एकवस्त्रा तु रुदती मुक्तकेशी रजस्वला ॥
शोणिताक्तार्द्रवसना द्रौपदी वाक्यम् अब्रवीत् ॥
यत्कृते ऽहम् इमां प्राप्ता तेषां वर्षे चतुर्दशे ॥
हतपत्यो हतसुता हतबन्धुजनप्रियाः ॥
बन्धुशोणितदिग्धाङ्ग्यो मुक्तकेश्यो रजस्वलाः ॥
एवं कृतोदका नार्यः प्रवेक्ष्यन्ति गजाह्वयम् ॥
ekavastrā tu rudatī muktakeśī rajasvalā ||
śoṇitāktārdravasanā draupadī vākyam abravīt ||
yatkṛte 'ham imāṃ prāptā teṣāṃ varṣe caturdaśe ||
hatapatyo hatasutā hatabandhujanapriyāḥ ||
bandhuśoṇitadigdhāṅgyo muktakeśyo rajasvalāḥ ||
evaṃ kṛtodakā nāryaḥ pravekṣyanti gajāhvayam ||
And in a single garment, weeping, with her hair loosened, in her impure days, with garments wet from the blood that stained them, Draupadi spoke these words: "Those on whose account I have come to this -- in the fourteenth year from now their wives, with husbands slain, sons slain, beloved kinsfolk slain, their bodies stained with the blood of kinsmen, hair loosened, in impure days, will thus, having performed the funeral libation, enter the City of the Elephant."
2c823e847ad6 · published Jul 16, 2026, 4:17:50 PM UTC
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The wronged queen turns her own disgrace into prophecy: her loosened hair and blood-soaked garment shall become, by her word, the lot of the wives of the Kauravas. Thus injustice returns upon those who commit it in the same measure -- what they have dealt out, they shall receive. This is not malice but an insight into justice: the violation of purity is a crime against the very order of the world, and that order will be restored through retribution. It is telling that her own appearance at the hour of departure becomes an image of the widowhood soon to come upon her persecutors. The verse teaches that evil done to the defenseless returns inexorably upon those who did it; that the tears of a wronged righteous woman are prophecy and not merely complaint; and that the same measure of grief that was inflicted will be measured out to those who inflicted it -- by the unrelenting law of recompense.