Draupadi - The Tritagonist Of The Mahabharat

13 YEARS OF EXILE

The Pandavas gave up their royal robes and put on clothes made of bark of trees. Draupadi followed her husbands, giving up her life of luxury in palaces. So the forest life of the Pandavas began. Lord Krishna was the beloved God of Draupadi. He did not forget his devotees in the forest, but visited them now and again. Many sages also visited the Pandavas now and then and guided them. The Sun-God gave Yudhishthir an Akshaya Patra (magic vessel). This vessel would not become empty until Draupadi's meal was over. During the exile when Pandavas were in Kamyaka Forest, Duryodhan sent the short-tempered but highly knowledgable sage Durvasha and his thousand disciples to visit Yudhishtira. His intention was to get the Pandavas cursed by the sage Durvashsa. Yudhishtir invited the sage and his disciples to dine, for he was sure that by the virtue of the Akshaya Patra, he had received from the Sun, they would be able to feed the sage and his disciples. Everybody at that time, even Draupadi and Kunti had taken their meal and the Akshaya Patra was empty. Sage Durvasha went to take a bath in the Ganges. Draupadi got worried and she again prayed to Krishna to save her and her husbands from the wrath of Durvasha when he would find out that the Pandavas had nothing to offer him and his disciples as a meal. Lord Krishna reached the hut of Draupadi and ate the single grain of rice in the Akshaya Patra. There at the river bank, sage Durvasa and his disciples felt as if they had a sumptuous meal with many delicacies. Durvasa rishi blessed the Pandavas and they decided to change their course silently.

One day while they were walking in the forest, Draupadi saw a fruit in a tree. She was soo hungry that she plucked the fruit. When she was about to eat, her Sakha Krishna came and stopped her. He said, "Sakhi, this fruit is supposed to be a sage's fruit, who will be breaking his 12 years fast by eating this fruit today. If he doesn't find it in the tree, he will really be angry and curse all of you."

"Oh Sakha, what are you telling! I plucked it by mistake. Is there no solution for what problem I did. Please help us Govind!"

"Don't you worry Sakhi. I have a solution for your problem. But you all must say only truth. When each one of you tell the truth, the fruit will move two feet upwards, towards it's original place."
Let us start with Dharmaraj Yudhishthir.
Yudhishthir said, "Truthfulness, honesty, tolerance and righteousness should flourish in this world while wickedness, conceit and dishonesty should banish entirely. This is my wish. I hold Panchali responsible for the whole event."
At this, surprisingly, the fruit moved two feet above the ground and remained in the air.

Next, Lord Krishna asked Bheem to speak.
Bheem said, "I wish I could kill Duryodhan this very moment - the meanest of all the petty-minded people, who does not consider teasing others as a sin, who does not sympathize with others' sufferings, who is not free from the desire of appropriating others' belongings and who does not respect another man's wife as his mother. I also feel that our trials and tribulations have increased because of our staying in the forest." The fruit moved two feet further up.

Arjun spoke next. He said, "Prestige and fame mean more to me than even my life. Unless I kill Karna in the war, the ambition of my life will not be fulfilled."
The fruit moved up two feet further.

Then Nakul said, "Virtues, a noble birth, wealth or beauty do not give a person what he desires. I believe that a man can attain fame just by leading a life in this world that is based on his discrimination alone."
Again, the fruit moved up two feet.

Sahadev said, "Truth is my mother. Intelligence is my father and good deeds are my siblings. The love that I shower on others is my friend. My calm mind is my wife. The attitude of eradicating the thoughts of hatred, enemity and vendetta is my son. I believe these to be my real family." He also said that he had the knowledge of the past, the present and the future. One would never come to grief if one sought his advice, but he himself would not volunteer to offer any advice or suggestion to anyone.
The fruit moved up by two feet again.

At last, Draupadi professes her love for the Pandavas, and reveals her own faults in their situation. However, the fruit doesn't move, and Krishna surmises that she is hiding something. With great trepidation, Draupadi looked into the eyes of her husbands and laments that she wished that she had married Karna, saying that had she done so, she wouldn't have suffered such misery.

This was a shock to the Pandavas, but none said anything. The fruit went back on the branch of the tree and all was well.

Once while the Pandavas were in the Kamyaka forest, they often went hunting, leaving Draupadi alone. At this time Jayadrath, the son of Vriddhakshatra, the husband of Duryodhan's sister Dussala, passed through Kamyaka forest on the way to Salwa Desa. There he saw Draupadi. Jayadrath then started beseeching her to go away with him and desert her husbands who had fallen upon bad times. Draupadi pointed out that it was wrong to desert one's spouses when they were in difficulty and then gave him a rather long and deliberately delaying speech on exactly the sort of bad time her husbands would give him on their return. Failing with words, Jayadrath tried violence and forced her onto his chariot.
Meanwhile, the Pandavas finished their hunt and on return they found their wife was abducted. Learning of their wife's abduction by Jayadrath they rushed to save her. On seeing the Pandavas coming after him, Jayadrath left Draupadi on the road and Draupadi was saved. The Pandavas caught Jayadrath after chasing him on the chariot. Yudhishthir urged Bheem to spare Jayadrath's life for the sake of Dussala and Gandhari, much to the indignation of Draupadi. Pandavas decided to make Jayadrath humiliated. Pandavas brought Jayadrath back to their hermitage in chains and shaved his head at five places in order to publicly humiliate him and later he was freed.

In this course of time Arjun aquires Pasupatastra from Lord Shiva.

After 12 years.......
The 13th year...

On Krishna's advice, they planned to spend their hiding year in Virat's kingdom.
Arjun, made use of Urvashi's curse and addressed himself as Brihannala - the dance teacher of Virat's princess, uttara. He later helped Kumar Uttar to win the attack of Hastinapur on Virat's kingdom.
Draupadi addressed herself as Sairandhri, the famous hair stylist of Queen Sudeshna.
Nakul tends horses as Granthika and Sahadev herds cows as Tantipala.
Yudhishthir assumes the identity of game entertainer to the king and calls himself Kanka.
Bheem addressed himself of a cook Ballava.

Once, while the Pandavas were leading their normal life in their own disguised form, one day Keechak, the brother of Sudeshna, and the commander of king Virat's forces, happened to see the Draupadi. He was filled with lust by looking at her. He asked her to marry him, but Draupadi refused him saying that she was already married to Gandharvas. She warned Keechak that her husbands were very strong and that he would not be able to escape death at their hands. Later, he forced his sister, the queen, to help him win Draupadi. Sudeshana ordered Draupadi to fetch wine from Keechak's house. Draupadi tried to dissuade the queen, but fails. When Draupadi went to get wine, Keechak tried to molest her. Draupadi escaped and runs into the court of Virat. Keechak kicked her in front of all the courtiers, including Yudhishthir. Fearful of losing his most powerful warrior, even Virat did not take any action. Bheem is present, and only a look from Yudhishthir prevents him from attacking Keechak. Furious, Draupadi asks, "O king! Have you forgotten about the duties of a king and dharma?"

Draupadi then curses Keechak,"You will die by my husband's hand."

Laughing it off, Keechak only doubted their whereabouts and asked those present where are the Ghandaravas were. Yudhishthir then told Sairandhri to go to the temple, as Keechak would not do anything to her there (in some versions, he recommends she seeks refuge with the queen). With this, the king asked Keechak to leave and praised Yudhishthir's reply as he himself could not think of anything.

Later that night, Arjun consoled Draupadi, and with Bheem, they hatched a plan to kill Keechak.

Draupadi meets with Keechak, pretending to actually love him and agreeing to marry him on the condition that none of his friends or brothers would know about their relationship. chak accepted her condition. Draupadi asked Keechak to come to the dancing hall at night. Bheem(in the guise of Draupadi), fights with Keechak and kills him, with Arjun playing the mridangam in order to mask the sounds of battle.

Later, the death of Kichak reaches Hastinapur and Duryodhan doubts whether Bheem was the reason for Keechak's death.
He along with his army attack Virat's kingdom but Arjun in his disguise becomes the charioteer of Kumar Uttar and wins the battle.

In this was the Pandavas completely completed 13 years of exile.