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166
Annals BORI, LXXVIII (1997)
as a Sairandhri (p. 192!). That recension informs us that Draupadl as Sairan. dhri assumed the name vratacāriņi (sairandhri jātisampannā nām näha vratacãrini 4.94*). According to H. yratacāriņi “can hardly be anything but a paradoxical reference to her vow of dishevelment” (p. 192). I beg to differ, I would relate the word vrata in the expression vratacāriņi not to something which the epic does not state, but to something which it does state. Sairandhri was jātisampannā belonging to a good class (of Sairandbris ).10 Hence she would not do certain things I she would not eat remnants of the food partaken by others and she would not wash anybody's feet. (.4. 8. 29). It is to these norms of life that the word vrata in vratacărini refers. (Also cf. Mbh. 3. 222, 29).
Just as vratacāriņi has nothing to do with the vow of dishevelinent, the word dikṣitāḥ, used about the Pandavas in a variant in the stanza 2. 68. 1,11 has nothing to do with their occasional practice of tapas in the forest. If the Pandavas, in the variant reading, are said to be vanavāsāya dikşitäh it simply means they were resolved or fully prepared for forest life,' exactly as when the same thing is said, for example, of Yayati (1. 80, 25 ) or Dhsta. tāstra (15. 17.3) who resolved to live in forest leaving their respective king. doms. This is shown by the text adopted in the critical edition.
According to H., however, the word dikṣitāḥ occurring in the variant noticed above has connection with what occurred after the twelve years of forest life. At the end of the Ajñātavāsa Arjuna told Virāța that they had lived unknown in his house as creatures live in the womb (before their birth ) (ajñātavāsam uşită garbhāvāsa iva prajāh 4. 66. 10). The simile is easily understood. But H. sees in it a hidden meaning. In the dikşani yā işi performed at the beginning of a sacrifice, the sacrificer stays in a special hut (dikşitavimita). His stay in this hut is looked upon as his living in the
(Continued from p. 165 ) ted to have their hair. Damayanti lived for some time as a Sairandhri of noble class
( 3. 62, 26). But it is not said that she had concealed her hair. It would therefore be a reasonable guess that DraupadT concealed her hair so that her identity was not disclosed. It seems her hair were remarkably curly ( 1.155. 42: 2. 60.22: 4. 8. 1). That would have revealed her ideotity. In the case of Damayanti, her ideatity would have been disclosed by the mole between her eyebrows (piplu ). Hence she kept it concea. led ( 3. 66.5) This is what jātisainpannā means and not "belonging to that caste" as rendered by H' H. does not give this reference. Four DevanagarT mss, including that of Nilakantha. one Bengali And one Malayalam manuscript read the first line of the stanza as tatah parūjitah pärtha vanavāsaya dikşitān. The critical edition has, instead, vang. vāsāya cakrus to matim parthāh parajitaḥ.
11
Madhu Vidyā/516
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