Originally posted by: varaali
Vrish-
While you are right in saying that Bhanumati ought to have taken the lead in welcoming Draupadi, that doesn't necessarily mean Dushala was still unmarried.
Even if we assume that Dushala was unmarried, she still would not have got the right to welcome Draupadi. The moment Duryodhana or any prince Kaurarava brought a wife home, Dushala would have been superseded- regardless of her own marital status.
Dushala would have been elder to Bhanumati and the other Kaurava bahus . May be she was the bossy nanand shown in typical saas bahu serials and must have elbowed Bhanumati out.
There is nothing technically wrong in Dushala welcoming Draupadi.
There is no reason why she shouldn't be there to welcome someone to her parental home. A daughter of a house doesn't cease to be a daughter just b'cos she gets married into some other family.
From the Vana Parva
And Yudhishthira replied, saying, 'O thou of mighty arms remembering (our sister) Dussala and the celebrated Gandhari, thou shouldst not slay the king of Sindhu even though he is so wicked!'
You are right that Dushala wouldn't have had any role in welcoming Draupadi had Duryodhan or any of his brothers been married. But since this tidbit comes from Vyasa, rather than ⭐️ Puranas, we have to take it as is, and then construct everything else from that.
So if Duhsala welcomed Draupadi, it may be safe to conclude that Duryodhan & his brothers too were unmarried at the time. Which would be really strange, b'cos the Pandavas ruled Indraprastha for 36 years b4 the game of dice happened, and during that time, Duryodhan, Duhsala & all their brothers would have had enough time to not just marry, but have kids as well. But given what Vyasa writes, that's the only conclusion to draw.
I however disagree w/ the stuff in bold above in the event that Duhsala was married. While in the 20th century & earlier, married women did participate in their maayka activities, it's rather far fetched to assume that they had such rights in Dwapar Yuga Aryavarta, or even in the Golden age. Particularly in the case of royal families. Here, Duhsala's presence in Hastinapur to welcome Draupadi would have symbolized not a Kaurava, but a Saindava, welcome of Draupadi, and then the propriety of that would be triggered: Hastinapur wasn't ruled by Jayadrath for Duhsala to have such a status. Which is why that passage strongly convinces me now that none of the Kauravas were married.
The next citation from Jayadrath's attempt on Draupadi doesn't contradict my theory above. It's perfectly possible that once the Pandavas were exiled, the Kauravas set up building their alliances, and in year 1 of the exile, Jayadrath married Duhsala. So they could have had Suratha say a year or so later, and therefore, Suratha would have been too young to participate in the war, and probably stayed home w/ his mom to run the kingdom while his father was away in Kurukshetra. During that time, he he probably married and had his baby, and committed suicide/died of fright when he heard of either his father's death, or Arjun coming to Sindhu for the Ashwamedha yagna.
Duryodhan himself may have married Bhanumati, and his brothers too would have married during the exile. That would also explain why Laxmana was a boy when he was killed by Abhimanyu, and that other than Shrutakarna, the other Kaurava brothers don't seem to have had any kids. Only thing that flies in the face of that is Duryodhan's daughter Laxmanaa marrying Samba: it's unclear in which year of the exile would she have done that. In short, the Kauravas could have done their 100 marriages & alliance building in the run up to the war.
