**Mahabharti Draupadi - Pooja Sharma's AT**#7 - Page 17

Ch. Sweety Helen is Executive Secretary, Commission on Youth, National Council of Churches in India. A feminist and a Biblical Scholar, here she reflects on the story of Rizpah from the perspectives of Life, Justice and Peace.

Introduction:

"I won't rest until the blood of the sinning Duchashanans and Duriyodhanan have caressed my hair. Until that day comes, my hair shall remain the way it does today, unbraided, uncared for just like I am today." says Draupadi according to the Tamil poet Bharathiyar in his Paanchali Sabadam.[1]

Draupadi's Oath

Draupadi was the daughter of the king Drupada of Panchaal. She was allegedly born out of a sacrificial fire and her birth was accompanied by an oracle which declared her "the greatest among all women".[2] Draupadi is one of the outstanding women, the Hindu mythology has offered to the world. The epic presents Draupadi as displaying her individuality, strength, and unyielding determination both for justice and vengeance. Through these characteristics Draupadi has become a symbol of empowerment of women and has gained the worship of followers. The Mahabharata is where Draupadi's history begins. As a prominent female character and heroine of the epic, Draupadi is presented as the wife of five pandava princes in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Draupadi and her five husbands Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva are wed after Arjuna impressively wins Draupadi's swayamvara.[3] She is a heroine who is unpredictable, unwavering and who possess the austerity of a traditional Hindu wife. Many see Draupadi as an early feminist because of her fearlessness in admonishing those who harmed her and her family. Draupadi existed in a time when a woman's role was to serve her husband.[4]

Draupadi cheerharan /Vasthrapaharanam remain as the most vivid of Mahabharata, basically because vasthrapaharanam is one of the main reasons for the Mahabharata war and it is also a breaking point for Draupadi. In the great assembly hall where dice was being played, all the Kuru elders, Bhishma, teachers like Drona and Kripa and Vidura, all were sitting without speaking. When Yudhishthira lost in the game, Duryodhana said that the Pandavas were now slaves. He sent one maid to bring Draupadi into the hall as she was now a slave. The maid went to Draupadi' chamber and told her about the Pandavas doings. They were all slaves and so was she. Draupadi was very angry. She sent the maid away saying that Yudhisthira had no right to stake her in gambling. It was not allowed in the dharma. The maid came back to the assembly hall and told Duryodhana about Draupadi's response. Duryodhana, became very angry and he asked his younger brother Duchsashan to fetch Draupadi, forcefully into the hall. Duchsashan went to Draupadi's chamber and catching hold of Draupadi by her hair, dragged her to the assembly hall. Raging with anger, Draupadi appealed the assembly to raise their voice against such gross injustice. None had a word to say. The Pandavas were also sitting dumb, with their heads downcast. Draupadi asked, "What right Yudhisthira had to put her at stake in the gambling?" No one spoke again. Duryodhana became even more angry at Draupadi. He ordered younger brother to remove the clothes of Draupadi in the assembly, forcibly. Even then no one protested. Draupadi in desperation, appealed to Krishna.[5] Krishna works a miracle to prevent her sari from running out of layers. Draupadi is humiliated and is angered by the Pandavas inability or reluctance to help her. It is Draupadi's reaction to situations like these that set her apart from her husbands; she is often the first one to react to the injustices and is visibly a powerful woman. [6]

Juxtposing Draupadi and Rizpah:

Draupadi and Rizpah sisters in solidarity:

Draupadi and Rizpah are women of different places, different characters, different families and are from different genres altogether. They were women who lived in different periods but they are sisters who live in solidarity with each other. They are sisters by virtue of their qualities, by virtue of their courage, by virtue of their determination and by virtue of their yearning for Justice; Justice not only to themselves but to their families as well. These women are women of courage, united in their qualities. They never to seem to give up in any circumstances never want to compromise with situations, the first to respond to the injustice that is happened, the first to take oaths to restore justice. In both their cases Justice cannot be achieved, basically because for one it is a life that is taken away and for the other it is the prestige. Their acts of courage could not bring them back what they have lost, for Draupadi it was utter humiliation in a public hall and for Rizpah it is lives of the children of Saul. But their initiatives were to shame the so-called powerful, in Draupadi' case it was the Kauravas and Pandavas as well and in Rizpah's case it is David the King and the Gibeonites who are responsible for the death of her dear ones. War has always been seen in terms of violence, bloodshed, swords, metal weapons etc. The war vaged by Daupadi did not need a metal weapon, the war vaged by Rizpah did not need bloodshed, they both used refutation'. Refutation was a weapon used by both of them to combat the injustice that is happened to both of them.

Refutation a weapon to combat injustice:

Women are expected to braid their hair in the public, when the Pandavas have lost in the game of dice, according to the Kauravas, the pandavas and Draupadi became their slaves. When Draupadi was called for, she rejected to come into the public. She felt that she doesn't have to oblige to the command of Duryodhana. She perhaps would have yelled who the hell is Yudhistira to bet me in the game. She refused to come into the public place, which reminds us of Vasthi who was very bold enough to say that she does not want to accept the command of the King. Draupadi's rejection resulted in being dragged by her hair into the assembly and was unclothed by Dhushasana. She might have shouted Dhushasana, is it not because you are Duh (tough)' and your shasanas (ruler) are dusht (bad), that you are named Dushasana' (tough ruler)? And then she cries to Lord Krishna and she was rescued but she does not stop there. She would have definitely yelled aloud, questioned the credibility of her husbands and would have instigated them to take an oath against those who have caused injustice to her. She doesn't lose her voice, doesn't lose her command over herself and lashes out at the men of the assembly. "I won't rest until the blood of the sinning Duchashanans and Duriyodhanan have caressed my hair. Until that day comes, my hair shall remain the way it does today, unbraided, uncared for just like I am today." Her refusal to braid her hair is the weapon that she has used to destroy the "powerful". The powerful who are arrogant due to their power, powerful who are proud due to their status and the powerful who forget human values.

Intercession and confrontation:

Draupadi refuses to braid her hair, she confronts with those who are gathered in the assembly. She confronts with those who are seated in the assembly and says to yudhistira since you were no longer a free man, how could you stake anything at all?" With great determination and power in her words she said "If you have loved and revered the mothers who bore you and gave you suck, if the honor of wife or sister or daughter has been dear to you, if you believe in God and dharma, forsake me not in this horror more cruel than death" "Even abandoned professional gamblers would not stake the harlots who live with them, and you, worse than they, have left the daughter of Drupada to the mercy of these ruffians. I cannot bear this injustice. You are the cause of this great crime.[9]Draupadi's voice would have trembled those who are gathered in the assembly. Her words would have put both her husbands Pandavas and the Kauravas the perpetrators of violence to shame. Her loud voice in the assembly filled her husbands with a metanonia experience and hence Bhima takes an oath to drink the blood of Duchasana as an act of repentance and break the thighs of Duryodana and the rest of the pandavas also take oaths and these oaths would have probably calm the angry Draupadi, these oaths would probably sing aloud in her ears Shanti shanti shantihi'

Conclusion

Rizpah and Draupadi are sisters in determination, conviction, faith, strength and love. They felt their refusal to bury the bodies of her sons and nephews and to be braided should be a reminder of the shameful act that is being done to them. Draupadi's vigilance to be braided and Rizpah's vigilance to offer the dead bodies a proper burial are one and the same. Their fight was to combat injustice, their determination was to force their enemies to move to action, their conviction was to challenge the injustice then and there, finally their commitment was to offer a life for justice, in justice and with justice. They believed that their gods are gods of life, Justice and peace and would accompany them in their journey with public shame, humiliation and abandonment.

http://altervoice.org/2013/10/19/vigilance-as-an-act-to-subvert-the-powerful-juxtaposing-draupadi-and-rizpah/

i only posted draupadi part. full article can be read at the link i posted