Draupadi Was A Fierce Fighter, An Ambitious Leader And A Diplomat

What comes to mind when you think of Draupadi? The story of her cheerharan at the hands of the Kauravas? Or the fact that she was wedded to five princes who waged a war to avenge her harassment at the hands of their cousins? At any rate, whatever you might have heard or read may have had a significantly patriarchal gaze to it: Our rich diet of stories on Draupadi suffer from a major challenge in that they are all told through her attachment to the men in the Mahabharata. Trihayani subverts that from the word go.

Rupande Mehta’s debut novel, Trihayani: The Untold Story of Draupadi is a gentle – and arguably long overdue – tribute to the Queen. Written in mellifluous language with a very strong, subversive lens, Trihayani presents, front and center, a part of Draupadi’s life that has either been erased altogether or elbowed out into an afterthought squished into a one-liner in a footnote somewhere.

Draupadi’s story in Trihayani begins at the point where the battle of Kurukshetra ends. Hastinapur is now under the Pandavas’ rule: an era marked by peaceful coexistence. Draupadi, though, isn’t happy. To me, this stood out like a powerful metaphor for the complete disdain for post-conflict justice for women – whose lived experiences of war look nothing like those of men. Draupadi leaves the palace in search of answers and finds a route to the ultimate truth of her being when she meets Mahadev. It is in this pursuit that we see Draupadi for who she truly is: a fierce fighter, an ambitious leader, a diplomat, and so much more than the aggrieved woman history has reduced her to.

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Although admittedly a key actor in the Mahabharata, Draupadi’s story is much more than just being a parallel to Helen of Troy, “whose face launched a thousand ships.” The war may have been waged in Draupadi’s name: but as a woman, she was subject to multiple attempts of sexual assault, received blame for being comfortable with her sexuality, and constantly berated by men. These pieces aren’t immediately apparent in the traditional rendition of the Mahabharata, and Rupande deserves credit for reviving a piece of the story that precious few have known – thanks to the cis-het male hands that moulded every rendition.

Draupadi’s friendship with Krishna

The most endearing and moving piece in the book was Draupadi’s friendship with Krishna. A bond deeper than that between most siblings, Draupadi’s depth of love for Krishna, and the latter’s unconditional, unfailing support for her transcends the limited story of devotion we know – one that manifested as reams of fabric to keep her covered even as a violent Duryodhana continued to tug at her saree to disrobe her.

Draupadi had a deep, lasting friendship with Krishna. We have grown on the story of how Krishna and Arjuna were Nara and Narayan. However, Krishna also considered Draupadi his sister and was extremely attached to her. The two shared not only deep love, but also respected each other’s commitments and their constant travails in life. Their bond, as Rupande also shows, subverts the very idea that the war was waged to avenge the violence meted out to her. Had Krishna’s emphasis on peace and Draupadi’s wisdom in seeing war for what it truly was prevailed, the militarized masculinity of the times would never have found an outlet in war. She was a mere cover for the patriarchal forces to flex muscle and murder brutally.

Draupadi’s quest for the truth could be our own. The epigenetic narrative that has flowed through generations has created lasting impacts on how we navigate the world around us. And yet, the subtle undertones of Draupadi’s subversion of patriarchy, her courage in the face of adversity, her prioritization of empathy over mindless violence, and above all, her deep dedication to the truth represent so much of the divine feminine that is set aside as we set about doing the emotional labour of undoing patriarchal harm.

Rupande’s writing is taut, crisp, and hard-hitting. You can see that she has weighed every word before weaving it into the sentence, and the end result is a mosaic of wisdom few can craft so powerfully. At some points in the journey, one wonders if the author herself was caught unawares and left with a lump in the throat. Navigating the heavy weight of emotion in sections that capture Draupadi’s bond with Krishna is a whole different experience – arguably one of a lifetime. If you’re the kind of person to find keys to your own growth and evolution in the books you read, give this book two readings. One, to consume the story. The second, so the story consumes you.

Trihayani: The Untold Story of Draupadi by Rupande Mehta is published by Readomania.

Kirthi Jayakumar is an author and a pracademic, working in the fields of Feminist Foreign Policy and Women, Peace, and Security. The views expressed are the author's own.

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