It was only when Krishna had paid her a visit that the seriousness of the situation had dawned on her. She was informed that Mother Kunti had threatened to return Draupadi to Panchal, and that her father, who now thought of her as a curse, a curse that led to the murder of his heir, had wanted nothing to do with her. She had packed her things in teary haste to escape with Krishna. So, when Krishna had held her hand and sat her down to tell her there was no other way but for her to wed all five of them, Draupadi had finally shattered. It had hurt all the more as the one who had shown her a world where she could fly, had been the person who had installed the bars to her cage.

And so, in a wedding ritual that required the newlyweds to walk seven times round the holy fire, she had walked around it forty-nine times. With each round, she had felt herself sinking further into quicksand. She had not exchanged a word with any of her husbands, then or after. What did one say to creatures from one’s nightmares?

Even on the dining table, when her husbands had agreed to share Draupadi by the weeks of a month, she had kept her head low. As if she were away from all this, away in another world, from where she could see the drama of someone else’s life unfold, but where it could not hurt her.

But hurt her, it did, when Yudhistir walked into her bedchambers to claim her maidenhood in the first night of the rest of her life. He had been gentle, not loving. He had done his duty by her…for a few moments before rolling over and picking up a book. He had then lain beside her, reading to her things that had never interested her.

The next week it had been Bheem. She had been scared of him, of his ugly face and hairy shoulders. A half-wild, mean-tempered elephant, he had sat by her, taking her hands in his. He had told her that he loved her. Told her he would do anything for her, that he was blessed to have her. And then he had climbed onto her and entered without warning. Draupadi had tried to be a good wife, but she had not been able to imprison her screams. He had wept after that, cuddling into her arms like a child snuggled with a nursing mother.