It deals with the Aryan incursions into the Indo-Gangetic plains, their battles with the Adivasis who were gradually pushed further into the jungles, the beginnings of the caste structure based on the miscegenation between the fair Aryans and the dark-skinned forest dwellers, the dilution of pristine Aryan religion by the gradual incorporation of pagan worship of the linga and aboriginal gods, and the emergence of Krishna as the supreme propounder of Dharma. Samraj is only the first part of a projected three volume re-rendering of the Mahabharata. The rest of her narrative is somewhat prosaic: the reader plods on it in the hope of coming to the next ploughing season, plough being the author's word for penis, the woman being the field for tillage. Elaine Aaron is at her best when depicting erotic scenes and the landscape. Bhima, who came next, got over his carnal desire by carrying Draupadi on his shoulders to show her the city till he was exhausted.ĭraupadi had good reason to grumble that her wedding gifts were three humiliations: 'Five husbands, half a kingdom (the better half including Hastinapur going to the Kurus) and a rejected field.' And ultimately when Yudhishtara did the honours-thrice on the same night-it was more like rape than marital consummation.

The first night with Yudhishtara proved disastrously frustrating for Draupadi who was by then aroused and willing to be taken. So each brother deferred the first time around. But the brothers knew that Draupadi desired Arjuna more than any of them and were eager to honour her wishes.

But Arjuna was the third in succession and wished the honour to go to his eldest brother Yudhishtara. Arjuna had won her, and he was the one Draupadi wanted most. The brothers could not agree about who should have the privilege of deflowering her. What actually followed, writes Aaron, was more like a nightmare for the 17-year-old Draupadi. Or so Elaine Aaron would have us believe in her 'monumental' re-rendering of the Mahabharata- Samraj (King of Kings). Samraj by Elaine Aaron New English Library Price: RsĪ day after Draupadi was betrothed to marry the five Pandava brothers she had an erotic dream where all her husbands disrobed her of her virgin shift and made love to her.

Draupadi vastraharan