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Draupadi, in her former birth, propitiated the god S'iva and asked for a bridegroom, five times. S'iva gave her a bridegroom with a vengeance : he said "you will have five husbands", — and as a result she had the five Pāņdavas for her husbands. But both of these are merely later explanations. There is also the version that the Paudavas attended the Swayamvara in the garb of the Brahmins. And when all the Ks'triyas failed, Arjuna performed the feat of archery which was the condition that the candidates had to fulfil before qualifying for the hand of Draupadi. When the Pandavas returned home, Dharma said to his mother that he had got a 'special alms' on that day. Kunti, his mother, unwittingly said, “Divide it equally amongst you all". Now to keep their mother's words, the five Pandivas inarried her, and Vyāsa then alloted the particular nu:nber of days when Draupadi should stay with each of them.
The present story is a typical Jain story. Like all Jain stories, it begins with the previous lives of the soul of Draupadī. We are told, that in one of her former births, she was born as a girl with whom it was impossible to co. habit, nay, even her very touch was very repulsive and burning. Consequently she became a nun, but the desire for carnal or animal passions was there, and she could not completely uproot it. When therefore, she once happened to see a courtesan enjoying amorous pleasures in the company of Five men, she at once lost her self control, and exclaimed:- "If I am to get any fruit for these austerities of mine, let me also enjoy these' self-same pleasures in my next birth"; with the result that she gets Five husbands in her next birth. (It is to be noted, however, that she was born as a celestial courtesan in the intervening birth. Otherwise, Draupadi, really speaking, ought to have been born as a courtesan with five lovers.)
Draupadi is shown to have a predilection for the Jain faith right from the beginning, though neither her parents, nor ber husbands, are shown to be like that. Even here, Kļşya is shown to be her brother', one who would run to her rescue any time. She incurs the wrath of Nārada, when on his Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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