Duryodhana orders Draupadi dragged to the sabha
Duryodhana, insolent with victory, sends an attendant to fetch Draupadi, claiming Yudhishthira lost her at dice. Draupadi sends back a question that freezes the sabha: whose wife was she when she was staked? Yudhishthira sits silent, and Duryodhana insists she come to ask it herself.
Duryodhana, swollen with pride, looked at his attendant Pratikamin. “Go and bring Droupadi here,” he said, dismissing the warnings of Vidura. “You have no reason to fear the Pandavas.”
The attendant went to the queen’s quarters like a dog entering a lion’s lair. He told her, “Yudhishthira was intoxicated by gambling and has lost you to Duryodhana. Now come to Dhritarashtra’s house. I must take you for the tasks you have to perform.”
Draupadi’s reply was immediate. “How can you speak like this? Can any prince stake his wife in a gamble? The king must have been deluded. Could he not find anything else for the stake?”
Pratikamin explained: Yudhishthira had staked his brothers, then himself, and when nothing was left, he staked her.
Draupadi then gave him a question to carry back. “Go to the assembly hall and ask that gambler from the Bharata lineage: whose lord were you when you lost me? Did you lose yourself first or me?”
The attendant returned to the sabha and repeated her words. Yudhishthira sat there unmoved, like one who had lost his senses. He did not reply.
Duryodhana saw his opening. “Let Panchali Krishna come here and ask the question herself. Let everyone in the sabha hear what they have to say to each other.”
Pratikamin, miserable, went back to Draupadi. “Those in the assembly hall are summoning you. It seems to me the destruction of the Kurus is near.”
Draupadi replied, “The one who determines everything has destined thus. It has been said that dharma is supreme in the worlds. If it is sustained, peace will be brought.”
Yudhishthira, hearing of Duryodhana’s intentions, sent a trusted messenger of his own. Draupadi was in her menses, weeping, clad in a single garment. She went to the sabha and stood before her father-in-law, Dhritarashtra.