Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 549

174
Annals BORI, LXXVIII (1997)
65 ). It is unthinkable that Draupadi, if she were the Kalarātri, could do that. Only a Krtya, siding with the Kauravas, could.
Draupadi's assumed dishevelled and loose hair were used by H. to see in her the prefiguration of Kali. For this he needed the help of Kálarātri. The induction of Kälarātri the night of Time, the night of dissolution (pralaya ) of the universe' (p. 207), into the discussion has led H. to point out another symbolic significance of Draupadi's hair.
In his earlier paper on "Draupadi's Garments” H. had maintained that if Karna himself had tried to disrobe Draupadi and succeeded in his attempt that would bave meant a naimittika pralaya. Draupadi then would stand “depuded like the earth prior to its combustion and ... "bare like the back of the tortoise"” (IIJ 22. 103 ). But since in the epic it was not Karşa, but Duḥśāsana, who made the attempt to disrobe Draupadi and since he did not succeed in his attempt the epic scene meant that ( except at the naimittika pralaya) the earth has an inexhaustible capacity to restore her garments automatically (IIJ 22. 103 ).
In the present paper with regard to Draupadi's untied hair and the dissolution of the universe, H. observes : " The untying of Draupadi's braid represents the potential untying of the universe. For the universe is itself a braid, composed of the three gunas or strands of praksti, nature. Here, bowever, it is not the naimittika pralaya that is evoked, but the prāksta pralaya, the very dissolution of nature (prakrti).... Mythologically, this pralaya is the “Night of Time", Kālas ātri, with whom Draupadi's hair is directly compared in the Veni samhāra .... But by wearing her hair dishevelled for thirteen years, Draupadi also shows that the full dissolution of the universe is at least metaphorically pending should her husbands, with the help of lord Krşna, not regain the sovereignty and restore dharma on earth” (pp. 210-211).
I have already refuted elsewhere H.'s views related to Draupadi's garments.10 As for Draupadi's hair, we have seen that there is no justification for seeing her hair untied for thirteen long years. During this period she kept them untied for a short while only on two occasions - first, while starting for the forest, and, again, while going to Sudeşņa from the Sabha of Virāța. There is therefore no question of relating Draupadi with kali, the goddess of dishevelled hair, nor seeing in Draupadi's loose hair Kalarātri, the dissolution of praksti. According to H. Draupadi's loose hair is a fact;
19 See fn. 4 above.
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