Pandava Pravesha Parva — The entry of Draupadi

Vaishampayana said Then Draupadi, of pleasant smile and of dark eyes, bending her black; glossy, soft, long and fine tresses of crispy ends into a twisted braid, threw it on her right side and kept it concealed (under her cloth).

Having put on a very big dirty piece of cloth and dressed herself as a Sairandhri, Krishna began to ramble hither and thither like one in a miserable plight. All males and females came running to her wandering about.

Beholding her they asked "who are you and what you want to do”? O king, she said to them "I am a Sairandhri; here have I come to do his work who will maintain me."

The people, seeing her beauty and dress, hearing her voice so sweet, could not believe her to be in a position of a maid servant come in quest of livelihood.

While going abroad from the root of the palace Virata's beloved wife, the daughter of Kaikeyi, beheld the daughter of Drupada.

Beholding her thus plighted, unprotected and clad in a single piece of cloth, she (Virata's wife) addressed her saying “O gentle one, who are you and what you desire to do.”

O king, she said to her “I am a Sairandhri, I desire to do his work who will maintain me.'

Sudeshna said It cannot be so as you say, O beautiful one, (but on the contrary) it seems you can appoint numerous servants both male and female.

You are such a one as your heels are not high, thighs touch each other, deep are your intelligence, voice and navel, highly developed are your soles, palms, tongue, upper and neither lips and your voice is as sweet as that of a swan.

You are one of beautiful tresses, good breasts and possessed of high graces; and plump are your buttock and breasts. Being furnished with all these beautiful signs, you appear like a Kashmirean woman.

You are one with eyes having its line of hairs gracefully bent, lips scarlet as Bimba, waist slender, neck having the lines like those on the conch, veins scarcely visible and countenance like the full moon.

In beauty you are Sri (goddess of beauty) herself with eyes resembling the petals of the autumnal lotus, with a person fragrant as the autumnal lotus chief, and seated on the autumnal lotus.

O gentle one, tell me who you are; you cannot be a maid-servant; are you a Yakshi or a goddess, a Gandharvi or an Apsara (nymph)? are you the daughter of a celestials or female Naga? is a presiding deity of the city? Are you a Vidyadhari or a Kinnari or Rohini herself? Are you Alambusha or Mishrakeshi Pundarika or Malini or the queen of Indra or Varuna, or are you the wife of Vishvakarma or of the Prajapati himself? These goddesses are renowned in the regions of celestials; of these who are you, O beautiful one?

or Draupadi said I am neither a goddess nor a Gandharvi nor an Asuri nor a Rakshasi; I am a maid-servant of the Sairandhiri class; I tell you this truth.

I know how to dress the hair, pound (fragrant staff) to make unguents. O auspicious lady, I know also how to make beautiful and variegated garlands of Jasamines, lotuses, lilies and Champakas. Formerly served Satyabhama, the beloved queen of Krishna, and also Krishna the wife of the Pandavas, and the only beauty of the Kuru race. I serve in those places where I may get good food and clothes; as long as I get them I continue to serve.

Draupadi herself called me by name Malini, O lady Sudeshna, I, her serving maid, have come to your house today.

Sudeshna said I can place you on my head, and there is no doubt in that, provided that the king does not desire you and be not captivated with his whole heart.

Charmed by your beauty even the females of the royal house hold and as well as those in my own seraglio are gazing at you. What male person is there whom you will not captivate?

Look again, even the very trees that stand in my palace seem to bend low as if by way of paying homage to you, what male person is there that will not be attracted by you?

O you of well-shaped hips; o you girl of surpassing beauty, beholding your superhuman form, king Virata, will surely forsake me and will turn to you with his whole heart.

O you of expanded eyes, of nimble glances, the person, on whom you endued with faultless limbs, will cast a look with desire, will surely fall a victim to the God of Love.

0 you of sweet smiles, O you of perfectly faultless form, the man who will behold you often and often will surely be subject to that formless deity.

As a person climbs up a tree for his own destruction, so, O you of graceful eyebrows, your stay in this royal house-hold will bring out the same result to me.

As a crab conceives for her own death so. O you of pleasant smiles, my desire for your stay here will surely be ruinous to me.

Draupadi said Neither by Virata nor by any other man I am to be won, O fair lady, for I have five youthful husbands who are all Gandharvas.

They are the sons of certain Gandharva king of extra-ordinary strength; they always protect me. Also my mode of living is very hard.

My Gandharva husbands wish me to serve only such person as will not give me to eat food already partaken of by another or ask me to wash their feet.

The person who will desire me like any other woman, will surely encounter destruction that very night.

O lady of sweet smiles, no one is able to decay me from the paths of rectitude; those beloved Gandharvas of exceeding prowess always protect me secretly.

Sudeshna said O charming one, it being so, I will allow you a residence in my palace) according to your desire. You will never have to touch food partaken of by another nor even to wash another's feet.

Vaishampayana said Thus assured by the wife of Virata the chaste Krishna, devoted to her lords, began to live in that city. O Janamejaya, no one of that place could know who she really was.