Draupadi (द्रौपदी) means "daughter of Drupada," king of Panchala. **Born from a sacred fire, she became the wife of all five Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata** — one of the most extraordinary marriage arrangements in any world epic. **Her public disrobing in the Kuru court — where Krishna miraculously extended her sari to protect her dignity — was the immediate cause of the Kurukshetra War**. **Her vow to keep her hair loose until she could bind it with the blood of her humiliators** is among the most charged moments in Hindu literature.
Subject of Mahasweta Devi's *Draupadi* (1981) and Pratibha Ray's *Yajnaseni* (1984).
Draupadi reduces to nine — the number of Mahabharata heroine.