Panchaali the Princess of Peace
(By Saniya Inamdar)
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| Author | Saniya Inamdar |
“Oh esteemed ones assembled together, I Princess Draupadi with all respect obey not to marry the five illustrious brothers! I agree to marry Prince Arjuna who won my Swayamwara or I will marry no one! There will be a war but Princess Panchaali will have no part in it!”
Born as a woman but with no experience of being either a human or a female, the protagonist of the book finds herself in constant struggle, a quest to understand and be understood. The story witnesses the emergence of the naïve Draupadi into a complex world, complex due to her sudden commingling with the new earthly element, a puzzle because of the newness of her matrix, the suddenness of her birth and as she tries to understand the sense of her birth and life she finds a friend, an erudite guide and a sagacious panacea to all her woes and questions, her SAKHA, KRISHNA.
As she travels in this new element with her Sakha she tries to adapt herself as a daughter, a princess, a sister, a friend, a lover and a wife but not as a wife to five husbands! She challenges and questions and sees through the deception and denies to her being a common wife to five husbands, five brothers!
The story line of the proposed book traces the life of Draupadi in a different light altogether. All the characters are exactly the same as in the original Mahabharata, the story too follows the sequence of the Mahabharata except that Draupadi in the story ‘Refuses to Marry the five Pandava brothers, she declines to be a common wife to five princes, five brothers’
Why did Draupadi refuse such a glorious, powerful and seemingly propitious marriage with the Pandavas? Wasn’t her birth a fulfillment of a wounded heart for revenge? Was she aware of her purpose in life, if yes why did she take such a bold decision of not marrying the Pandavas? Was she against marrying the five princes as they were brothers, was it her love for Arjuna, were there conspiracies by people unknown to her or was she being guided by a force beyond human understanding?
The story traces the journey of Draupadi, a woman so fiercely aware of the sanctity of a woman, her womanhood that she refuses the most powerful, the most loved, the most revered to carve her own niche in society. Draupadi in the story refuses war and embraces peace. The story tries to regale a different alternative of Draupadi's life.
Draupadi is also portrayed as an ambassador of peace unlike the vindictive and war mongering Draupadi portrayed in mythology! She seems a princess genuinely concerned about the innocent people of Panchaal as she argues with the acrimonious intents of her father, King Drupad!”
