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DRAUPADI'S QUESTION
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the Pändavas would have remained life-long slaves of the Kauravas and Draupadi would have swept all her life the floors of the Kaurava houses. The Mahabharata would have ended there.
But we know that it does not. The events in the Mahabharata continue. Who is responsible for this continuation ? Who has the credit ? We do not give this credit to some eminent ascetic, nor to the virtues of a faithful wife, nor to Sriksna, the incarnation of a god. We choose to give it to a jackal and an ass, who must have been blissfully ignorant of what was going on around them. The Indian tradition has touched a very low level in allowing the stanzas about the bad omens to remain where they are for so long. We are unaware of the fact that in doing so we have tarnished the fair image of an eminent person like Sri Vyāsa.
If anything were to happen in the Mahabharata just because of bad omens, one may ask--why did the same thing not happen when the Pandavas started on their exile after losing the game of dice a second time? Then too the ill omens occurred, many more than on the previous occasion. The animals and birds like vultures, jackals and crows, of course, shrieked; besides, the lightnings flashed, the earth shook, Råhu unseasonally swallowed the sun, and meteors shattered after making a round of the town the wrong way (2. 71. 25-28). Vidura did draw Dhstar stra's attention to these omens. But Dhstaráştra did not get cold feet and ask the Pandavas not to proceed on exile and return to the capital The reason is obvious. Either the ill omens did not occur at all, what appears in the text of the Mahabharata is a figment of some interpolator's imagination, Or, even if they did, Dhstarăşta was not so timid as to get panicky and do something he would not have otherwise done.
The main purpose of this paper is to make clear that it is wrong to assume that the discussion in the Assembly over Draupadi's question remained inconclusive and that the Pāņdavas and Draupadi regained their freedom simply due to the accidental occurrence of bad omens. The events in the Assembly end the way they do because Arjuna gave a decisive reply to Draupadi's question and, consequently, Dhstarästra gave two boons to Draupadi.
It may now be permitted to refer to a few points incidental to the main topic. The first is: why did Yudhisthira not reply to Draupadi's question. One reason could be that he felt the same difficulty as was felt by Bhisma and hence he did not reply. Or, he was convinced that he had a right to stake Draupadi even after he had lost himself, but he dare not say so openly in order to save Draupadi from the indignities which would have followed. Or, he knew he had no right to stake her but admitting that would have meant that he had done wrong when he staked something on which he had no right. He did not have enough courage to do that.
Madhu Vidya/435
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