Why didn't Krishna participate in Draupadi swayamvar?

One of the many things which I have always wondered.

Why didn't Shri Krishna participate in Draupadi swayamvar & marry/pursue her?

I want to discuss this from different angles:

1. Divine

2. Human

3. Political 

Divine - he knew what would happen.

Human/political - he knew what needed to happen.😆

Sorry about giving same answer. But Vyasa already made it clear he wanted a Kuru-Panchal alliance. Krishna later used it to dethrone Jarasandha, a major Yadava enemy. I'm assuming Krishna and Vyasa collaborated.

Not just Krishna, none of the yadavas participated in swayamvar. My best guess is they all knew the plan and were there as ladkiwaale. Nandagopan's niece was married to Drupada after all.

Yeah, Panchali probably would've had a happy life if Krishna married her. But there were bigger things at stake such as the survival of their respective clans and fear of the tyrant emperor.

On a purely literary level, some ideas of romance become all the more poignant for being left as unfulfilled possibilities. 

Hey thanks for the topic! I've always been curious about this point. Over the years I've made up some theories based on whatever I've read and seen and heard about this part.

Um, I read up this general area in SB, Drau's swayamvar is not covered in SB.

1. The first time that we see the Pandavas in SB is when Krishna sends Akrura to Hastinapura to take account of the situation there. Here, Kunti is shown lamenting that her nephew Krishna has forgotten them, so definitely they had met at least once after Kamsa Vadh and the death of Pandu. This is also right before Krishna establishes Dwarka.

So, this means the finishing of Ps education (the Rangabhoomi episode) and the 17 attacks of Jarasandha concluded around the same time. All Ps and Ks and Ys were unmarried.

2. The second reference to the Pandavas is made right and Krishna-Balaram go to HP to console the Kuru elders after the Lakshagriha tragedy. That is also right when Satrajit is murdered.

Therefore, we can conclude at the time of Lakshagriha, Krishna already had 3 wives.

3. Right after this Krishna goes on to marry 5 more princesses and then the rescued 16100 girls.

4. After this we see the stories of Pradyumna and the birth of his grandson Anirudhha and then Anirushha-Usha's marriage.

5. After that there's the killing of Banasur and then the marriage of Samba and Dury's daughter Lakshmanaa.

It is only after this that Krishna comes to IP to discuss the killing of Jarasandha.

Okay, rant over. My conclusion from this would be Drau's swayamvar was somewhere in the middle of point 4 (since we know Pradyumna is mentioned as an adult during this swayamvar).

So by then Krishna already had 16108 wives to go with. Banda drew a line there I guess. 😆

Also, if Krishna married Drau then, she would be his 16109th wife, and that also means her seniority would be 16019th. I don't really see Drau putting up with that.

To honour Panchal and increase Drau's seniority in the marriage would mean forgoing at least 8 other majo alliances (his Ashta-bhaarya) and that figure isn't too encouraging. It was all round best for both Krishna and Drau to just let this one slide. 😆

---okay let me edit this a bit---

https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/10/58/

^^Here it's mentioned the meeting of "New Bride Draupadi" with Kanha BEFORE he married 18105 girls so okay I sorta messed up the timeline.

In that case I think the over-marriage thing doesn't hold, and Shipreeta di has the better solution ke Krishna did all this to get into the close circles of the Panchals and not brew up a controversy by getting Drau a sorta-messy position.

It is because if  Lord Krishna if would have married draupdi then may be draupdi would have not tolerate 16108 wives  of Lord Krishna 

Political--

Krishna was not actually a king. Theirs was a setup like head of the group. It wasn't monarchy in the true sense. That wasn't looked as something great by the monarchs of those days. Secondly he wasn't even the chief by then, it was Ugrasen. 

Going by the kind of person Drupad was( having failed to acknowledge his best friend Dronacharya when he came to him), I don't think he would have been pleased to have Krishna as a prospective groom. 

Removing divinity, Krishna was a politician and thinker of great strategic planning. He clearly understood that if he tries for Draupadi in marriage, Drupad might insult him resulting in deterioration of relation between Kampilya and Dwarika. He didn't want that to happen, since he already had bad relations with two of the five biggest kingdoms of those days namely Vidharbha and Magadh.

On the contrary a platonic friendship with Draupadi and family gave him an entry to the innermost circle of Kampilya Naresh and thereby their support

His aunt was already a part of the royal family of Kuru clan, and it's pretty clear that he was planning to have his sister married into the Kuru clan, therefore he was somewhat sure of a support by Hastinapur. 

But at the same time he also knew that Kuru and Panchal are the biggest in India and if they come together, there would be no one in India to counter them. And with Dwarika being the alley of both it would become invincible. 

This is the reason I believe that the closeness of Duryodhan to Balramji wasn't the plan of the former but the strategy of the Yadavs to ensure that they are supporting both the sides and the victory of either would mean the victory of the Yadavs. (But that's a different topic)

Divine-- He knew what was to happen and didn't want to interfere with the destiny

Human -- He got a friendly feeling for Draupadi and didn't want to let it go by marrying her and including her into the long list of his wives

How i wish he did. 😳 

They were perfect for eachother. 

Though i think why he did not was because kuru and panchal were the most strong kingdom of those time and an alliance between them would have set up an arrangement that had the ability to tackle/challenge jasarandh which was krishna s main issue at that time. He by helping in making this plan successful won two strong allies for dwaraka.  

Human 

Maybe he couldn't win it 🤔  the contest excluded many warriors like Dury and bhima, was Krishna a skilled archer? Is there anything in text to suggest Krishna was an archer?

Originally posted by: FlauntPessimism

Political--

Krishna was not actually a king. Theirs was a setup like head of the group. It wasn't monarchy in the true sense. That wasn't looked as something great by the monarchs of those days. Secondly he wasn't even the chief by then, it was Ugrasen. 

Going by the kind of person Drupad was( having failed to acknowledge his best friend Dronacharya when he came to him), I don't think he would have been pleased to have Krishna as a prospective groom. 

Removing divinity, Krishna was a politician and thinker of great strategic planning. He clearly understood that if he tries for Draupadi in marriage, Drupad might insult him resulting in deterioration of relation between Kampilya and Dwarika. He didn't want that to happen, since he already had bad relations with two of the five biggest kingdoms of those days namely Vidharbha and Magadh.

On the contrary a platonic friendship with Draupadi and family gave him an entry to the innermost circle of Kampilya Naresh and thereby their support

His aunt was already a part of the royal family of Kuru clan, and it's pretty clear that he was planning to have his sister married into the Kuru clan, therefore he was somewhat sure of a support by Hastinapur. 

But at the same time he also knew that Kuru and Panchal are the biggest in India and if they come together, there would be no one in India to counter them. And with Dwarika being the alley of both it would become invincible. 

This is the reason I believe that the closeness of Duryodhan to Balramji wasn't the plan of the former but the strategy of the Yadavs to ensure that they are supporting both the sides and the victory of either would mean the victory of the Yadavs. (But that's a different topic)

Divine-- He knew what was to happen and didn't want to interfere with the destiny

Human -- He got a friendly feeling for Draupadi and didn't want to let it go by marrying her and including her into the long list of his wives

I agree with this

Originally posted by: NoraSM

Human 

Maybe he couldn't win it 🤔  the contest excluded many warriors like Dury and bhima, was Krishna a skilled archer? Is there anything in text to suggest Krishna was an archer?

Krishna was the only one able to defeat BOTH Arjun and Karna. 😆

Just like Arjun had his Gandeev, Krishna had his bow called the Shaarnga/Shraanga. His archery skills have been referred to in Vana Parva (when he describes his fight with Shalva, I guess I'm feeling too lazy to look up 😆).

And in SB, his prowess in archery is mentioned in:

1. He lifted, strung and then broke Kans' sacrificial bow (similar to Drau's swayamvar one).

(Vishnu has something against bows really jab dekho tod dete hai! 😆)

https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/10/42/

2. Duel with Rukmi - we all know how that ended. 😆

His battle with Narakasura

Originally posted by: proteeti

Krishna was the only one able to defeat BOTH Arjun and Karna. 😆

So, he was the best of his time this confirms that he decided not to participate

I don't think he could see into the future to know pandavas will participate so maybe Draupadi and he didn't wish for their relationship to turn into a carnal one, moreover draupadi did great work as an empress here she would have been one of his thousands of wife