Going to get married in three days. Thinking about the emotions and feelings that will be going on in the mind of a bride at the time of marriage, I got to wandering about the mind of Draupadi, who had to marry five men on five days. How would she have adjusted her mind to marrying someone one day and subjecting herself to marriage with another the next day? It's hard enough to accept one person fully, and what turbulence would have gone in her mind thinking about accepting five men? Did she not want to cry out to let her take her own decisions?
What would any other woman, a weak-minded one, have done in her situation? I don't believe in the oft-quoted answer that she loved all the five Pandavas. It may have been possible, but not at first. May be after learning to live with them. May be it would be like doing some things out of practice and the fondness that grows of being with each other for a long time. Some one once told me that of all the husbands, Draupadi's true love was always Arjuna. Maybe she accepted the others for him. I guess nobody will ever know.
What would any other woman, a weak-minded one, have done in her situation? I don't believe in the oft-quoted answer that she loved all the five Pandavas. It may have been possible, but not at first. May be after learning to live with them. May be it would be like doing some things out of practice and the fondness that grows of being with each other for a long time. Some one once told me that of all the husbands, Draupadi's true love was always Arjuna. Maybe she accepted the others for him. I guess nobody will ever know.
hmm ... a girl, on the eve of her own marriage with one man in 21st century, wondering about a certain Draupadi's mind on the eve of her's with five men some 30-50 centuries ago!
ReplyDelete... among all species of animals, only human tribes exhibit Fraternal Polyandry (marrying multiple brothers) for Socio-Political-Economic reasons ...
... apparently the gutsy dudett found love & use for everyone of those five dudes after being convinced about the soc-pol-eco advantages by her equally gutsy & enterprising mother-in-law, who had borne those very 5 dudes (and one more) from six different heavenly folks and married a seventh one for earthly purposes ... :)
... detailed reading of the minds of the protagonists could be found in S.L.Byrapp's humanly plausible rendering of Draupadi's story in Parva ..