Krishna ExperienceThe dice game
In the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira loses everything in a rigged game of dice against the Kauravas: his kingdom, his brothers, himself, and finally his wife Draupadi. Duryodhana sends his brother Duhshasana to drag her into the assembly by her hair. She asks the elders whether a man who had already lost himself had any right to wager her. No one answers.
The prayer
Duhshasana begins to pull off her sari. In the version most people know, Draupadi raises her arms and calls on Krishna, Govinda, Dwarka-vasi, protector of the helpless. As Duhshasana pulls, new cloth keeps appearing, in different colours, until a mountain of silk lies on the floor and he collapses, exhausted. Bhima vows to drink Duhshasana's blood, a vow he keeps in the war.
Krishna and SudamaAnother friend who came with nothing.What the texts say
The prayer to Krishna appears in the widely read vulgate Mahabharata and in every popular retelling. The scholarly Critical Edition published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute keeps the miracle, the endless cloth, but moves the explicit prayer to Krishna to its appendix of later additions. Either way, Indian tradition has remembered this scene for centuries as Krishna answering the cry of a devotee who had no one else.
The akshaya patra
In the forest exile that followed, the sage Durvasa and his many disciples arrived for a meal after Draupadi had already eaten from her magic vessel, which gave food only until she had eaten. She prayed to Krishna. He came, found a single leaf of greens stuck to the pot, and ate it. Instantly the sage and his disciples, bathing in the river, felt so full that they slipped away without coming back for their meal.
Questions people ask
How did Krishna save Draupadi?
When Duhshasana tried to disrobe her in the Kaurava court, her sari became endless. In the popular Mahabharata she calls on Krishna, who provides the cloth.
Is Krishna in the Draupadi vastraharan scene in the Critical Edition?
The Critical Edition keeps the miracle of the endless cloth but places Draupadi’s explicit prayer to Krishna in an appendix of later additions.
Sources
- Mahabharata, Sabha Parva (the dicing and the disrobing of Draupadi)
- Mahabharata, Vana Parva (Durvasa and the akshaya patra)