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ONCE AGAIN "DRAUPADĪ'S GARMENTS"
M. A. MEHENDALE
The Mahabharata (Mbh.) tells us in the Sabháparvan, if we follow the text adopted by the Poona Critical Edition (2.61.40-41), that an attempt was made by Duḥsasana to snatch away Draupadi's garment. He did not succeed in his attempt to uncover a part of her body because she was covered by garments which appeared on her person one after the other. The text of the Mbh. adopted by the Critical Edition, thus, notes the incident but has no explanation to offer of the miracle of garments (adbhutatamam 2.61.42). A. Hiltebeitel has sought to offer an explanation by resorting to a 'nature mythology' interpretation of the Mbh. scene.'
The interpretation suggested is as follows: Draupadi stands for earth; the attempt of Duḥsasana to disrobe her is to be understood as the attempt of the sun to lay bare earth in summer; the attempt fails; this happens because garments appear *automatically' on Draupadi's body which signifies that the sun's attempt to lay bare earth in summer fails because the earth is covered in the rainy season with the automatically growing plants.
In the opinion of Hiltebeitel we have enough indications in the epic to offer above interpretation: In the first instance Draupadi's name Krsna 'the black one' points to the black earth. Secondly, the suggestion to disrobe Draupadi is made by Karna who, as son of the sun, stands for the latter. Thirdly, Karna is killed by Arjuna, son of Indra who sends down water in the rainy season to cover the earth with plants. Thus, we obtain a chain Sun Earth Indra which is paralleled by KarnaDraupadi - Arjuna. There is one more indication in the epic which, according to Hiltebeitel, further strengthens the above parallelism. Before the great war begins, Kṛṣṇa attempts to tempt Karna to come over to the side of the Pandavas by telling him that Karna's change of sides will make him the sixth husband of Draupadi (Mbh. 5.138.15). Karna does not accept the suggestion because it is tantamount to the union of the Earth and the Sun, a cosmological impossiblility (p. 103). The constant opposition between the Karma and Draupadi is nothing but the reflection of the opposition between the Earth and the Sun. It is only at the end of the aeon (yuganta) that the one sun begets seven and is able to scorch the earth completely thus making it totally bare. But in the Sabhäparvan the attempt to disrobe Draupadi fails. "In simplest terms, the restoration of Draupadi's sarees shows that, except at the time of pralaya, the Earth's power to restore her garments is inexhaustible". (p. 104).
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