domestic violence, rather than a
calculated extortion and murder.
Draupadi
In the Mahabharata, the later of the
two great Hindu epics, Draupadi is the
daughterof King Drupada, and the
wife of all five Pandavabrothers, the
epic’s protagonists. This literary refer-
ence to polyandry(the marrying of one
woman to several brothers) is interest-
ing, since it seems to have been
extremely rare throughout Indian his-
tory, and the epic has to give an expla-
nation for how this happened.
Draupadi’s father vows that he will give
his daughter in marriage only to the
man who can lift a giant bow, and then
hit a target suspended in the air. This
feat is child’s play for Arjuna, one of the
Pandava brothers and the world’s great-
est archer, and he wins Draupadi as his
wife. The wedding party returns home,
but while they are still outside, their
mother Kunticalls out that whatever
they have won must be shared between
them. To obey their mother, each of the
brothers marry Draupadi. They agree
that each will live with her for a year,
during which time the others shall not
attempt to see her.
Draupadi’s most famous scene in
the epic comes after her husband
Yudhishthirahas wagered and lost her
in a game of dice. Yudhishthira has been
gamblingwith his cousins Duryodhana
and Duhshasana, who seize Yudhishthira’s
gaming ineptitude as an opportunity to
win the kingdom all to themselves. After
the loss, Duhshasana comes to
Draupadi’s chamber and drags her by
her hairback to the gambling hall. Her
pain and humiliation are compounded
by the fact that she is in the middle of
her menstrual period and is not allowed
to change her stained robe. In the gam-
bling hall Draupadi is paraded and
humiliated before the crowd like an ani-
malat auction, and her property status
is emphasized when Duryodhana offers
her his thigh (the euphemism for the
genitals) as her place to sit. The final
insult comes when Duhshasana tries to
disrobe Draupadi by unwinding her sari.
Here the god Krishnaenacts a miracle:
No matter how much cloth Duhshasana
pulls away, Draupadi remains fully
clothed. Stunned and confused, he
finally gives up.
Shocked by her humiliation,
Duryodhana’s father Dhrtarashtra
asks Draupadi to choose a boon. She
chooses freedom for her husbands,
although they eventually agree to
spend a period in exile. Even before
this incident there has been tension
between the Pandavas and their
cousins. With these insults to
Draupadi, however, the seeds of dis-
cord are more deeply sown. Because
Duhshasana has dragged her by the
hair, Draupadi vows to leave her hair
unbound until she can wash it in
Duhshasana’s blood, while her hus-
band Bhimatakes an oath to avenge
Duryodhana’s insult by smashing
Duryodhana’s “thigh.” Draupadi’s
hunger for revenge and uncompromis-
ing hatred for these two are a major
force driving the remainder of the epic,
pushing all the parties toward the
inevitable fratricidal war.Dravida
One of the three developed styles in
medieval Hindu temple architecture;
the others being the Nagara and the
Veshara. The Dravida style is primarily
found in southern India, particularly in
the modern state of Tamil Nadu.
Whereas the temple tower in the Nagara
style stresses an unbroken verticality,
culminating in one high peak, towers in
the Dravida style are composed of a
series of horizontal tiers, emphasizing
the successive layers. Although earlier
southern Indian temples have as their
focus one central tower, as at the
Rajrajeshvar Temple in the city of
Tanjore, the focus shifted in about the
twelfth century to the building of walls
around the temple’s complex perime-
ters. These walls had enormous gopu-
ramsor central gateways at the cardinalDraupadi