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CONCEPT OF CONJUCALITY IN TIIE MAIIABIIARATA 35

and a sweet smile on her lips. She had iiked the ksatriya hero who had eamed her through this dilTicult test. Corning home with the Pfindavas she discovercd that she was to be a wite to all llve brothers. The maiden*s dream of conjugal bliss was rudely shattered. Later it was decided that she was to be wite to each brolher for a year. It was a pretty dilTicult predicament, but we hcar that she passed the test with flying colours. She was faithfui to all of them, served and attended them, was in charge of their treasury, their fainilial and social obligalions, and she discharged all these dulics well.

Yet she did not abide by the rules laid down by the Dharmasutras. She argucd with her husbands, rcproached them for dcreliction of duły as ksatriya warriors. Evcn with Yudhislhira, the son of Dharma himsclf she argued on ąuestions of piety, ethics and religion. She blamed Yudhislhira squarely for all their inisforlunes and said with billcr mockery, “I bow to Dhatr and Vidhatr who fashioned this illusion in you, this propensity for perversely disregarding the codes of our falhcrs and grandfalhers. ”⁸⁸ All this goes against the leachings of the Dharmaśastras. In the last book of the cpic when the Pandava brothers, logether with DraupadT werc on their way to hcaven, and Draupadl was the first to drop down, Yudhislhira said that this was so because cvcn though she was a wite to all five brothers, she was parlial to Arjuna. We, howevcr, find that at limes of crises, whether when she was too fatigued to walk or in danger in the pałace of the Virata king whcrc the lascivious Kloaka madę humilialing proposals to her, or even when she simply coveted to possess a particularly fragrant hcavenly llower, it was always to BhTma that she lurned for help, succour and redress. But undoubledly she had a vcry seeret yearning for Arjuna *s company, the husband she welcomed first, the one to whom she mistakcnly thought she would bclong cxclusively, but whose company she was dcprivcd of most, Arjuna it was who got sent for procuring divine weapons, Arjuna again married UlupI and ChilraiTgada. When Arjuna was lcaving to procurc weapons it mcant a long abscnce, the love-Iorn Draupadl bade him farcwcll and added, “Lei nonę be bom to the ksatriya linę like us. *’^8Q We can fathom the depth of her languishing love for the philanderer. When at Krsna*s advice Arjuna eloped with Subhadra, it came as a bilter blow to DraupadT *s conjugal expectations. When Arjuna came to her, she said somewhal sarcastically, “Go, there, O Kuntl’s son, where the Salvata princess (i.e., Subhadra) is. ⁴evcn though a weight is tied well beforc, it slackcns (after a limę) \^q° These are words of the Iovcr who expects her first lovc to retain a spccial soft corner for her, but to her bitter chagrin discovcrs that Arjuna is bul a philanderer. All the P3ndavas had other wives, bul DraupadT only had the husbands thrust upon her. Yet she was eminently fair to them and scrupulously dutiful, KunlT had blessed her eloąuently : “As IndranT is to Indra, as Svaha is to Agni, RohinT to Soma, DamayantT to Nala, Bhadrił to Vaiśravana, ArundhatT to Vasistha, as LaksmT is to N3r8yana, be thou to thy husbands. “^9I This calalogue includes divinc couples as well