Epics of India Storybook

Draupadi gazed out the window of the hermitage. The forest usually provided a silence that she found soothing, but a rumbling noise was gradually increasing to drown out that silence. She noticed the animals in the forest growing agitated and scampering away, and she began to grow nervous herself.

After some time, Jayadratha arrived outside the hermitage with his army behind him. Draupadi felt somewhat relieved; Jayadratha had recently married her husbands’ cousin Duhsala, and she had met him in Hastinapura once before. Draupadi greeted him, “Welcome to our humble hermitage, cousin.”

“I wanted to see how you were, Draupadi,” he replied. “I worry about you, such a beautiful and radiant flower enduring such hardship.”

“That’s sweet of you,” said Draupadi. “I definitely appreciate your concern. But we are managing fairly well here.”

“You deserve so much more than this life,” he replied. “Why not come away with me? Leave your husbands and marry me; become queen of Sindh; live your life in the style you deserve.”

She became frightened. Jayadratha had not come here for a friendly visit, after all; he had come here with his army to fight her husbands and take her away. She knew that Jayadratha would not refrain from the dishonorable act of stealing her with her husbands gone, and she knew also that she could not resist him and his army. Panicked, she tried to dissuade him. “Oh, Jayadratha,” she said, trying to sound calm, “please do not ask me to do this. I must remain with the Pandavas here in the forest. I cannot become your queen.”

“I had hoped you would come with me willingly, Draupadi; but willingly or no, you will be my queen. Since we first met, I have longingly dreamed of the day you would be mine. I came today to defeat your husbands in battle and take you as my prize. Fortunately for them, I seem to have come while they were away.”

“You underestimate my husbands,” she replied. “Stealing me will unlock a force that you cannot control. Yudhishthira’s righteous anger will consume all those in his path. The sound of Devadatta, Arjuna’s conchshell, will cause your heart to tremble, and the arrows from Gandiva, Arjuna’s bow, will pierce holes in every part of your body. Bhima’s mace will produce in you pangs of regret that will last forever. You and your army will never be able to defeat the sons of Pandu.”

“Your devotion to your husbands is honorable — but misplaced. I do not fear them. They will no doubt pursue us, but we will defeat them when we meet. Then you will rightly belong to me.” With that Jayadratha left the room, carrying Draupadi to his chariot.

The army headed back through the forest, returning to Sindh. Draupadi continually watched behind the chariot, longing to see any sign of her husbands. She feared that they would not come in time, that she would be disgraced by Jayadratha. After quite some time, however, she saw a small party approaching in the distance.

When it became clear to Jayadratha that they could not escape the Pandavas, he commanded his army to halt and to position itself for battle. What ensued can only be called a massacre. The five Pandavas killed hundreds and hundreds from Jayadratha’s army. Many elephant bodies lay on the field, scattered among the dead men. Some men from the army escaped, fleeing the slaughter. They found Draupadi in Jayadratha’s chariot, the horses lying dead before it. Jayadratha had been thrown from the chariot, lying injured several feet away.

Bhima lifted Jayadratha from the ground. “If you wish to have any chance at living, you must swear to me that you will say before the assemblies and in open courts that you are slave to King Yudhishthira.”

“I swear it! I swear it!”

Bhima dragged Jayadratha to his chariot, where the others had gathered to tend to Draupadi. “With your permission Draupadi,” Bhima said, “I will crush the skull of this wretched man, here and now.”

Draupadi’s anger flared up as she saw Jayadratha. Bhima held him up for he was barely able to stand on his own. She wanted that sinful, foolish, infamous, contemptiple king tortured and left for dead here in the forest. She wanted him to pay for the evil he had planned to do to her.

But before she could answer, Yudhishthira interjected. “With your permission Draupadi, we will not slay him. Though he is wicked, let us spare his life — for the sake of our cousin Duhsala and our aunt Gandhari. There will be a more appropriate time for us to slay him.”

Draupadi saw the rightness in the judgement of the son of Dharma, though she passionately desired Jayadratha’s death. “I grant permission that he may live. Though he intended great harm, that harm has been avoided. He has become a slave of the king and has been severely injured; that punishment is acceptable to me.”

Bhima threw Jayadratha to the ground. “The king shows great mercy in letting you live. Get away from this forest. But know this: we will not hesitate to kill you if we ever meet you in battle, and we will enjoy it.”

Draupadi watched as Jayadratha picked himself up off the ground and hobbled away from them. She knew he would never attempt to harm her again. She didwish for a more severe punishment, but she was relieved that he was at last out of her sight.