Draupadi and the Gambling Dilemma

Image Info: Draupadi, from Grant Morison's Reimagined Visual Mahabharata Anthology, 18 Days.

Source: Scoop Whoop.com. Link.

After a few years of being “the woman with five husbands,” Draupadi was used to being called, well, high maintenance. She was used to the stares, smirks, and side-eyes that came with an admittedly formidable reputation. Honestly, she rather liked it that way. The women of India knew that Draupadi was woman enough for not one, but five husbands, all of whom were renowned in their own right. Even if one had a rather serious gambling addiction.

Draupadi had made a personal promise not to show favor for one of the brothers over any of the others- in a group, anyway. On an individual level she had long since convinced them all that they held the largest piece of her heart- it was far easier to manipulate them that way. And Draupadi would know- manipulation was her forte. What could she say? She had never been one to settle. As a child, if she couldn’t decide between desserts, she would use her often underestimated abilities to make it happen. Draupadi was well versed in getting her way, which was why she wasn’t about to take the gambled-away-into-a-waitress gig sitting down, especially not on the knee of a nauseatingly self-satisfied sociopath. "Honestly!" she scoffed internally. "A loaded die does not a skilled gamesman make."

And so, while the taxpayer-funded royal thuggery attempted in vain to relieve her of her imported Grecian designer dress, Draupadi was doing her best to stop seething and start thinking. By the time everyone realized the unfruitful nature of the relentless unrolling of her garmentry, she had the beginnings of a plan.

One of the advantages to being a kitchen slave was the access to the food. Certain positions were expendable. The staff responsible for sustenance, however, would always be inarguably necessary, and there, Draupadi reasoned, was the source of their incomparable power.

And so, when she showed up at Shakuni's ornately bedazzled room with a midnight snack, he didn’t question it. And he equally didn’t question it when, on the way out, she flashed him the doe eyes and dropped him a quick peck on the cheek. Unbeknownst to Shakuni, these peacemaking gestures were a ruse, serving as a distraction while she reached into the back of his robes, switching out the tricked out gambling dice she found there and leaving him with a platter of fried jalebi and absolutely no idea what was coming his way the very next day.

Yudhishthira was coming off of a terrible day, and the night delivery of a letter from Shakuni only made things worse. Yudhi barely read a paragraph of gloating prose before angrily crumpling it and tossing it in the nearest torch, silently relishing the petty satisfaction of lighting the letter on fire. After the words were reduced to ash, Yudhi's attention wandered to the still-present messenger, a young serving girl sporting a double-braid which looked suspiciously like his wife's handiwork. She glanced up, pulling a square of parchment from her pocket and passing it to him with a small grin on her way out the door. As he unfolded the meticulous creases, Yudhi noticed Draupadi's unmistakable script, and as he read, he recognized the hallmarks of a promising, and potentially redeeming, plan. Yudhi quickly beckoned the serving girl back, giving her a reassuring smile and a letter containing a new challenge for Shakuni, one he wouldn't be able to resist.

The morning gambling re-re-match went even better than Draupadi expected, and, before long, she and her husbands were on the road again, belongings restored. Though it would be a long time before Yudhisthira was forgiven, Draupadi found a small amount of solace in his mortified expression when the brahmin appeared to counsel him weekly on his "sinful gambling addiction."

Author's Note: This story was inspired by a sequence from the PDE Mahabharata in which Draupadi is gambled away in a match between her husband Yudhisthira and his opponent, Shakuni, who wields a loaded die. In the original, Yudhisthira had already gambled himself into slavery and Draupadi argued that he had no room to gamble her away. In my retelling, I imagined that the king restored the status of the Pandava brothers when Draupadi became a slave as an exchange of sorts designed to rub his success in the brothers' noses. Yudhi is staying in a tent just outside of the castle with the others overnight after the disastrous match, as I imagined they were given a night to reconvene. I figured that Draupadi's indignation toward her new class status would be motivation enough to use her resources and skills as a master manipulator to find a way out of this pickle! I was also incensed while reading the story at Yudhisthira’s apparent inability to step down from a gambling match he knew to be rigged out of his favor. I find it hard to believe nobody attempted to stop him or counsel him, so I added the brahmin giving him guidance at the end. He definitely needs some help! In the original, Draupadi is lost in the gambling rematch and her new “owners” attempt to undress her in front of everyone and she begs the god Krishna to help her. In response, Krishna makes it so she cannot be undressed, enchanting her garments to continue unfurling for as long as the king’s men try. After this, Duryodhana asks Draupadi to sit on his knee as a slave. I wanted to explore with my story the possibility of the capable Draupadi taking matters into her own hands.

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata.

Mackenzie, Donald A. Indian Myth and Legend: The Gambling Match. Source: Link.

Dutt, Romesh C. Mahabharata, Epic of the Bharatas: Draupadi Lost. Source: Link.

Draupadi in the Assembly Hall. Source: Link.