After Arjuna won princess Draupadi’s hand in marriage at her svayamvara, a dilemma arose among the Pandavas about the marriage. Technically, the eldest brother Yudhisthira was supposed to marry first. If Arjuna married before his older brother, it would be a serious violation of dharma, and a great sin.
Ultimately, they sought the counsel of the great seer Vyasa, who gave this interesting solution: Draupadi would marry all five Pandavas! Her father, king Drupada, was not too keen on this idea at first, so Vyasa told him a story. Basically, he explained, the five Pandavas and Draupadi were all incarnations of gods, and their marriage was divinely ordained, strange as it seemed. Vyasa, being a powerful seer, granted King Drupada a vision of the true divine forms of the Pandavas and his daughter. Seeing these luminous forms, king Drupada consented to the marriage.
And so princess Draupadi married the five Pandava princes.
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| Draupadi and the Five Pandavas |
