Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.123

v1.c5.123

Draupadī, too, the leading heroine of the Mahābhārata, after union still bears the flower of her maidenhood unplucked. She is wedded to the five Pāṇḍavas one after the other, and we hear: "In this wise the king's five sons, the splendid chariot-fighters, the gloriously-made, continuers of the Kaurava race, then took the splendid woman by the hand, each one on his day. And this miracle surpassing all that is human is proclaimed by the divine Ṛishi: the lovely one with the glorious waist, the very mighty one, at the end of each day became a maid again"² (i, 198.11 ff.). The Ṛishi is Vyāsa, himself the child of a *semper virgo*, as has already been said.