Thursday, October 23, 2008

Lord Draupadi

His skill in archery was to have an unlikely utility; it won him the hand of Draupadi, his first wife, the daughter of Drupada, king of Panchala. Drupada held a contest to choose a suitable match for his daughter. A wooden fish was suspended high above a reflective pool of oil; furthermore, the fish rotated. Contestants were required to string a heavy bow and then hit the eye of the rotating fish, but were allowed to aim only by looking at the fish's reflection in the pool of oil. Many princes and noblemen vied for the hand of the princess of Panchala.

Some (including Karna) were disqualified on grounds of low birth. Although the Pandavas and their mother were in hiding at that time, Arjuna had dressed as a high-caste snaataka Brahmin and was allowed to compete. It was Arjuna, the peerless archer, who alone was able to accomplish the set task.

All the five Pandava brothers had attended the tournament without informing Kunti, their mother. They returned home in triumph, bringing the princess Draupadi with them. From outside the house, they called out: "Mother, you will never believe what we have got here! Make a guess!" Busy with her work, Kunti refused to be baited.
"Whatever it is, share it between yourselves equally, and do not quarrel over the matter," she said. So seriously did the brothers take even this casual statement of their mother, that they resolved upon making Draupadi their common wife. It says something about the magnanimity of Arjuna that, having won his bride single-handedly, he 'shared' her with all his brothers willingly


Despite marrying all five brothers, Draupadi loved Arjuna the most and always favoured him, and he preferred her of all his wives.
Legend has it that Draupadi had requested of Lord Shiva, in a previous life, that she would have a husband with five desireable husbandly traits in this one. Despite being warned by Lord Shiva that this wasn't possible she insisted and the result was the separate embodiment of each of the five qualities in the five Pandava brothers. Initially Draupadi's parents didn't agree to her marriage to all the Pandavas, but when he was told of this boon, King Drupada agreed
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