Draupadi: Wife of the Five
Born of Drupada’s fire. Wife of the five. The sabha is done to her. Mother of the Upapandavas, murdered sleeping.
Also called Krishnaa · Panchali · Yajnaseni
Empress
Who Draupadi is
Draupadi is born of Drupada’s sacrificial fire with her brother Dhrishtadyumna. The recitation also calls her Krishnaa, Panchali, Yajnaseni. She marries all five Pandavas because Kunti, not seeing what they had brought, told them to share it.
The dice game is done to her. Duhshasana drags her by the hair. She vows Duryodhana’s thigh and Duhshasana’s blood. After the war Ashwatthama murders her five sleeping sons. She is not a prize in this telling. She is the reason the hall cannot be forgotten.
Names and spellings
Canonical name in this graph: Draupadi. Common Mahabharat spellings and titles stay in the aliases rather than being repeated in every heading.
Parents
In the recitation
- Krishna — friend and protector; the unending sari
- Jayadratha — abducts her in the forest
- Duryodhana — the sabha; the thigh she vows
- Duhshasana — dragged by the hair in the hall
- Ashwatthama — her five sons murdered in their sleep
Narrative role
Adi Parva — swayamvara Kings fail the bow. Arjuna, dressed as a brahmana, does not. Bhima pulls up a tree when the suitors rise. They walk her to a potter’s house and call to their mother.
Sabha Parva Yudhishthira stakes her after he has staked himself. The question she asks — if he had already lost himself, could he lose her? — sits in the hall unanswered while they drag her.
Vana Parva Jayadratha abducts her in the forest and is humiliated for it. The later vow on his head is Arjuna’s, after Abhimanyu.
Sauptika Parva Her five sons, the Upapandavas, are killed in their sleep. She asks for Ashwatthama’s jewel, not another heap of bodies.
How Draupadi is related
How is Draupadi related to Yudhishthira? He is the husband who stakes her. The marriage is fivefold; the shame in the sabha is spoken in his name. Yudhishthira
How is Draupadi related to Krishna? Friend and protector. The unending sari is how later readers name the moment the hall failed her. Krishna
How is Draupadi related to Duryodhana? He has her dragged. She vows the thigh that Bhima will break on the eighteenth day. Duryodhana
How is Draupadi related to Ashwatthama? He murders her five sons after the war is already won. That is the last cruelty the recitation gives her. Ashwatthama
Source notes
Mahabharata text (Adi, Sabha, Vana, Sauptika), Ganguli. The five husbands are a single marriage in this graph, not five sequential households. Last reviewed 12 September 2026.
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