Reading Notes B: Wife of the Five Pandavas


Wife of the Five Pandavas

Source. The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921). 

I choose the public domain version of the Mahabharata.  In this story, Arjuna won the daughter of Drupada, Draupadi.  Unfortunately, before he could tell his mother that the princess was his prize, she told him to share it with his brothers.  This leads to a problem because they technically can’t share a wife – or so you think.  Drupada is upset until he learns it is the five Pandava Princes that won his daughter’s hand in marriage and then he celebrates.

Then he hears about the problem.  Yudhishthira, the eldest, calls for Vyasa.  Apparently, the Gods have already decided she will be the wife of all five boys.  Seemingly Draupadi is the reincarnation of a pious woman who prayed to Shiva for a husband five times.  The Gods rewarded her with the promise of five husbands in her next life.  This is what Vyasa tells them, but he also tells them about the brothers.  The Pandava brethren are five incarnations of Indra and are technically one.

She marries each one, starting with the eldest and ending with the youngest.  They each lead her around the holy fire.


I think it would be interesting to see Draupadi’s point-of-view since she surely had some opinion on the matter.  It was unheard of for a woman to have multiple husbands so I think she would have been a very interesting person and a subject of a lot of gossip in the kingdom.  I would like to write about her experience during this event.

Image from BoldSky

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