Mahabharata: The Woman's Life-Story

Draupadi is a wonder woman in the history of literature. She is undoubtedly the central character in Mahabharata. Other than the Draupadi we find in Vyasa’s Mahabharata – in all Folk Mahabharatas –Draupadi is a powerful woman with powerful sexuality. In the Buddhist Jataka, Draupadi has illicit sexual relation with a hump-backed servant; in some Folk Mahabharata of South India, Draupadi has secret sexual desire for Krishna and Karna; in Bheel Bharata – a Folk Mahabharata of the Bheel (or, Bhil) tribes of Rajasthan – she has sexual relation with Vasuka Naga, a ‘snake’ king and is Vasuki’s willing sexual partner for sometime; and in Devi Bhagavata Puraana, Kichaka, the brother-in-law of King Virata of Matsya Kingdom, rapes her. In the present story, my attempt to reconcile ‘classical’ and Folk Draupadi, is by infusing the Greek mythical elements in Draupadi’s sexual relations outside her polyandrous marriage. Draupadi – to me – is the superior example of woman’s Evolutionary Psychology in full splendour.