Mahabharata Related Discussions - Page 8

Originally posted by: .Vrish.

I have a new question about Draupadi.

When it was decided that she should marry all the 5 Pandavas, a few precedents supporting polyandry were cited in that context. Does anyone recall who they were, and what the background stories were regarding them?

I wrote about this some years ago in the 9X Mahabharata serial forum and just today mentioned it in a post in the DKDM forum. It seems the creatives took some inspiration from one of those background stories for their current Indra track.

Here is my old post from the 9X forum:

[quote=Kal El]
It seems to me that the arguments and justifications behind Draupadi's polyandry are never mentioned completely by anyone. Most people leave out a lot of elements. There was a question somewhere about the justifications behind the polyandry and only a truncated answer was provided. Let me try and add some more detail. 😊


It all started with Kunti's order to divide the alms equally amongst the brothers as we all know. When she saw it was actually a woman she asked Yudhisthir to settle the issue: how would they prevent Draupadi from committing a major sin while also ensuring that her words don't become false?

Yudhisthir said Arjun should marry Draupadi since he had won the swayamvar competition but Arjun objected saying that it would be inappropriate for him to marry before Yudhisthir or Bhima (strangely, Hidimba is never mentioned).

Here it is explicitly stated that all 5 of the brothers had fallen in love with Draupadi. Yudhisthir understood what was happening and was afraid of a division amongst the brothers. Hence he decided that they would all marry Draupadi.

After this of course, the matter reached Drupad's court as we know. Let's skip over the introductory details between Drupad and the Pandavas and go to the marriage issue directly. Drupad, shocked at the polyandrous proposition, questions Yudhisthir who offers a number of arguments. The first argument is of course the most famous one: that it had been ordered by their mother whom they cannot disobey. Yudhisthir then says that he is unmarried and so is Bhima (again, no mention of Hidimba). He says that it is their rule that they always share equally whatever prize they win. Hence they will all share Draupadi.

Drupad, still not convinced, says that while it is the norm for men to take many wives how can a woman take multiple husbands? It is here that Yudhisthir provides his second and very enigmatic argument. He says that dharma or morality is a subtle issue. It is not always possible to know how dharma plays out (note that he is being unusually vague in this argument). His heart says this is the right choice and he has never entertained any sin in his heart. Therefore this should be the correct path. He also made a most interesting statement: that it would be best to follow the ways of their ancestors.

I have bolded above the most enigmatic statement made by Yudhisthir on this topic: that they should follow the ways of their ancestors. This line is very curious. Scholars have debated on exactly what he meant. Some have theorized that he is referring to their early life in the Himalayas (before Pandu died) where they may have come into contact with a branch of Kurus who had probably settled in that region. It is a fact that polyandry has been practised in the Himalayan regions and it is still practiced in some places over there even today. Perhaps Yudhisthir was referring to the "ways" of their northern ancestors. It is a matter of debate.

The matter does not end here. Ved Vyas makes his entry here and the matter is laid before him. Yudhisthir then places his third argument: he says that he has read in the puranas that a rishi's daughter called Jatila, from rishi Gautam's lineage, had married seven rishis. Yet she was still known as one of the most chaste women. He had also read about another woman, born from a tree and fathered by a rishi, being married to 10 rishi brothers and still being glorified as chaste/virtuous. So how can their marrying Draupadi be wrong especially since it was commanded so by their mother?

Yudhisthir's second and third arguments are usually overlooked in discussions. 😊

Finally, when it comes to Ved Vyas, people mention the story of Shiva's boon but overlook another story that he described. Let me throw light on it.

Long ago, the devas had arranged a great yajna in the Naimishi forest near the confluence of Bhagirathi and Gomti rivers. Lord Yama was performing the sacrifice of animals in that yajna. Because Yama was busy there, death had vanished from earth. No human being was dying and the world became overpopulated. The devas became worried that the humans had seemingly become immortal and there was no longer any distinction between devas and humans. They went to Brahma for a solution. He said that things would resume their normal course once the yajna was over and Yama returned to his duties.

The devas then went back to the yajna. There, Indra observed a golden lotus floating along the river. Curious, he followed the lotus to the Himalayas. There he saw a woman bathing in the river. She was continously weeping and her tears were transforming into golden lotuses. He asked her what was the matter. She said that to find out, he must follow her and see for himself. Indra did so and she led him to one of the mountain peaks where he saw a couple on a throne playing dice. Indra introduced himself as the lord of the universe but they paid no attention. This angered Indra and he again said that he was lord of the universe. Of course, the couple were none other than Lord Shiva and Parvati. Shiva paralyzed Indra with a look and continued the game of dice. Once the game was finished, Shiva commanded the woman to bring Indra to him so that he may crush his arrogance. The moment that woman touched Indra he fell down. Shiva told him to remove a large stone and enter the cave where there were four other men resembling Indra and also in a pathetic state. Indra went inside, tried to placate Shiva and asked him about the other men. As it turns out, those men were Indras from previous kalpas and they had also insulted Shiva out of arrogance. Hence Shiva commanded them all to be born on earth and carry out great deeds so that they may regain the status of Indra which they had lost due to arrogance. The four previous Indras immediately agreed and requested that they should be fathered by Vayu, Yama/Dharma and the Ashwinis so that they will be able to use both human and divine means in their battles on earth and thus ensure that they regain the status of Indra.

The current Indra proposed that, instead of going himself, he would send a portion of himself to earth.

Shiva, out of kindness, granted their wishes and also commanded that the woman who had led Indra to him would be the common wife of the 5 Indras on earth. Vyas says that that woman was the goddess Sri.

The rest is of course, history: the 5 Indras were reborn as the Pandavas (Arjun being the partial incarnation of the current Indra) and the goddess Sri became Draupadi.

Vyas then granted Drupad temporary divine sight by which he was able to see the Pandavas and Draupadi in their original divine form.

After this Vyas also described the story of Draupadi being a rishi's daugher in her previous birth who received the boon of 5 husbands from Shiva. This story is the one usually mentioned in discussions and has already been posted earlier.

And that's it. These are all the arguments and justifications provided regarding Draupadi's polyandrous marriage. It was only after all this that Drupad gave his consent. 😃[/quote]

Note: in that last story the rishi's daughter got that boon because in her excitement she repeated the request five times and Shiva therefore blessed her to have five husbands in a subsequent life.

Originally posted by: ShivangBuch

I don't remember where exactly but it must be in the SOC thread itself on the earlier pages where I mentioned about Hanuman, Saamb and Ashwatthama to be Satvik, Rajsik and Tamsik ansh of Shiv-Shankar-Rudra possibly. This we did when we were discussing something regarding Saamb in the game. You probably have forgotten the minute details of my post because Ashwatthama was not the main topic. In fact, I have posted this quite a few times IIRC. And so far as Ashwatthama overpowering everyone, I would say that he was ansh avatar (even Saamb could have over powered everyone then) and was mighty and powerful in absolute sense. And he was destructive. That's the quality or characteristic to be looked at. And what I used in the game was the fact - pure text written in MB and HVP so it had nothing to do with the logic of how could he be Rudra's incarnation or part incarnation. BTW if you didn't remember my earlier posts and Ashwatthama Rudra point is new to you then how did you crack it in the quiz?

Yeah, read Sauptika Parva. I can't reproduce that @ the moment - I might dig up things later.

Well I am open over here for both to believe and not to believe Saamb and Ashwatthama to be part of Shiv or Rudra because God's play is always not understandable (In fact we all are God's ansh but having the layer of trigunmayi maya - even Ravan is another form of Ram one can say because he was also living in Vaikunth as gatekeeper and was Shiv's devotee by nature but born with Tamas quality). Saamb or Ashwatthama may have been born with some quality or vibhooti or excellence (power or concentration or anyone for that matter just as a boon of Shiv) or to fulfill some purpose of Shiv (and Bhishma and everyone else were divine incarnations). So that vibhooti may or may not be invincible in a war but still a quality or excellence in its own field. Even people believe Swami Vivekanand to be an incarnation of Shiv but he had his particular journey to realize self. So may be it is like God's part incarnation is not always born realized or on righteous actions (Parashuram is the example possibly) or doesn't always have control over mind/anger (Narsinha is the example - and Rudra is himself Anger personified and God absorbs every quality in him) but has a predefined divine purpose (whether fulfilled in Satvik or Rajasik or Tamasik way and teachings given to the world either in positive sense like Lord Ram or negative sense) and some spiritual qualities as excellence (like concentration as I said). Epics may be calling some crucial spiritual quality of them to be the ANSH and not the ability or willingness to identify dharm in every moment of life or defeating every warrior you confront in a war.

On Samba's role, I'm not getting how his abducting Lakshmanaa was helpful. Only thing I can imagine was that it denied Duryodhan a potential ally from kingdoms that may have been on the fence, or neutral. But the rules were different - had any kingdom given a princess in marriage to the Kauravas, they'd have been dutybound to support them, but had any kingdom received a Kaurava princess, such as Lakshmanaa, they wouldn't have. So this part escapes me.

I think the war would have taken place even had Krishna joined the Pandavas as their senapati. He did fight other wars before, so this one didn't have to be different. He could have let Bhima kill Duryodhan & Dushashan, Arjun kill Karna (had he been fighting, Bheeshma may not have prevented Karna's participation) while keeping Ashwatthama - possessor of the Narayanastra & Brahmashira - @ bay. The usual combats would have happened, but it would have been a lot more balanced.