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The Tales in Mahabharata
141
of her boon to be postponed to her next birth; i.e. her birth as Draupadi.291 Her five-husband marriage, therefore, is presented to be as good as pre-destined in accordance with the famous principle of Karma-phala. Like the tale of Droņa, this tale is also twice narrated in almost identical words and the very attempt to emphasise it by repeating it condemns it !
Even lier birth froin sacrifice and her five husbands' births due to the divine levirate are such details as can be looked upon as attempts to render this polyandrous marriage unblemishable. Such an attempt to forestall any possibility of blemish upon the character of the heroine by showing her birth from sacrifice (or sacrificial ground) can also be observed in the case of Sītā. There, even Rama's character is shown to be born of the sacrifice. Such is the strong impress of the sacredness of sacrifice in popular mind that birth out of a sacrifice immediately renders the character crystalpure and his actions uoreproachable and beyond question. Some of Rāma's undignified but politically wise steps, Sīta's stay at Rāvana's house, and Draupadi's polyandrous marriage are such details as are glossed over by making the characters born from sacrifice.
The Pāndavas are shown to be born pot from sacrifice, but of the custom of levirate. We have already seen above that Manusmộti does grant approval to the custom of Niyoga but only with great reluctance. We have noted there the discrepancy between the smộti-allowance and the Epic-practice in regard to the number of sons to be obtained through this custom of Niyoga. 292 Mr. Ghose has something else to say on the point : "I can well believe Pandu (who tbough younger became heir to the Royal succession according to law superseding his born-blind elder brother, Dhstarăstra) falling so seriously, and to all appearances hopelessly, ill that he had to tale leave of and retire from the toils and responsibilities of the Royal office, of his withdrawing accompanied by his still sopless wives (Pșthā-Kunti and Mädri) into a salubrious hill-tapovana for health's sake; and then recovering from these ailments sufficiently to be the actual father of as many as five lusty healthy sons...and truly, when you find the widow of a person, circumstanced as (when he retired) Pāņdu was, return home after many years' absence and present before the world not one but five strapping lads as the issue from the loins of her invalided (and now deceased) husband, the matter is naturally made the subject of ill-natured speculation and comment by persons who have an interest in making them...One can understand the reason why the authors of the Epic (whose partiality for the Pāņdavas and their cause is open and undisguised) should avoid all allusion to it, and at the same time pro abundanti cautela seek to cover up the traces by some acceptable theory of kşetraja procreation. The most natural to suggest would have been, of course, to assign the credit of actual fatherhood to some superior Rşi denizen of the tapovana to
291 AdiP. 157 and 189.41-47. 292 Fn. 258 above.
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