A Critical Study of Draupadi in Disguise in Context to Power Dynamics

Intention and purpose shape an individual’s actions and their results. Social, political, and some personal reasons compel people to disguise their identity. A disguised person begins living in a new form by adopting the respective occupation, name, or fake identity. However, the masked identity could be a temporary solution to problems because it is extremely difficult to hide one’s true identity. True identity reflects one’s principles, ethics, and dispositions. Indian mythology narrates a plethora of cases where Hindu deities or men metamorphose their real identities to serve their purpose. The Mahabharata-the Indian epic also records some such incidents when its characters are bound to act in disguise. However, their intention and purpose justify their actions. Nevertheless, hiding their true identity puts them in a vulnerable position. In VirataParva, we see the five Pandavas along with their common wife Draupadi spend one year at Matsya Kingdom in disguise due to their political tussle with their cousins Kauravas. They adopted different forms and occupations. Draupadi’s disguised identity caused her to work as a maid to the queen of the kingdom. This raises certain questions: By adopting the role, did she face any difficulty as a woman of low rank? How did she deal with the new circumstances? This paper aims to study Draupadi’s character in a new light to the specific narrative in disguise.