The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c8.105

c8.105

It is only in the Mahābhārata and some Purāṇas that we come across a few stray cases of polyandry. The most well-known case is that of Draupadī, who was married to five Pāṇḍava brothers. Kuṇālaka Jātaka (No. 536) also refers to a polyandrous marriage of a princess named Kaṇhā. Kṛishṇā was another name of Draupadī and the Kaṇhā of this Jātaka is identical with her as is shown by the fact that the names of her husbands are identical with those of Pāṇḍavas. Draupadī's polyandrous marriage seems to have been a historic event; otherwise the author of the Mahābhārata, who is at his wit’s end to justify it, would have quietly kept silence over it. Polyandry, however, seems to have been rarely practised even in the days of the Mahābhārata. Kuntī was pained to find that her well-meant direction to her sons that the brothers should evenly divide what they may have obtained should result in a polyandrous marriage¹. Drupada also stood aghast at the polyandrous proposal of Yudhishṭhira². The latter could justify it only on the convenient ground of family tradition³. He no doubt refers to an earlier polyandrous marriage of Jaṭilā, but whether it was a historical event may well be doubted. The Mahābhārata proceeds to give several fantastic reasons in justification of Draupadī’s marriage; only one of them may be given by way of illustration. Draupadī got five husbands in this life because in one of her previous existences she had five times uttered the prayer to God, ‘Give me a husband’ (I, 213). Later writers were so much upset by Draupadī’s polyandry that they refused to believe in it. The *Tantravārtika*, for instance, maintains that Draupadī’s marriage with five royal brothers is to be understood only figuratively. Draupadī was not a lady in flesh and blood; she stood for royal glory (*rājya-lakshmī*), and her marriage with five brothers is only intended to show that they were jointly ruling their kingdom with absolute accord. Or, we may suppose, that the brothers were really married to five different ladies, but they were so much alike in person and character, that they came to be described under the common name Draupadī. Or, we should understand the situation in this way: Draupadī was really the wife of Arjuna who had won her by his skill in archery, but the epic describes her as the common wife of all the five brothers with a view to emphasise the extraordinarily cordial relations that existed among the brothers¹.