Polyandry in Mahabharata - Page 6

Originally posted by: Poorabhforever

Exactly i don't think polyandry was such an uncommon practice either. Yudhishtra himself gives a lot many example.

Not very common for sure but definitely not something like ones in a century. In fact our wrong and hesitant attitude against Polyandry is due to the Islamic slavery we faced, it was their structure and beliefs which made us feel Polyandry is something very wrong. (They still defend polygyny among themselves by saying that polygyny is better than Polyandry. Care to say how)

But thinking from a neutral point of view, polyandry isn't at all wrong at all in a society where polygyny is common, It in fact is a form of equality in whatever crooked form if might be

Originally posted by: swathi90

Continuation to my previous post

Coming to duyt sabha this s main proof that she was married to all, l believe polyandry wasn’t added to malign her image it was there already, in dyut sabha they used this mainly and insulted her repeatedly, karna wouldn’t dare to insult her with such a henious word if she wasn’t married to five legally ( strictly in karna’ s pov) , if she was only married to yudi that words karna said to her means nothing , he wouldn’t use that word at all, here vikarna duryodhan brother the only man who opposes his brothers doings and pretty much says in Draupadi defence, yudi alone doesn’t have any rt to stake panchali, because she was married to all 5 , this s what exactly he said in her defence, and y would he says that if she was married to only yudi, years back i and my professor who has profund knowledge on mahabharat discussed few points , he told me some interesting points i ll discuss this here, though polyandry s not uncommon but also became forbidden and limited by dwapayug it seems, because according to dharma a woman can have relationship ( r marriage) with 4 men more than this it ll be called illegal, there’s a reason y kunti didn’t agree to give child after arjun because she already had child with surya dev, and that makes her 4 chances over, she knows she’s not allowed according to dharma, that’s y she didn’t agree even after pandu’ s repeated pleadings and shared her mantra with madri, here I don’t believe the children were popped out in air she pretty much had intimate relationship with devas r rishis, and the birth was natural, it’s called niyoga and was leagal back then,. this s exactly how Dhritarashtra, pandu , vidur were born. Karna pretty much narrow minded man used this as leverage and dared to call her that, if she was only yudi’ s they wouid have said r done many things but wouldn’t have used that word u know ( again strictly their pov, it was mostly them who had problems with that). And bheem when yudi was staking her says openly sahadev get some fire i ll burn yudi hands who s staking her, now y would he says this, on her bhabhi defence he would have just said bhayya don’t stake bhabhi but he gets furious because she s also his wife and want to burn yudi hands whos like their father, and there’s this sentence this defiled r insulted wife of ours and how sons of her and them ll serve them r useful to serve them whatever he meant to say there, this also proves prativindhaya s not the only son because he says our sons means there r more, proves upapandavas r her children only, and arjun who never went against eldest first time says yudi doesn’t have rt on her after losing himself, because he knows what’s going to happen to her once they took her to slave quarters, karna repeatedly says take her to skave quarter, that’s when arjun reacts, this s big coming from arjun who refused to marry alone because he don’t want to make his mothers words false, he didn’t do this for bhabhi but for his wife, if it’s bhabhi he wouldn’t have interfered r atleast he wouldn’t have said yudi don’t have any right on her. I really can’t ignore bheem and arjun interactions r relationship with her.

and y exactly she asked for yudi, maharaj doesn’t give only one boon, he says i ll give u boons asks whatever u want, she asks first boon that s freedom of yudi and kingdom, it’s very important for Yudi freedom, because yudi s emperor with yudi freedom and getting kingdom back she ll get her freedom and empress status back, which s very important for her at that time, it’s because she’s slave they were calling her all sort of names now they cannot, and with empire and emperor back he can get his brothers back and she already guessed maharaj ll asks her to ask more, and it’s also practical and political move , surviving move from her, getting her position is very important for her there, that’s only happens through yudi only, and even then she can not ask for arjun and bheem, because it ll come across as partial, she knows even if she asks freedom of her warrior husband’s they ll not fight against yudi so it’s useless asking for their freedom, and technically he s her 1 husband and emperor so what she did was calculative move, and then just like she gussed maharaj asks for another boon that’s when she asks the freedom of her other husbands with their weapons, here she didn’t asks anything about herself, that’s when again maharaj asks asks something for herself but that’s here we see what an amazing woman s she , she rejects saying khatriya woman was only allowed to ask only 2 boons, and brahmin woman 3 , and her boons r over because she’s kshtriya she cannot ask anymore, this shows how much this woman s well informeed and not at all greedy. This s exactly what happened in Ramayana , kaikeyi was allowed only 2 boons because she was kshatriya. Something even karna and Duryodhana praised her for some of her qualities duryodhan praises saying even though she s empress she serves everyone with her own hands this actually doesn’t come here. So that’s s the reason y emperor freedom was necessary .

What an amazing and wonderful woman she s no matter how many times i read I always admire and love her, and what a progressive mentality she had and knows how to get herself out of any situation, just like that she saved her husband’s and got them everything they lost, she s pride of pandavas and their biggest strength someone who united them in one thread, they knows it ll breaks them, that’s y they hurted their pride, karna sole purpose s to hurt them especially arjun , Krishna says in one particular instance karna’s words hurted arjun deeply, but they saw she’s more than pandavas pride and got scared of her presence of mind and included her also in agreement.

she was dragged infront of entire court full of men in single cloth, before her ritual bath, she was on her periods that time, most probably 3 day, it says before ritual bath, just imagine back then there’s no comfortable pads like we have now, so she was dragged with stained clothes, just thinking makes me shudder, even we modern woman couldn’t have handled that but she did, faced this mighty kuru warriors and defeated them.

and that no wife s not allowed s also another rubbish, because in vana parva during satyabhama and Draupadi conversation satya asks how all her 5 husbands r devoted her and obeys every word, here she explains her life with pandavas and how she serves pandavas along with their wifes and children, here she didn’t said just subhadra but pandavas and their wifes and children, this explains other queens also present there alonng with their children.

to think that such an amazing woman was reduced to some suta putra, Andha putra comment, which doesn’t have any basis, these were later interpolations to somehow right karna’s actions.,and cheer haran s really saddening, dyut sabha s more than this, Draupadi presence of mind her political knowledge, bheems outbursts, arjun calculative moves, sadly tv shows r reallly ignoring this amazing interactions, ofcourse the pandavas actions in duyt sabha s loathsome and there’s no excuse for that . Hope she gets her due some tv , movies made her some vamp which she doesn’t deserve, the hate she gets s really sad, as they believed all those things they showed, hope she gets her due one day.

she s my favourite character apart from krishna, I somewhat like arjun and bheem also, krishna- krishnaa bond s my another favourite , i ll explain some of their moments and upapandavas, in another post, because I believe they r her kids only. And really a big salute to this woman a true mahanayak of mahabharat, an inspiration to evey generation woman, just who would put up with all those things she had gone through and still stands with dignity and grace.

Thank You for such a detailed analysis

I firmly believe she was way ahead of her and our time too, our writers couldn't tolerate her being such a boss lady so they reduced her to glorify their heroes, She is the only character whom I love in Mahabharata ❤❤❤

Originally posted by: Poorabhforever

Because yudhishtra would have never tried to seek her out actively no matter how attracted he was to het beauty or to panchal s alliance. That s how he was. Because doing so would have risked them being exposed to their enemy hence vyasa has fo come and convince yudhishtra to go for the Swamyvaar Arjuna was young and more easy to lure.

Arjun's participation can reveal their identity too. Apart from Bhishma, Karna, Drona and Arjun who could have achieved this archery contest? And Yudhi was not dumb, an alliance with the Panchals would prove beneficial. He knew politics. Why would he not participate for the good of his praja?

Originally posted by: FlauntPessimism

Definitely not very committed for sure but definitely not something like ones in a century. In fact our wrong and hesitant attitude against Polyandry is due to the Islamic slavery we faced, it was their structure and beliefs which made us feel Polyandry is something very wrong. (They still defend polygyny among themselves by saying that polygyny is better than Polyandry. Care to say how)

But thinking from a neutral point of view, polyandry isn't at all wrong in a society where polygyny is common is not wrong at all. It in fact is a form of equality in whatever crooked form if might be

I am all for drapaudi having a happy polyandrous marriage . I always felt that drapaudi was anything but upset about this arrangement she was not a f 16 year hormonal teenager of today s time she was a princess of those times they were raised to be empress.

Originally posted by: NoraSM

How can one make sure what happens? One can't decide what would have happended if they were as able they would have stopped the war which resulted in deaths of people dear to them, the outcome of war is decided on the last day of war. Krishna was just one man, He wasn't even a King, Its just that Pandavas with their allies won, None knew they Will win from day 1

Krishna was not an ordinary politician. He was not divine, but he had his plans in place and he knew how to exploit the enemies and loopholes. Consider how he manipulated Karna. Consider how he deceased Jarasandha with his tactics. Think of how he twisted the Shanti Prastav. He also was the one who continuously guided Arjun in the war from Bhishma's death to Karna's.

Originally posted by: CaptainSpark

Arjun's participation can reveal their identity too. Apart from Bhishma, Karna, Drona and Arjun who could have achieved this archery contest? And Yudhi was not dumb, an alliance with the Panchals would prove beneficial. He knew politics. Why would he not participate for the good of his praja?

Yudi wasn't planning on staying in Jungle all his life. He wanted a way back home which came with Panchal's support, Panchal was the only way for them to stake claim on Throne of Hastinapur, Even if they were discovered, didn't they defeat everyone after Draupadi's Swayamvar?

Why was discovery a problem when they were such brave soldiers?

Originally posted by: CaptainSpark

Arjun's participation can reveal their identity too. Apart from Bhishma, Karna, Drona and Arjun who could have achieved this archery contest? And Yudhi was not dumb, an alliance with the Panchals would prove beneficial. He knew politics. Why would he not participate for the good of his praja?

See there were two teams team krishnaa (drapaudi ) and team pandavas. For team p alliance was needed for obviously having some baking against there cousins. And vyasa wanted to help them out since probably because he was aware of injustice happened on them or for some other reasons but he did wanted to help hence why he goes to them with this proposal.

Now team D also wanted to this alliance because first very obviously an alliance with kuru kingdom yudhishtra still was heir apparent. Krishna having supported this match would have gained alliance fir dwaraka and also because i feel dwaraka and panchal were friends for long time reason why krishna was present and did not participate he was krishnaa s friend and very much part of the plan

Now neither of them team could be sure of the other moves hence while team D made a plan to lure arjuna in to the trap and sent vyasa to narrate the long tale of previous birth team p set up that potter house incident and that s how the one of the biggest alliance came into existence 😎

About yudhishtra i don't think he was such a praja premi.

Originally posted by: CaptainSpark

Krishna was not an ordinary politician. He was not divine, but he had his plans in place and he knew how to exploit the enemies and loopholes. Consider how he manipulated Karna. Consider how he deceased Jarasandha with his tactics. Think of how he twisted the Shanti Prastav. He also was the one who continuously guided Arjun in the war from Bhishma's death to Karna's.

I am saying wise minds have lost the war too, None can predict it. It's a story where we are seeing Krishna as someone who is doing everything in his power so some dude in Indraprastha can be the emperor, Why? The story was told and written after the war ended, If you think in retrospect one is bound to wonder if it was all a set up, Like we were wondering if Draupadi planned her insult to get boon

Why would Krishna fight for Yudi?

What if Krishna was supporting Arjuna because his Bhatija was going to be the king (Abhimanyu) like Shakuni was supporting his Bhatijas ? Now transfer this Bhatija and Behen to Duryodhan and Duryodhan has 2 mama + 2 Bhatija

One example I give you, In 2019 general Elections we all thought the result will be close with so many alliances, biggest alliance in UP which was supposed to restrict BJP, Modi was confident that he will get 300+ seats, now in retrospect everyone made Amit Shah a chanakya who planned everything, now we don't know what made people vote for Modi but the credit goes to this duo, Again this duo couldn't repeat their magic in state elections, You see one can never be sure of future

Originally posted by: Poorabhforever

I am all for drapaudi having a happy polyandrous marriage . I always felt that drapaudi was anything but upset about this arrangement she was not a f 16 year hormonal teenager of today s time she was a princess of those times they were raised to be empress.

But if all princesses were raised to be empresses, then nobody except Crown princes would find themselves wives. 😂😂😂

Another thing, Drupad's bet was not on Panchali. His only aim was revenge from Drona - he needed Dhristadyumna and he also looked for a BOY (adoption or whatever it was) . Draupadi came in as a deal, she was probably Dhrist's biological sister if adopted or born to Drupad if biological.

Now are we accepting the prophecy that this girl will bring in end of Kurus?

Her body gave out fragrance like that of a blue lotus, perceivable from a distance of full two miles. Her beauty was such that she had no equal on earth. Like a celestial herself, she could be desired (in marriage) by a celestial, a Danava, or a: Yaksha. When this girl of fair hips was born an incorporeal voice said, 'This dark-complexioned girl will be the first of all women, and she will be the cause of the destruction of many Kshatriyas. This slender-waisted one will, in time, accomplish the purpose of the gods, and along with her many a danger will overtake the Kauravas.'

If yes, then it was already a given that she would probably be an empress. Or else it would be tough for her to overtake Kurus

Originally posted by: CaptainSpark

@Poorabhforever -

Not quoting you as a long post 😂😂

Draupadi was not against polyandrous marriage, infact there is not a single instance in the epic which states she lamented her marriage. No scholar will claim this. This was a consensual polyandrous marriage and there are many examples of it. Apart from Karna, nobody had any problem with it either. Even Duryodhan never said a word against this neither did anyone in Kuru sabha as per my knowledge.

Agree completely i don't think she was sad or upset either

About Arjuna - marrying all 5 is giving her the chance to be empress too. Marrying only Yudhishthir is no way a BETTER option here if she had two options 1) Marry all 5 or 2) Marry Yudhishthir. Both have the same consequence because polyandry was not new to anyone. So this point cannot support the claim for her being only Yudhi's wife.

I am not saying marrying yudhishtra was better than marrying all 5. I am saying marrying yudhishtra was better than marrying arjuna because had she been only arjuna s wife she would have been reduced to just a shadow to the empress. Just like subdhara i love subhdra but it is a fact that she held no power in the political scenario.

Now coming to why Arjun or why Drupad arranged for an archery contest. I am of the opinion that even Drupad or Krishna were aware of Vyasa's instructions as to what is coming up. Moreover, knowing Panchali Krishna knew she was not dumb to not marry Yudhi or protest because he knew she was not a child. Hence an archery contest was arranged so that ARJUN could win it because it is important to have someone to protect her as well. We would all like to think Panchali can protect herself. But here we are looking at all possibilities and no risks. If she is married to ALL FIVE, she is empress + she gets Bheem Arjun's protection and support. I cannot accept that these two were so godly that they would give their lives for their bhabiji. No sorry 😂 Hence 5 is way better than only Yudhishthir.

In the end, modern perspective loves to reduce Mahabharata into ancient day Game of Thrones where no body cares about emotions and feelings. I refuse to accept this. You don't need to be 16 years old to have feelings for someone. Also, it is obvious that she didn't have love at first sight with Arjun. It grew after marriage. Arjun was a better person, a better man and more human than Yudhishthir and his robotic dharma when he doesn't think twice before gambling away his empire.

I think she had good relationship with all of them and no one of was more special than the others. Not even arjuna.

I still don't get if Arjun was useless and the aim was to marry only Yudhishthir, why was an archery contest arranged? Why not a Dharma quiz. Why not spear contest which could easily be won by Yudhishthir. It would only create feelings of jealousy among brothers when someone wins the contest and someone else marries. Drupad wasn't Arjun's childhood friend to know he would do nothing against Yudhi. It is natural for anyone to feel disgusted if u win something and your brother gets her and any person other than Arjun would not accept this unless it was SHARING.

Again arjuna was not useless it just that crown prince was a better match a better prospects than the third brother.

The story of Amba also existed. I don't see this logic of one person winning and another one marrying. And why Drupad was an idiot to arrange for archery when Yudhishthir was the aim.

My only answer is it's not about politics and blood only. It had something to do with more than that. Yudhi had other wives too. Did Bheem and Arjun do anything of such sort to protect her or show love to their Bhaabi? No. Why Draupadi then, unless she had a connection with all five.