such

social assumptions. If a woman with one husband happens to imagine being with

another man even in her imagination, cannot be considered chaste.

Further, Ray points out that in Kaliyuga Draupadi will rather be insulted more

for having five husbands. To safeguard her dignity she relies only on Krishna. Being

in Dvaparyuga she could sense the abuse and mockery she would face in Kaliyuga

and calls Krishna to share her praise and blame as she believed that her plight

revolved around his supreme wish. She holds Krishna responsible for her joy and

sorrow:

... Draupadi will be food for mockery and jest amid the perverted

sexuality of Kaliyuga’s debauched men and women. How will these

people appreciate that five-husbanded Draupadi had to bum inch by

inch in the cause of chastity? Then the heroine of Hastinapur,

Draupadi, will become a condemned soul, the heroine of calumny. O

Krishna! O Vasudev, you are omnipotent! It is by your wish that

Draupadi has made this journey from birth till now. By your wish

Draupadi’s eyes have opened and shut, her breath has come and gone.

Then, have you no share in her praise and blame? (3)

 Mishra 50

Apart from expressing her thoughts and emotions, Ray’s Draupadi also

highlights the Dvaparyuga, the kingship of the Kurus and Panchals, and the

background of Hastinapur. Though the contemporary aspects of Ray’s Draupadi are

undeniable, yet she keeps intact the very essence of Vyasa’s The Mahabharata. She

even refers to the story of rivalry between Drona and Drupad which appears to be

merely a repetition of Vyasa’s Mahabharata. But the novel uniquely intermingles

Draupadi’s narrative of her plight with the history of Hastinapur and places the

character in a modem context.

In the novel Draupadi goes on to narrate about her representation by Ved

Vyasa as a deity. Although she remarks that time may transform her into a goddess

but she accepts the fact that she is not a goddess. Ray’s characterization limits her to

human boundaries where like any other human being she is also apt to make mistakes.

Iravati Karve also mentions in Yuganta: The End ofan Epoch (2008) that “Draupadi’s

trouble were human, brought on by people of this world and, particularly, by her own

husbands” (91). Ray’s Draupadi justifies:

Time may transform me into a goddess, but I appeared on this earth

with this body in human form. My five husbands are each a creature of

this mortal world. Our master, the great sage, Krishna Dvaipayan, has

established me as a deity. In his eyes I appear divine. The cause of my

having five husbands he has attributed to some boon by Shiva. But I

am no goddess and no knower of past births... (4)

Like Vyasa’s Draupadi, Ray represents her protagonist as proud and arrogant

about her beauty, adding another new dimension to the narrative. She describes her

physical charm overtly, and repeatedly points out what people said about her looks.
 Mishra 51

She appears to be narcissistically obsessed with her own physical appearance: “[b]ut

what was my fault except being beautiful” (324), “seeing my face in the waters of the

rivulet I was entranced” (325), Queen Sudeshna had been enchanted with my beauty”

(334) and “fasting and eating only fruits my body grew thin but the beauty and

complexion grew radiant, pure and delicate like a flame” (295). She compares her

complexion to that of a blue lotus, her hair with ocean waves, her eyes being lotus like

and bright, unblemished face and lovely figure. She further describes in details her

breasts, waist, thighs, fingers, toes, palms, soles, teeth and nails and claims that even,

her father’s court poets failed to put in verse her incomparable loveliness. The effect

of her beauty on others can be marked from the following lines from the text:

... when I appeared like a blooming blue lotus on the sacrificial altar,

every part of my body was resplendent with glow of youth. Seeing me,

even the sages seated around the altar who had controlled their senses

were stunned. The chanting lips trembled, the voices grew still. Some

young ascetics fell senseless. Even tree leaves were stilled for some

moments. The fire flared silent, unflickering. Perhaps mighty Time

stood still at that moment. (7)

Similarly, Vyasa describes Draupadi’s beauty that “while emerging out of the

sacrificial fire, Draupadi was looking extremely beautiful. There was no second

woman in the world who could match her beauty. Gods, Devils ... were greedy to get

her” (Pratham Khanda 491). Ray rewites a Draupadi who boasts about her beauty

herself but in the canonical version it is done by Vyasa himself. Like many women

Ray’s Draupadi too is conscious about her appearance, dress and ornaments. When
 Mishra 52

Draupadi was to meet Krishna as arranged by her father, she was much worried about

her looks:

... Quickly I got ready. But I was not pleased with my appearance and

dress ... again and again I was standing before the mirror changing my

saris, changing my ornaments. Nothing would satisfy me. I was

thinking: if it was for facing such lovely eyes that I had been bom, then

why did the creator not give me a more agreeable appearance? (20-21)

Ray develops the inner contradiction within Draupadi, between the spiritual

and the physical self. Even after so much ftiss she went to meet him unadorned. She

wastes much time in thinking and gets late. On the one hand Ray makes her over-

conscious about her looks, and on the other hand she appears to be extremely careless

about it which is evident when her father calls her to meet Krishna. Love makes her a

less self-conscious being and she rushes out in haste without a thought to her looks.

She surrenders to her father’s wishes without a second thought: “There was now no

time to adorn myself. I was absolutely unadorned... There was no time to plait my

wet hair either... but I did not bother” (21). This reflects impulsive nature of Ray’s

Draupadi which has not been mentioned in Vyasa’s Mahabharata.

Ray’s Draupadi, in this novel not only boasts about her beauty but is also

proud of her education. She comes across as an extremely learned woman as the

narrative proceeds. She is adept in her qualities. She claims to be a fast learner and a

poet with multiple talents:

Both my tutor and my father said that I was scholarly, knowledge-

hungry. Quickly I mastered many branches of knowledge. I became an

 Mishra 53

expert in mathematics, music, painting, cooker)', flower-arrangement,

hospitality and other matters. But writing poetry was an obsession

which I went on learning by myself. Father did not know anything

about this. (14)

Unlike the Draupadi of The Mahabharata, Ray’s Draupadi has a flair for

writing poetry. Writing poetry is a passion for her. Her father often arranged for

poetry sessions and discussions on poetry in his court, as she states: “at these

discussions, my queries were resolved. Attempts were made to quench my thirst for

knowledge. But this thirst was limitless” (14).

Ray brings in the idea of a woman confidante who could serve as a substitute

to the maternal affection lacking in Draupadi’s life. In the novel Ray makes Draupadi

speak about her friends with whom she used to share her secrets. One of them is

Nitambini to whom she exposes her heart’s desire without any reservation.

“Nitambini was my favourite sakhi. That day I was enjoying the evening breeze in the

garden. In private I asked her, “Who is Krishna?”(10). It is through Nitambini, that

Draupadi comes to know about Krishna. Draupadi gets all the information about

Krishna from Nitambini that in his teens he was in love with sixteen thousand gopis

and the ruler of Dvaraka.

Ray represents an infatuated Draupadi who expresses her physical desire for

Krishna. Like any ordinary young girl of her age, Draupadi dreams of a romantic

lover in Krishna. She easily succumbs to fantasies; “I was lost in a dream - Krishna’s

form! That vision was my constant companion. At that age who did not indulge in

fantasy? How much joy there was in imagination! Every fancy of everyone does not

come true. Yet, who can live fancy-free?” (11). Yet like modem women characters of
 Mishra 54

twentieth century fiction, Ray’s Draupadi is also bold enough to express her fantasy

for Krishna, who is presented as her first love.

Women in the twentieth century are bolder in expressing their physical desires

which at one time would have been considered taboo. The earlier version does not

refer to any such feelings of Draupadi. Both Vyasa and Sarala are silent about any

feelings or experience in her life for anyone. Whereas, in the novel Draupadi nurtures

romantic feelings for Krishna even without having met him. She develops strange

emotions for Krishna only after her father declares him to be her suit in future. She

expresses freely and clearly her romantic feelings for Krishna, “Like one drunk, I lay

down in Nitambini’s lap. My whole body was throbbing. My heart was aching with a

peculiar surge of emotion. This feeling I had never had before. What was it? Why did

it occur?” (11-12)

Romantic, in her imagination, as she is, Draupadi also is presented as a

romantic through her association with nature. She has weakness for flowers. As

Gillian Beer in his essay “Representing Women; Re- Presenting the Past” (1989),

observes “that ‘nature’ has remained a constant concept, and constantly in alliance

with women” (80). She doesn’t like them to be plucked. She regrets when Nitambini

plucked two lilies and exclaims with sorrow, “Along with water she had plucked two

lilies. “Alas! Why did you pluck the flowers? All night long the blue lilies would have

laughed drinking the moonshine. Nitambini, you are heartless!”(12)

Not only flowers, but Ray’s Draupadi is affectionate towards birds. She has a

pet bird called Nilmani, not mentioned in the epic. Draupadi kept this bird in a gilded

cage. Ray wants to express Draupadi’s love for birds. Like the caged bird Ray’s

Draupadi is symbolic of being captured in the golden cage of patriarchy. Her soul
 Mishra 55

becomes captive inside her as her desires and wishes remain unfulfilled as “the soul is

the prison of the body” (Butler 34).

Although Draupadi has often been insulted because she was the wife of five

husbands, and insinuating remarks are made about her moral character, Ray’s tale

gives her the honor of holding the Pandavas together and being an agent of change

during her time. Draupadi has strength that is lacking in most other mythological

heroines. Ray affirms that Draupadi was the strength of the Pandavas as she kept them

united by her beauty and quality. God had given her many qualities and all five

brothers found source of their own inclinations’ and likes in her. Vyasa also justifies

Draupadi’s polyandrous marriage by pleading the preservation of dharma in Aryavart.

It appears as if it was necessary for the five Pandavas to be strung together for a

greater cause, Ray puts in words the views of Vyasa as he tries to resolve Drupad’s

dilemma in accepting five grooms for his daughter:

Only your beautiful daughter Krishnaa is capable of keeping them tied

together. The flower-garland is resplendent on the deity’s neck but

who can discount the significance of the thread hidden in the flowers?

Similarly even if it is the five Pandavas who will establish dharma in

Aryavart, Krishnaa’s noble role will be recorded in sacred letters in the

annals of time. The life of Krishnaa, exceptional and incomparable.

Then where is the dilemma? (67-68)

Even Draupadi’s dilemma ended when she heard the conversation between her

father and Ved Vyasa, and she internalizes the idea that she was bom to establish the

patriarchal notion of ‘dharma’ by keeping the brothers united. Draupadi had earlier

protested and argued with Vyasa against the polyandrous marriage. Later, however,
 Mishra 56

she surrenders in silence to the wishes of her male elders. But silence, in times when

women were not allowed to voice their opinions in public can also be read as a mark

of protest. However, she could not really get rid of the inner conflict within her

regarding the almost forced acceptance of others’ decisions. Trying to fit into the role

of an ideal daughter and wife, and accepting “dharma” as her ideal, she decides to

suppress her personal anguish; “I became the subtle thread for keeping the five

flowers bound together, whom no one would see; whose pain and anguish no one

would know; word of whose torment would reach none” (68).

Her arguments against polyandry make Vyasadev smile with amusement.

Although she was not aware that her fate was playing “hide- and- seek” (98). She

dared to accept her elders’ decision as a challenge, “when that predicament appeared

in my life, I accepted it as a test of womanhood. It was a challenge for the entire

female race. Without protest, I accepted the commands of Yudhishtir and mother

Kunti” (98).

It is easy to empathise with Ray’s Draupadi and feel sorry for her predicament.

It is indeed a challenge for her to discharge her duty towards the five husbands and

meet their various demands: a virtuous Yudhisthir, a demanding Bhima, Arjun who

blames her for accepting his brothers as her husbands (for not saying no to the

suggestion, although he himself didn’t say so), childlike Nakul and Sahadev. Each

husband needing to be treated differently according to his temperament. She remarks

that “all events of my life were similarly dramatic. From that day till the last instant of

my life I would have to appear in five roles. I would have to prepare my mind and this

body made up of five elements according to the characters and inclinations of my five

husbands” (63-64).
 Mishra 57

Ray’s Draupadi is a symbol of the archetypal Indian woman, a character

“culturalized” to symbolize chastity. A role model generated by a patriarchal society

to showcase what a woman ideally should be: pure, law abiding, beholder of family &

social honour and a personification of beauty and sacrifice. “Life is sacrifice from the

minute you step into this world and God is your only shelter from it” (77).

Draupadi and Krishna share a spiritual trust and love that her five husbands

accept unquestioningly. Ray’s Draupadi goes so far as to advise Satyabhama, one of

Krishna’s wives, not to fight among themselves for possessing Krishna. She believed

that they should surrender, body and soul to him. Draupadi instructs her how to keep

her husband happy. It was only the fate of women to be the property and possession

of the male. As Meenakshi Mukherjee marks in her essay “Epic and Novel in India”

(2006): “women and land are both seen as natural properties of men, the conquest of

land and the possession of women often blending into a composite metaphor”(614).

Whereas, Draupadi never questions them about claims of their right on her body. She

is rather compromising to the idea that women should obey their husbands till the end

of her life:

Removing pride from within me, I pour out my feminity like an

offering of flowers before my husbands, made fragrant by the water of

desireless action. I try not to be envious under any circumstance. My

endeavour is to remain natural... To lend courage and strength to

husbands in misfortune and danger is the dharma of women. It is on

this I concentrate. (315)

 Mishra 58

The novel treats her as a human being with human flaws of jealousy, for

Subhadra, and longing, more for Aijun than for his other brothers. Catherine Belsey

and Jane Moore mention that “women in general are prone to feelings of insecurity

and jealousy; they have a reduced sense ofjustice, a less developed commitment to

moral principles than men; and they are more commonly motivated by feelings than

by reason” in the Introduction of their essay The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender

and the Politics ofLiterary Criticism (1989). Her dilemma at having to marry five

husbands, or her feelings for Kama, or the constant flirting with Krishna tells the story

of a woman who was at odds with herself. She loves Aijun but also starts loving

Bhima at some point in the story.

Draupadi has all along been a pawn for fulfilling someone else's desires and

dharma; a dutiful wife of five brothers, her honour could be saved by her only friend

Krishna, and at the end of a life of suffering she was left behind when the husbands

made their way to heaven. Even the one who loved her most preferred his dharma of

obeying his elder brother's orders to staying back to help her.

Her decision to deprive Kama of his candidature in the Swayamvaraa came

under a princess’s discretionary right of discarding or accepting someone as her

husband. But her representation in the novel, Yajnaseni begins with a portrayal of

Draupadi’s pre-marital love for Krishna. But Draupadi, of Yajnaseni has no moral

compunction and commitment and does not mind shifting her affections from one

person to another in no time. She is ready to marry a third person when her second

love, Arjun is reportedly dead. She consoles herself “in this Brahmin youth it is Arjun

whom I wed with all my heart and soul. From this day this youth is my Arjun.

Whosoever has been graced with Krishna’s love is Arjun” (46-47).

 Mishra 59

Draupadi’s infatuation towards Kama is further understood when Kama

abuses her and she shamelessly tolerates all the insults when Kama denies food from

Draupadi since she, according to him, was like a harlot. Kama passes unfavourable

remarks against her by saying that the dharma of a woman is to have only one

husband; a woman may take a second husband if the first husband dies but having

five husbands is not sanctioned anywhere. This imaginative flight of Ray does not

seem to be based on existing evidence or other existing older narratives. The dialogue

between Kama and Draupadi leads to Kama’s insulting her infront of Maya:

... Even to touch water from her hands is to loose one’s dharma. Look,

in these matters I am very rigid and traditional. Your queen, being

Yajnaseni, despite marrying five husbands can be famed chaste. But

the ordinary woman in such circumstances is termed unchaste. How

can I accept food cooked by her? In these matters I am extremely

particular. (133)

And surprisingly this insolence does not arouse Draupadi’s anger for Kama

but her heart is filled with hatred for her own husbands as the narrative continues with

a complete deviation from the original version challenging an intellectual problem. As

rightly stated by Miller, “... the nature and function of narrative is a challenging

intellectual problem; narrative cannot by any means be taken for granted” (68). Ray’s

Draupadi regrets and develops romantic feelings for Kama despite of her five

husbands. Though initially Draupadi detests Kama for being sarcastic to her but she

thinks his gaze is better than her five husbands. She could sense lust in the eyes of the

brothers when she is asked to marry them. Most of all she hated Yudhishthir’s gaze:
 Mishra 60

... Lust-crazed by my beauty, bereft of reason and judgment, would

these brothers impose upon me their whimsical authority and should I

accept that?

Disgust was welling up in my heart for the elder brother. In his eyes i

could clearly make out the secret flame of lust. (56)

In the very same context Ray’s Draupadi affirms Kama’s ‘gaze’ to be free

from lust. Here Ray’s Draupadi challenges the character of virtuous Yudhishthir

making him an ordinary man whereas, her husbands’ enemy, Kama becomes a

gentleman: “suddenly I noticed Kama gazing at me fixedly as though enchanted. Not

an eye was blinking. Flames of perverted lust were not burning in those eyes. A

sweet, compassionate, muted light of affection was visible, lit secretly in a hesitant

eagerness” (258).

The Mahabharata portrays Draupadi as an ideal character with lofty values.

Although the princess of a kingdom like Panchala, she undergoes the sufferings of

living in dense forest with her exiled husbands, extending her company and unstinted

cooperation to them. Although in the earlier versions of Mahabharata there is not a

single occasion when Draupadi has a dialogue with Kama, in her self-written

Mahabharata, Ray has created situations where very often Kama and Draupadi meet

and exchange dialogues. They even come physically close when he saves her from

drowning in the Yamuna;

... In a single leap he seized my arm and pulled me to the shore. Before

losing consciousness it seemed to me that someone’s reassuring hand

was pul ling me out of the water. The body was floating somehow,

exhausted. It seemed to me as though I were touching Phalguni. That

 Mishra 61

hand in which the royal priest had one day placed mine, how

unfamiliar had it become in the meantime. (180)

The story almost develops on the illicit infatuation of Draupadi for Kama.

Even while it revolves around her relationship with Krishna and her five husbands,

Draupadi’s infatuation for Kama is unintentional. “A sweet, compassionate, muted

light of affection was visible, lit secretly in a hesitant eagerness. My heart leaped.

Then I cursed myself. He who was the cause of such gross insults to me - his

infatuated stare was thrilling me! Chheeh! Not a jot of self-respect remained within

me” (258).

The novel portrays the end of the life cycle of Draupadi of Ray with a

discourse in which she engages with Lord Krishna. Here she not only longs to unearth

the reason for her choices but demands an understanding from others who are the

audience of her extraordinary tale. Though Ray has endeavoured through her novel to

share the predicament of Draupadi, nevertheless her sufferings never seem to end.

The novel turns mythical Draupadi into a feminist who raises voice against the

injustice done to her, and against the subjugation of women to patriarchal powers.

Along with her concern for women, Ray further expands the horizon of her discussion

and poses her stand against discriminations of class, caste and gender.

Ray’s Draupadi emerges as a stronger character nearer to our imagination of a

contemporary woman. Indian sensibility is intrinsically shaped as well as nourished

by religion and mythology. Mahabharata and Ramayana, the preservers of tradition

and spirituality are paradoxically the carriers of transformations which have

transgressed the rigid boundaries of culture and conventional ideology.

 Mishra 62

Even though, Draupadi dares to questions in the Kura Court that, “How is it so

that being wife of five Pandavas, sister of Dhristadyunma and friend of Lord Sri

Krishna I have been dragged into this assembly of Kings?” (Pratham Khanda 907),

the indescribable distress which Draupadi has undergone is difficult to comprehend in

the original version. The exploitation of her body and soul finds portrayal in

Yajnmeni. Her words in this regard are pertinent: “then my life, the life of one bom of

this spark created by the friction of wood and fire — how could that be complete

without conflicts” (47). She is rendered an existence in terms of others. She is

someone’s daughter, wife and daughter-in-law. Ray’s Draupadi captured very well the

difference “between the dreams of a virgin’s mind and the reality” (98) of a married

woman.
 Mishra 63

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Beer, Gillian. “Representing Women: Re- Presenting the Past.” The Feminist Reader:

Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism. Ed. Catherine Belsey

and Jane Moore. London: Macmillan. 1989. 63-80. Print.

Coward, Rosalind. “The True Story of How I Became My Own Person.” The

Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics ofLiterary Criticism. Ed.

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Das, Sarnia. Mahabharata. Cuttack. Dharmagrantha Store, n.p. Print.

Jehlen, Myra. “Gender.” Critical Terms for Literary Study. Ed. Frank Lentricchia and

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Karve, Irawati. Yuganta: The End ofan Epoch. Mumbai: Orient Blackswan, 2008.

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Mahabharata. Gorakhpur: Gita Press, [Link].

Miller, J. Hillis. “Narrative.” Critical Terms for Literary Study. Ed. Frank Lentricchia

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Mitchell, W.J.T. “Representation.” Critical Terms for Literary Study. Ed. Frank

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 Mishra 64

Mukherjee, Meenakshi. “Epic and Novel in India.” The Novel: Volume 1 History,

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Rao, A.S. Myth and History in Contemporary Indian Novel in English. New Delhi:

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Singh, Pankaj K. and Jaidev. “Decentering a Patriarchal Myth: Bhisham Sahni’s

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