Week 12 Story Revision: Draupadi's Swayamwara Version 2

Draupadi's Swayamwara

Drawing of Draupadi
Source: Google Source

Draupadi was dreading the day of her swayamwara. She had wanted to learn how to be a warrior, but her father insisted that was no life for a woman, and her role was as a wife and mother and a wife and mother only. 

Growing up, Draupadi rebelled against her father's traditional ways as much as she could. She never wanted to marry a man and thought something was wrong with her. Every time her father pushed her to find a male to mate with, she rebelled even harder. She would sneak away during classes to watch the boys fights, practice battle moves instead of practicing dances, and the worst of them all, kiss as many boys as she could. Although the last practice was to defy her father, she did it also to find her way.

In her community, the worst thing a girl could be was promiscuous. Draupadi knew the best way to embarrass her father, the King of Panchala, was to kiss every boy she could and be labeled the community whore. She knew she was just kissing boys to anger her father, but part of her was hoping she would feel something inside that would make her want to be a wife to a man someday.

Draupadi's reputation began to spread and soon the king found out about his daughter's extra-curricular activities. He locked her away in their kingdom vowing to not let her out until she has been wed to a man. Although her swayamwara meant she would finally be free from her father, her freedom was simply being won by another man. 

On the day of her swayamwara, all of the men in the community came out to win Draupadi. Draupadi sat on the stage in a throne bored as can be as each man performed their best talent in front of the king. She knew she had no say in the matter so she didn't feel the need to pay attention until one hooded warrior approached the stage.  Although the individual was wearing a hood, Draupadi could tell they had gorgeous smooth tan skin and was very tall and muscular. What got her attention the most this warrior performed their talents in front of Draupadi instead of the king as if to demonstrate this is her decision and not his. 

The king was obviously annoyed by this gesture, but he couldn't deny the god-like talents of this mystery warrior. He picked a few other promising contenders and then turned towards his daughter and said, "Draupadi, I know how much choosing your own husband means to you. In order to prove to you that I care about what you want and I am not controlling you, I will let you choose from this group of warriors. You have until dawn to decide."

Draupadi was surprised at this gesture. Although not ultimate freedom, she got to choose from the group of contenders she was most impressed with. She had five hours to decide and decided to make the entire group wait until the very last minute.

During those five hours, Draupadi got all dolled up, packed up her room, and said goodbye to all of the kingdom staff. When she arrived back at the stage, she told the royal messenger to gather the town as she has made her decision. 

Once the whole town arrive, Draupadi made the following announcement:

"My people. Thank you for joining us at this early hour. I have made you all wait long enough. My father has been oh so generous as to let me pick my own husband from this group of pre-selected warriors. After some long, hard thinking, I have decided."

She paused and then turned to her father. 

While staring the king straight in his eyes, she said confidently and with a smirk, "I choose the hooded warrior." 

The King was obviously annoyed, but said, "Very well. Everyone else, you are dismissed. Sir, please step forward and reveal yourself so we can properly meet." 

The hooded stranger approached the stage and removed the hood. It was a woman. 

"What?!" yelled the King. "Get out now! I refuse to let you marry my daughter. You are to be punished for this trick!" 

The guards moved towards the beautiful woman and was shocked when Draupdi moved in front of her as for protection. 

"You are not going to touch this warrior. You let it be MY decision. You promised me it would be MY decision. As a King, you must honor your promise, and my decision is her." 

Author's Notes

This story is a recreation of The Lives of Draupadi, a story within the Mahabharata, and a recreation of my first version of Draupadi's Swayamwara. After this week's reading, I got the idea to rewrite this story to add some LGBTQ representation. Everything in the pink is changed. I changed a lot of the pronouns and add the character of the hooded warrior. I wanted to portray the woman as strong and powerful and describe Draupadi as confused as to why she doesn't want to marry a man. Although this hardly follows the original story and would lead to drastic changes in the entire epic, I really wanted to do a gender-bend story that only involved women. 

Bibliography: The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic, R.K. Narayan