Note 56 — Chapter VI

5. To begin with the evidence from history or myth. The legend of the five Pândavas who took Draupadî as a joint wife, has been generally accepted as a proof that it existed among the people whom, for the sake of convenience, we call the early Aryans. It is true that the compilers of the Mahâbhârata clearly wish to refer to it as an exceptional case, and to whittle away its significance by representing it as a result of their misconception of their mother’s order. But there is reason to believe that it was not so exceptional as they endeavour to make out. In the discussion which followed, one of the princes quoted as a precedent the case of Jatilâ, “that most excellent of moral women who dwelt with seven saints, and Varkshî, the daughter of a Muni, who cohabited with ten brothers, all of them Prachetas, whose souls had been purified by penance.” We have next the case of the Aswins who had between them one woman, Sûryâ, the daughter of the sun. Even in the Râmâyana the giant Viradha imputes that Râma and Lakshmana jointly share the favours of Sîtâ.56 Professor Lassen’s theory that the whole story of Draupadî and her five lovers is only the symbolical indication of an alliance between the king of Panchâla and the five tribes represented by the five Pândavas has met with little support.