REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

We find that in the first half of the chapter ‘The Dicing’, Duryodhana goes on narrating accounts of
the vast influence and wealth of King Kaunteya (Yudhisthira), exemplified in instances such as the
following—
“Chinese men I saw and Huns, Scythians, Orissans, the ones who live in the interior forest, Varneyas,
Robber Huns, Black Folk and Himalayans—I cannot get over the many who came and were denied
admission, yet paid tribute to him, of so many shapes and so numerous” (17)
Such descriptions cover the first part of the book and paint for us a picture of exuberance, plenitude
and luxury that belong to the Pandavas. This is the peak of power for the Pandavas.
The latter half of the chapter on the other hand reveals to us a complete reversal of fortune. From
riches the Pandavas are reduced to slaves. The detailed descriptions provided by Duryodhana create
a dramatic effect and against these the fall of the Pandavas appears more shocking. Also it is worth
noting that Dhrtarastra calls this a “family game of dice” and as we see later, the entire logic of a
family game stands on its head. The ‘family’ game turns into a ‘fatal’ game as it augments the fight
between the two warring groups, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Still, Janamajeya the eager
listener of the tale, we note, is full of questions and earnestly urges the narrator of this section
Vaisampayana to explain in detail the sequence around the dicing event which as Janamajaya
suggests “was the root of the destruction of the world”. The reversal in the case of the Pandavas is
complete when Yushisthira not only loses his riches, himself, his brothers and Draupadi as well.

THE GAME OF DICE

Yudhisthira is invited by Vidura to Dhrtarastra’s palace to “play and enjoy a family game” (28).
Yudhisthira’s first reaction is, “At a dicing we surely shall quarrel”. Vidura is quick to agree and
proclaims “I know that the game

will bring disaster”. Interestingly, both Vidura and Yudhisthira, considered wise men in the book,
hold similar opinions on the consequence of the dice game. Yet, both agree to become part of it and
not stall it. They are both bound by a sense of duty or Dharma towards King Dhrtarastra.

Yudhisthira’s Dharma

Yudhisthira is acutely aware of the danger involved in playing the game of dice,
as he suggest,
“most dangerous gamblers have been collected, who are sure to play with wizard tricks” and yet he
adds “it is the King Dhrtarastra’s behest, so I will not refuse, sage, to go to the game. A son will
always respect the father” (29)
The reason for agreeing to the game has a moral provided to it —that a son should be ever-
obedient.

Losing the Kingdom, Brothers and Self in Gambling

At the game, Yudhisthira loses everything bit by bit. It begins with his inexhaustible gold, “regal
chariot”, a “thousand must elephants”, a “hundred thousand slave girls and male slaves”. He goes on
to lose “myriads of chariots, carts and horses” along with “My city, my country, the wealth of all my
people” till he is left with nothing but his brothers and wife. Them too he stakes and loses all
including himself in the game. At each turn we are told “Sakuni decided, tricked and cried ‘Won’”
(33). The Pandavas turns into the slaves of the Kauravas and this invites the wrath of the elders but
no one dares to chide Duryodhana or put an end to the game. Even when Vidura tells Dhrtarastra
This man (Duryodhana) drunk with playing dice, does not look about him, like the mead-drinker, and
in starting a feud with great warriors he does not reckon his downfall (36)
- the King ignores his advice.

Losing Draupadi At Sakuni’s insinuation

Yet there is your precious queen and one throw is yet unwon. Stake Krsna of Pancala, and win
yourself back with her
Yudhisthira stakes her and loses the game. At this moment Dhrtarastra is “exhilarated” than
saddened while “Bhisma, Drona, Krpa and others broke out in sweat”. The King is thrilled by the
Kauravas’ winning spree and is blinded by power like his son Duryodhana who with deep satisfaction
orders his steward to bring Draupadi to the court—
The beloved wife whom the Pandavas honor, let her sweep the house and run on our errands—what
a joy to watch—with the serving wretches! (35)
Vidura again makes Duryodhana aware that
... the incredible happens through people like you, you don’t know it, nitwit, you are tied in a noose!
You hang over a chasm and do not grasp it, you dumb deer to anger tigers!
Constantly, Vidura underpins the fact that in the clash between the two groups – the Kauravas and
the Pandavas — the latter are far more powerful and that Duryodhana is a “dumb deer” before, the
Pandavas who are described as “angry tigers”. Vidura we are told, is a wise sage who can see the
future and thus, his words carry an air of ominous finality. He further asserts,
For this to be sure spells the end of the Kurus, a grisly end, the perdition of all (36)
However, Duryodhana maddened with rage and revenge instructs the steward to bring Draupadi to
the court. The next section deals with the scene when Draupadi is dragged into the Assembly Hall
where Yudhisthira is engaged in the fatal game of dice.

THE CASE OF DRAUPADI

It is worth noting that the assembly to which Draupadi is dragged is meant for men to engage in
politcal activities as also entertainment. Both these spheres are exclusive to men. Here, women
seldom enter. When Draupadi is brought to this space dominated entirely by men, she is the only
woman in the hall with all men watching the show as it were. In her fiery speech, after attempt has
been made to disrobe her, she claims,
What greater humiliation than that I, a woman of virtue and beauty, now must invade the men’s
hall? What is left of the law of the kings? From of old, we have heard, they do not bring law-minded
into their hall (58)
This reveals to us her precarious position. She says as she is dragged in the court by Duhsasana,
... in the hall are men who have studied the books, all follow the rites and are like unto Indras. They
are all my gurus or act for them: before their eyes I cannot stand thus (50)
When the steward enters the chambers of Draupadi his bold words “to your chores I must lead you”
irks and shocks her. She gives voice to her anger thus –“how dare you speak so, an usher, to me?”
Next, she questions the judgement of Yudhisthira in “What son of a king would hazard his wife?”
Draupadi raises a significant question regarding Yudhisthira’s right on her when he had lost himself.
“Go to the game” she sends the steward back “and ask in the assembly ‘Bharata, whom did you lose
first, yourself or me?” On Yudhisthira’s word sent by a messenger, Draupadi comes to the hall,
... in her one garment knotted below, weeping and in her courses, she went to the hall, the Pancala
princess and stood before her father- in-law (37-8)

Humiliation of Draupadi

The scene where Draupadi is being dragged into the court by Duhsasana is
appalling. Duhsasana speaks to her in a brazen manner thus:
All right now, come Pancali, you’re won!
Look upon Duryodhanas, without shame!
You shall now love the Kurus, long-lotus-eyed one,
You’ve been won under law, come along to the hall! (39)
The foul language of Duhsasana and Karna, the lewd gestures of Duryodhana point towards the
malice they bear towards Draupadi. When Draupadi tells Duhsasana,
... it is now my month! This is my sole garment, man of slow wit, - Duhsasana shrewdly puts in with
authority –
Sure you be in your month, Yajnasena’s daughter
Or wear a lone cloth, or go without one!
You’ve been won at the game and been made a slave,
and one lechers with slaves as the fancy befalls (50)
What is the significance of referring to Draupadi menstruating time and again in the scene? At one
level it could have been used by the writer to evoke deeper sympathy for the woman and her plight,
however, at another it signifies her reproductive worth as a woman. The entire discourse of woman
as the “jag-janani” (the giver of birth to the world) gets established here. The scene becomes more
dramatic for this reason as the two attributes of woman as mother and slave get starkly presented
here. The symbol of motherhood contrasts with the idea of the slave. Thus we find:
Duhsasana, stroking her, led her and brought her,
That Krsna of deep black hair, to the hall,
As though unprotected amidst her protectors,
And tossed her as wind tosses a plantain tree. (39)
Draupadi with “her hair disheveled, her half skirt drooping, shaken about by Duhsasana, ashamed
and burning with indignation” is brought before the gathering of men. Continuing with Drapaudi’s
humiliation, let us look at the questions she poses next.

The Legal Point and Draupadi’s Questions

Draupadi poses two questions before the audience—one, whether Yudhisthira who has lost his
freedom, by losing the game of dice, has, any moral or legal right to stake Draupadi. Duhsasana
comments, “the King, son of Dharma, abides by the Law, and the Law is subtle, for the wise to find
out” (50). The topic is again broached by Bhisma who has seen Draupadi brought in a pitiable state in
the court. He says—
‘‘The Dicing’’ from the Book of the Assembly Hall
As the law is subtle, my dear, I fail
To resolve your riddle the proper way:
A man without property cannot stake another’s— But given that wives are the husband’s chattels?
Yudhisthira may give up all earth
With her riches before he’d give up the truth. The Pandava said, “I have been won”
Therefore I cannot resolve this doubt.
(51-2)
This riddle remains unresolved as none can say with certainty what the Law says in this case.
However, Bhisma’s statement “given that wives are the husband’s chattels” speaks volume about
the status of women in that age and the commonly held views on them. The statement reveals to us
notions that were accepted as true and considered to be the ‘given’ in normative life. Karna in this
scene too argues that “Draupadi is part of all he (Yudhisthira) owns” and thus she has been won.
Note how Draupadi is seen as an object here owned by the man or in her case men. Karna questions
her character in suggesting that:
Or if you think that it was against the law to bring her into the hall clad in one piece of clothing,
listen to what I have to say in reply to that. The gods have laid down that a woman shall have one
husband, scion of Kuru. She submits to many men and assuredly is a whore! Thus there is, I think,
nothing strange about taking her into the hall, or to have her in one piece of clothing, or for that
matter naked! She, the Pandavas’ wealth, and the Pandavas themselves have all been won by
Saubala here according the law. (55)
Several points require notice here. One, that Draupadi has no right over her ‘self’ and that she is the
Pandavas’ possession. She is derecognised as a human being merely because she is a woman tied in
matrimony. Two, aspersion is cast on Draupadi’s character as Karna views her as a “whore” since she
“submits to many men” who may be her husband(s) by law. It is the female sexuality that is at target
here. If Draupadi can be made available to five men why can’t others in the gathering likewise
‘enjoy’ her?—this seems to be Karna’s suggestion. She cannot be considered a respectful-virtuous
woman because she exercises her right to be with several men. This makes her a “whore” in Karna’s
views and therefore, the men have all the right to bring her “for that matter naked” into the
assembly hall. The point is taken forward and Duhsasana
... forcibly laid hold of Draupadi’s robe, O king, and in the midst of the assembly began to undress
her (55)
The scene evokes both shock and pathos in the reader who connects with the misery of Draupadi.
Note that the narrator’s tone too is full of sorrow when he exclaims “O King” in the quote above.
Whether the scene also becomes a form of titillation for the audience hearing the tale (first
Janamajeya and then the ascetics) is an unexplored area.
Draupadi is molested and disrobed before the assembly of men—all her gurus, sages or relatives-in-
law—yet none put a stop to it. Does it depict their helplessness? Were they bound by the Law too?
Were they too appalled to react? In any case the story reaches a point when human agency fails to
resolve a quandary, stands incapacitated before the law. In such a scenario the epic turns to dues ex
machina—divine intervention—that saves Draupadi from the trauma of being stripped naked in
public. Her humiliation and suffering finds release in the ‘godly’ act —
But when her skirt was being stripped off, lord of the people, another similar skirt appeared every
time. A terrible roar went up from all the kings, a shout of approval as they watched that greatest
wonder on earth ... A pile of clothes was heaped up in the middle of the hall, when Duhsasana, tired
and ashamed, at last desisted and sat down. The gods among men in the hall raised the hair-raising
cry of “Fie!” as they watched the sons of Kunti. (55-6)
Draupadi was thus, saved by the agency of god. However, the second question that Draupadi raises
before the men in the assembly hall is of great significance. She asks:
How can I, wife of the Pandus, sister of Dhrstadyumna Parsata and friend of Vasudeva, enter the hall
of the Kings? Is the wife of the King Dharma whose birth marches his, a slave or free? Speak
Kauravas. I shall abide by your answer. For this foul man, disgrace of the Kauravas, is molesting me,
and I cannot bear it any longer. (59)
Draupadi’s question is relevant in our times for it may be asked if a woman equal to a man becomes
his possession in marriage that he can buy and sell or stake and lose? Was Draupadi Yudhisthira’s to
lose? Did he have that kind of right over her? Even Bhisma cannot answer her question. He says “I
cannot answer the question decisively, because the matter is subtle and mysterious as well as
grave”. The complexity of Draupadi’s question dawns on the people in the assembly as none can say
that Yudhisthira owned her. The issue is as tortuous in our context where patriarchy has a strong
grip on social relations between men and women. Karna gives his view on the subject based on
accepted knowledge system of the time: “there are three who own no property, a student, a slave, a
dependent woman” (61). The point of significance here is the place women occupied in ancient
literature—how they were looked at from male-centred viewpoint. This throws light on our ancient
value system as well. In so far as Draupadi is concerned in this scene she voices her anger before the
gathering thus:
I on whom the assembled kings set eye in the arena at my Bridegroom Choice, but never before or
after, I am now brought into the hall! ...I whom the Pandavas did not suffer to be touched by the
wind in my house before, they now allow to be touched by this miscreant. The Kurus allow —
methinks that time is out of joint—their innocent daughter and daughter-in-law to be molested! (59)
Draupadi reveals to the gathered assembly the truth of their action, that they have been mute
spectators and thus, accomplices in the violent treatment meted out to her. The Kurus and the sages
she asserts, have failed to follow the law for they allowed her molestation. The significance of the
speech should not be lost to us in our present context.
While Yudhisthira is troubled and confused, Bhima the “wolf-Belly” flies in rage at the entire act. He
“looked and watched how she was dragged, in her courses, with upper cloth drooping, who so little
deserved it, in desperate pain”. Bhima, angry with his own brother Yudhisthira for staking Draupadi
and using her as a pawn in the game, gives voice to his anger thus:
There are a lot of whores in the country of gamblers, Yudhisthira, but they never throw them, for
they have pity
Even for women of that stripe. The tribute that the king of the Kasis brought and all our vast wealth,
the gems that the other Kings of the earth brought in, the mounts and prizes, the armor and
weaponry, the kingdom, yourself and we have all been staked and lost to others. This I didn’t mind
much, for you are the master of all we possess. But you went too far, I think, when you staked
Draupadi. She did not deserve this! After she had won Pandavas
As a girl, she is now because of you plagued by Kauravas... (53)
The angle of law is again brought to bear upon the events. In his anger, Bhima calls Duhsasana
“mean and cruel” and threatens to burn off his arms at which point Arjuna reminds Bhima:
Never before have you said words like these, Bhimasena! Surely your respect for the law has been
destroyed by our harsh enemies! Don’t
fall in with the enemy’s plans, obey your highest law: no one may overreach his eldest brother by
law. The king was challenged by his foes, and remembering the baronial law, he played at the
enemy’s wish. That is our great glory!” (53)
Clearly, Arjuna is more poised and detached than Bhima. For all his love for Draupadi, his sense of
duty gets the better of him. It appears that the law in fact dehumanises him as he is unable to pledge
support to his wife in this moment of crisis. Bhima alone speaks with passion. Again the question of
law takes centre-stage. The baronial law of not refusing the enemy if challenged is being posed here
to explain Yudhisthira’a action.

The King’s Offering of Three Boons to Draupadi

Finally, the scene is made more dramatic by the “horrible sound” of jackals, donkeys and grisly birds.
The ghastly omens make Dhrtarastra wary of the danger looming over the Kauravas. To settle the
matter amicably, Dhrtarastra gives three boons to Draupadi. She asks for the freedom of Yudhisthira
first and with the second boon she frees all her husband(s). The third boon she refuses to take saying
that “my husbands...will find the good things, king, with their own good acts”. Draupadi is able to
accomplish what none could. She as Karna points out
has become the salvation of the Pandavas! When they were sinking, boatless and drowning, in the
plumbless ocean, the Pancali became the Pandavas’ boat, to set them ashore (65)
Thus, Draupadi ironically saves the Pandavas who were meant to save and protect her and who
failed miserably at that. Nonetheless, Dhrtarastra gives back to the Pandavas all that they had lost in
the game of dice and they leave for their home, Indraprastha.