Extra Credit Reading Notes: The Palace of Illusions, Part E

 

The Disrobing of Draupadi (Vastrapaharanam)
(from a Persian Mahabharata)

Reading Notes:

• Bhanumati told Panchali that Karna called her kind and beautiful.
• Draupadi realized that her thinking about Karna was wrong.
• Karna and Draupadi looked alike. He even called her beautiful, though respectfully.
• Panchali, however, managed to ruin things with Karna once again.
• Draupadi was gambled away by Yudhishthir. 
• Duryodhana asked Draupadi to sit on his lap.
• Draupadi thought of Krishna and found herself still dressed in the saree after everything.
• Draupadi cursed the Kauravas.
• Krishna helped Draupadi once again when she was in the forest, and Durvasa came to visit.
• Draupadi used Bheem. He really loved her, but she did not love him back as he did. 
• Here's one of my favorite lines from the chapter, from when Draupadi is talking about Bheem, "I wept more loudly when he was around, knowing it would make him rail against Yudhisthir, thus increasing Yudhisthir's torment. When we traveled, I complained of the path's hardship and allowed Bheem to carry me, though had I made an effort, I could have managed on my own. I made unreasonable demands for impossible things, pressing to see how far he'd go to please me. (Such was the case of the golden lotus.) Ultimately, at Kurukshetra, he would kill and kill again, going against the laws of righteous war not for victory or glory, but for my sake."

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Palace of Illusions (p. 40). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.