Daughter of King Drupada, wife of the five Pandavas, and one of the epic's sharpest voices.
Draupadi, daughter of King Drupada, is wife to the five Pandavas and one of the epic's sharpest voices. After the dice game her boon frees her husbands (MBh 5.81.28). In the forest she argues that whoever is born must act (MBh 3.32.3), and before the war she asks Krishna to remember what was done to her.
अदासाः पाण्डवाः सन्तु सरथाः सायुधा इति ।मयोक्ते यत्र निर्मुक्ता वनवासाय केशव ॥
adāsāḥ pāṇḍavāḥ santu sarathāḥ sāyudhā iti |mayokte yatra nirmuktā vanavāsāya keśava ||
"Let the Pandavas be free, with their chariots and their weapons," I said, and they were released to go to the forest, Keshava.
Draupadi recalls the boon Dhritarashtra offered her after the dice game (MBh 5.81.27).
MBh 5.81.28Draupadi to Krishna
She asks for her husbands' freedom, with their chariots and weapons. They walk out free because of her.
She rises from the middle of the altar at her father Drupada's sacrifice, as she herself reminds Krishna. MBh 5.81.21
Arjuna wins her at the svayamvara, and she becomes the wife of all five brothers.
Staked and lost at dice, she asks the hall whether Yudhishthira, having lost himself first, still had the right to stake her. No elder gives her a clear answer.
She tells Yudhishthira that whoever is born must act, and that no one should hold themselves cheap. She learned statecraft, she says, sitting on her father's lap. MBh 3.32.3 to 62
When peace talks begin, she holds up her hair and asks Krishna to remember it whenever the other side asks for peace. He promises she will see justice. MBh 5.81.36 to 44
Her five sons are killed in Ashwatthama's night raid. She demands justice, and the jewel from his forehead is brought to her.
कर्म खल्विह कर्तव्यं जातेनामित्रकर्शन ।अकर्माणो हि जीवन्ति स्थावरा नेतरे जनाः ॥
karma khalviha kartavyaṃ jātenāmitrakarśana |akarmāṇo hi jīvanti sthāvarā netare janāḥ ||
Whoever is born here has to act, tamer of enemies. Only things that cannot move live without action. No one else does.
MBh 3.32.3Draupadi to Yudhishthira
न त्वेवात्माऽवमन्तव्यः पुरुषेण कदाचन ।न ह्यात्मपरिभूतस्य भूतिर्भवति शोभना ॥
na tvevātmā'vamantavyaḥ puruṣeṇa kadācana |na hyātmaparibhūtasya bhūtirbhavati śobhanā ||
No one should ever think little of themselves. One who holds themselves in contempt does not flourish.
MBh 3.32.58Draupadi to Yudhishthira
स मां राजन्कर्मवतीमागतामाह सान्त्वयन् ।शुश्रूषमाणामासीनां पितुरङ्के युधिष्ठिर ॥
sa māṃ rājankarmavatīmāgatāmāha sāntvayan |śuśrūṣamāṇāmāsīnāṃ pituraṅke yudhiṣṭhira ||
He taught it to me too, King, gently, when I came in on some errand and sat listening on my father's lap, Yudhishthira.
Draupadi explains where she learned Brihaspati's statecraft: from a learned brahmana her father kept at court, who taught it to her brothers (MBh 3.32.60 to 61).
MBh 3.32.62Draupadi to Yudhishthira
अदासाः पाण्डवाः सन्तु सरथाः सायुधा इति ।मयोक्ते यत्र निर्मुक्ता वनवासाय केशव ॥
adāsāḥ pāṇḍavāḥ santu sarathāḥ sāyudhā iti |mayokte yatra nirmuktā vanavāsāya keśava ||
"Let the Pandavas be free, with their chariots and their weapons," I said, and they were released to go to the forest, Keshava.
Draupadi recalls the boon Dhritarashtra offered her after the dice game (MBh 5.81.27).
MBh 5.81.28Draupadi to Krishna
त्रयोदश हि वर्षाणि प्रतीक्षन्त्या गतानि मे ।विधाय हृदये मन्युं प्रदीप्तमिव पावकम् ॥
trayodaśa hi varṣāṇi pratīkṣantyā gatāni me |vidhāya hṛdaye manyuṃ pradīptamiva pāvakam ||
Thirteen years have gone by while I waited, keeping my anger in my heart like a blazing fire.
MBh 5.81.40Draupadi to Krishna
अयं ते पुण्डरीकाक्ष दुःशासनकरोद्धृतः ।स्मर्तव्यः सर्वकार्येषु परेषां सन्धिमिच्छताम् ॥
ayaṃ te puṇḍarīkākṣa duḥśāsanakaroddhṛtaḥ |smartavyaḥ sarvakāryeṣu pareṣāṃ sandhimicchatām ||
Lotus-eyed one, this is the hair Duhshasana's hand pulled. Remember it in everything you do, whenever the other side asks for peace.
She holds up her hair in her left hand as she says it (MBh 5.81.33 to 35).
MBh 5.81.36Draupadi to Krishna
तामुवाच महाबाहुः केशवः परिसान्त्वयन् ।अचिराद्द्रक्ष्यसे कृष्णे रुदतीर्भरतस्त्रियः ॥
tāmuvāca mahābāhuḥ keśavaḥ parisāntvayan |acirāddrakṣyase kṛṣṇe rudatīrbharatastriyaḥ ||
Keshava comforted her and said: soon, Draupadi, you will see the women of the Bharatas weeping.
MBh 5.81.44Krishna to Draupadi
"Do your work; action is better than inaction." Draupadi makes the same case to Yudhishthira years before Krishna makes it to Arjuna.
"Lift yourself by yourself; do not let yourself sink." Her line on never holding yourself cheap says the same.
Book six, between the two armies, told by Sanjaya after Bhishma falls.
Week 1 of the Gita by email: one verse a day and what it asks of you.
Send my weekLines come from the Sanskrit we hold for books 3, 5, 12, 13 and 14, a southern-recension text whose numbering runs close to the Kumbhakonam edition, so verse numbers can differ from the Pune critical edition. Events from books we have yet to add in Sanskrit carry no verse number. The English is Wisdom's own, read with Nilakantha's commentary, with K. M. Ganguli's public-domain translation consulted.
Wisdom translation, edited by Ankur Shukla.