Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c15.1

v2.c15.1

NOR is the careful, busy housewife left altogether out of account in the Epic. While the brothers are living in banishment in the forest with Draupadī, the idea comes one day into the head of the divine holy man Durvāsas—who on the slightest grounds will break out into an anger full of mighty curses, and finds a cannibal-like joy in scratching others till they bleed¹—the idea comes into his head to lead the Pāṇḍavas and their wife into some very evil plight. With a huge crowd of disciples he comes to them as a guest just as their meal is over. Draupadī now does not know what to do. The wonderful cooking-pot (sthālī) given by the sun god bestows indeed every kind of food, but as Draupadī has eaten last, it will give out nothing more for this meal.² She, too, has now already eaten her meal. But the artist in curses and his following must be fed. In her difficulty she calls on Kṛiṣhṇa, who comes and gives the guests their fill in supernatural wise without their having eaten at all (iii, 263).