Gender Roles in the Mahabharata
In recent years, the fight for gender equality has become a subject of global attention. With the aid of social media, both defeats and victories in the race of gender equality are matter of daily discussion and debate among people from different cultures and social backgrounds. For example, in regard to victories, more severe laws against sexual abuse and harassment have surfaced in many countries where gender inequality tends to be dominant. However, despite great efforts, women still suffer gender inequality in terms of labor, social and personal lives. In the Mahabharata, Draupadi is a female character that exemplifies, to an extent, the fight for gender equality in ancient India culture. This essay will focus on two main factors: the events that affect Draupadi’s life as well as their similarities with today’s issues of gender inequality and female oppression, and her unusual courage to defend herself as an analogy of modern society’s attempts to fight said oppression.
Draupadi, the daughter of king Drupada and wife to the five Pandavas brothers bears five children to them. She is described as one of the most beautiful women of her time and is also known to have many qualities, such as courage to defend herself from injustice, devotion to her all of her husbands, and intelligence to regain her freedom. Due to these reasons she becomes one of the most important female characters in the Mahabharata.
As the story develops, Draupadi becomes the target of customs and traditions that until this day objectify women and turn them into a possession. For example, by order of her father, her hand in marriage becomes the prize of an arrow-shooting contest. “Drupada announces that his daughter will be given in marriage to the man who can string a very strong bow and use it to strike a high target…” (Mahabharata 68)
Though this tradition might have been seen as “proper” in ancient Indian culture, it doesn’t change the fact that it treats women like a material good. Draupadi ends up marrying Arjuna, who she has feelings for, yet she is forced to marry the other four brothers too because Yudhisthira believes that her beauty will cause conflict among the brothers.
He says, “Beautiful Draupadi shall be wife to us all” (Mahabharata, 73)
The story shows how difficult this is for Draupadi when she questions how she could divide herself both physically and emotional in order to fulfill each one of the brothers. In the end, she is to spend one entire year with each brother while the other four remain prohibited from engaging with her.
Later on, we find the main passage where Draupadi’s representation of the objectification of women is as clear as it could get. Yudhisthira, one of the Pandavas brothers, engages in a gambling game of dice with Shakuna, uncle of the Kauravas, and a very talented dice player. Yudhisthira loses everything to Shakuna, all his possessions and even himself. Once this happens, Sakumi says to Yudhisthira,
“One stake is left to you unlost, your own beloved queen. Wager Draupadi, the Pancala princess; win yourself back with her!” (Mahabharata, 140)
Yudhisthira, not being able to look past his pride, accepts. Of course it is clear how this passage shows how Draupadi is being treated like an object, yet what surprises me the most is how a husband would be willing to gamble his own wife and even after he lost her, still not be able to put his pride, or even honour aside and fight against his mistaken decision. Radha says the following,
“These princes have said not a word, for all the pleading of Draupadi Krsna: I think they think Drupada’s daughter fairly won! … If you claim that Draupadi has not been won, when won she was! How can you think Krsna not won, son of Dhrtarastra, when Pandu’s eldest son staked all his possessions in this hall, an Draupadi was one of those possessions? How can you Krsna not won, bull-like heir of Bharata, when she was fairly won? Draupadi was named aloud, and Pandavas assented; so for what reason do you think her not won?” (Mahabharata, 147)
Furthermore, once Draupadi is lost, she is no longer considered a free woman, but a slave. Duhsaana says to Draupadi,
“Call for aid to Arjuna or Krsna, to Nara and Narayana, I am taking you! You may be wearing a single garment or, indeed, none at all; you have been won at gambling and you have been made our slave! Enjoy your pleasures now amongst our other slave girls! (Mahabharata, 143)
This passage shows how little power Draupadi has over her own self. She now belongs to someone else because of a lost gamble. This reminds me of a somewhat different situation but equally deplorable: the modern trafficking of slaves, where not only women, but also men and children are exchange as property in money transactions.
Draupadi however, is a strong woman and doesn’t comply with everything she is told. She defies the order to come to the palace and sends Yudhisthira the following question,
“When you lost me, of whom were you master? Did you first lose yourself, or me? (Mahabharata, 142)
This is the moment that reveals Draupadi’s courage to fight for her rights, similar to what many women in modern society admirably do, such as Malala Yousafzai, an activist for female education and youngest Nobel Prize laureate due to her efforts.
Once she is forcibly taken to the Palace, Draupadi continues to argue in favour of her freedom and independence from her husband’s ill choices. She claims,
“I am the wife of Yudhisthira, lord of dharma, and equal to him by birth; tell me, am I slave or free? I shall abide by what you say, O Krauravas! But for this base man, defiler of the Kauravas’s good name, to torment me so badly: that I shall not tolerate long! Whether you consider me won or unwon, kings, I want you answer; I shall abide by what you say, O Kauravas!” (Mahabharata, 149)
Another important incident where Draupadi’s rights are violated is when General Kicaka tries to sexually abuse her and even hits her. Though Draupadi rejects his wedding proposal, he still manages to get her alone and sexually molest her. When she escapes, he mocks her in front of the court and Yudhisthira himself, but he again does nothing to defend his wife. However, proving Draupadi’s courage once again, she, Arjuna and Bhima make a plan to kill Kicaka. Bhima says,
“Wicked Kicaka desires an unattainable woman. Tonight, blameless lady, unseen in the dark, I shall crush his head like an elephant trampling a wood-apple.” (Mahabharata, 265)
Having deceivably accepted Kicaka’s marriage proposal, Draupadi asks him to come to the dancing hall. Disguised as Draupadi, Bhima waits for Kicaka in the hall and fights him to death and kills him, while Arjuna plays and instrument to conceal the sound of the fight.
“When the guards of the dance hall heard her words, they came swiftly in their thousands bearing torches; and when they reached the building they saw Kicaka lying slain on the ground doused in blood”
From this bloody passage we can see Draupadi’s willingness to fight and stand up for her rights. I applaud her courage and relate it to what many women, though in a different context, do today. Nowadays, protests, speeches and criminal persecution are the main weapons against sexual oppression, but since Draupadi had none of this at her disposal, she had to take matters in her own hands.
As shown from the previous passages from the Mahabharata, Draupadi is a woman who suffers gender oppression, objectification, and sexual harassment. Many of the examples given can relate or are very similar to what many women go through in modern day society. Furthermore, Draupadi is a woman who also fights against the violation of what would be her modern day rights. Perhaps in the context of the Mahabharata there were not laws that explicitly protected her from what she goes through, yet her courage and willingness to speak up is just, or even more admirable than women who fight against these issues today. Though it might not have been its original objective, the Mahabharata, to some extent, gives a message to the women of its era that they should now let themselves be treated like Draupadi is, and that they should attempt to fight for their rights, like she does. In a context where there is no global social media, the only way to transmit messages to the mass is through epic tales such as the Mahabharata. In conclusion, though Draupadi can be considered vindictive, she is a symbol of women’s courage and strength that inspires both women and men to fight for their freedom and rights, and not let themselves be ruled through what are considered, sometimes mistakenly, the norms of society.