The coarse mind, the fevered craving, and the unrestrained wickedness of Keechaka rose openly to the surface, casting increasing hardship upon Sairandhri even while destiny itself was preparing the net of his destruction. A ruler or commander must discern the measure of another’s strength, skill, alliances, and inner merit in order to preserve balance within the realm; yet this ignoble man, blinded by shameless desire, failed in even that smallest wisdom. Enslaved by impulse, he cast aside regard for the people, the palace, and the inevitable fruit of his conduct.
The virtues earned by Sudeshna through rites and acts of charity were swept away in a single hour when she yielded to please her brother of corrupt intent. Thus she appeared to Draupadi as one fallen from righteousness, a queen diminished in spirit through affection misplaced and obedience wrongly bestowed.
The boastful offender, veiling arrogance beneath feigned gentleness, wandered through the women’s chambers while Draupadi, strengthened by the assurance of Bhima, fulfilled her duties with composed resolve. Seized by restless and ever-renewing passion, abandoning the dignity of lineage and office, he trembled under the burden of his own conscience and moved like a stag rushing blindly into the hunter’s snare.
With counterfeit humility, he approached her, uttering soft apologies. She concealed her deliberate design and behaved as though unaware of his presence, though many observed his conduct. Her steady silence emboldened his folly. He muttered incoherent words to those he met, burst into sudden laughter, chanted without melody, struck his limbs, stamped the earth, stretched out his arms as if demanding embrace, lifted one hand while lowering the other, and shifted into grotesque postures—now mimicking a dancer, now bending as though drawing a bow, now swinging an arm as if wielding a sword. The women whispered in anxious tones that madness had seized him or that the very Lord of Death had entered his frame. Yet Sairandhri did not so much as glance at him, and her indifference disturbed him more deeply than reproach.
At length, he stood before her and pleaded, declaring his longing to serve at her lotus-like feet and questioning whether she possessed any kindness for one who professed sincere devotion. He recounted the wealth, strength, and authority he had offered and lamented her silence. He asked whether she had grown hostile to men, urged her not to reject fortune, promised immeasurable riches, and vowed that she would surpass all women of the palace. He boasted of kings subdued and enemies slain, asserting that the kingdom itself stood beneath his shadow and that even the sovereign could not stand without his favor. He reminded her how, in open assembly, he had cast her to the ground and none had dared protest, claiming that the act was not insult but the excess of passion. He even threatened her unseen husbands, proclaiming that he would crush them wherever they wandered.
Draupadi perceived clearly that he would not hesitate to seize her. His proud recital was both enticement and intimidation, revealing as well the waning dignity of the royal household. Knowing that the hour had come to draw him toward the restraint that would become his doom, she softened her glance, listened with measured attention, and replied in a low and deliberate voice. She warned that ungoverned pursuit invites imitation, that desire must be joined with discernment, that men often display their impulses openly while women conceal theirs until the proper time. She counseled secrecy and urged that he seek her in a hidden place unknown to others, hinting that he should devise an unseen plan to fulfill his longing, while her unspoken resolve concealed the fate prepared for him.
His heart leapt at her words, mistaking strategy for surrender. Confessing that the god of desire had robbed him of reason, he pledged obedience and asked only the appointed place and hour. Draupadi, secure in her design, told him in hushed tones that the hall where the princess and her companions danced by day lay deserted in darkness, forbidden to others and fit for a secret meeting. Overjoyed, he vowed to come alone and leave no trace. In careless exultation he declared that he would pass unseen, unaware that the path he chose would swallow him entirely. She warned once more that none but he must come, for otherwise she would vanish; then she dismissed him, while he, intoxicated by delusion, trusted her plan as though it were deliverance.
She returned to her tasks with inward satisfaction, assured that Bhima would soon free her forever from this tormentor. Thus, in the mingling of anxiety and cunning, haste and calculation, recklessness and foresight, these figures displayed the varied movements of human nature—lessons to be pondered by all who seek to shape their conduct with clarity, restraint, and steadfast wisdom.
