PLATE FOUR

Here Queen Kunti recalls an atrocity that the Kurus (Dhrtardstra’s
sons) had perpetrated upon her beloved daughter-in-law Princess
Draupadi. Once the Pandavas (Kunti’s sons) were invited to a chess
match in the royal assembly of the Kurus. In the heat of the match, the
Pandavas made the mistake of placing their wife Draupadi as a bet. ‘“Now
if you lose,”’ the Kurus told the Pandavas, ‘‘Draupadi will no longer be
your wife.’ When the Kurus cheated and won the game, two leading
Kurus named Karna and Duhsasana immediately grabbed Draupadi.
‘*Now you no longer belong to your husbands,”’ they told her. ‘‘You are
our property, and we can deal with you as we like. So now let us see your
naked beauty.’’ As Duhsdsana began to forcibly unwrap Draupadi’s sari,
she tried to hold on to it. But what could she do? She was a helpless
woman, and Duhsasana was a powerful warrior. So she wept in despair
and prayed to Krsna, ‘‘O Lord, please save my honor’’—but she was still
trying to save herself by holding on to her sari. Then, realizing how im-
possible it was to save herself in this way, she let go and raised her arms
in utter surrender: ‘‘My dear Lord Krsna, if You like You can save me—
or if You like You can let me be disgraced. The decision is in Your
hands.”’ Then the Lord responded to her prayers and supplied unlimited
cloth for the sari. Duhsdsana could not come to the end of it, and finally,
with heaps of cloth stacked in the room, he became exhausted and
realized that he would never see her naked. (pp. 37-38)
