Draupadi Invites Kotik to Dinner
Draupadi Harana Chapter 266
The chapters of Draupadi Harana parva can be accessed by tag https://crackpot.substack.com/t/jayadratha
As It Rhymes
1.
Vaishampayana said,
(In the previous chapter)
Kotika Shibi asked Draupadi to read her book.
Draupadi climbed down the tree shook.
2.
Draupadi said,
‘It’s bad form for us to speak.
But no one is at home to pip a squeak.Â
3.
I am bound to five hearts forged from steel.
Five men who cruise battlefields with zeal.
4.
Kotik, you and your friends may know these lions.
As they may know my sign and scions.
5.
I was born to Drupada.
People know me as Krishnaa.
My five husbands are famous in Khandavaprastha.
6.
They are Yudhisthira, Bhimasena, Arjuna and Madri’s twins Sahadeva and Nakula who make me swoon.
They all will return from a hunt soon.
7.
Bhimasena and Jaya hunt the south.
The others hunt east west north.
8.
Park your chariots on the road.
When my husbands come on with meat loads you may help bring slain beasts in.
Then stay as dinner guests and feast on venison.’
9.
Draupadi’s face was wan as the moon.
Draupadi’s gracious pretense failed like a lead balloon.
Draupadi’s lotus lips shook like leaves in a monsoon.
Notes
[1] This encounter takes place in the forest, where the Pandavas with Draupadi live in exile after losing their kingdom for thirteen years in the dice game. https://crackpot.substack.com/t/dyuta
Vaishampayana, ibid.
[4] Draupadi and the Pandavas know Jayadratha.
[5] Krishnaa is a name for Draupadi.
Khandavaprastha is a place.
Draupadi’s five husbands are the Pandavas.
[7] Jaya is an epithet for Arjuna. Jaya means victory.
Translation Notes
