Devlok by Devdutt Pattanaik

Author:Devdutt Pattanaik
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9789385990656
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2016-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

Is there any specific story regarding bhog in the Ramayana or the Mahabhrata?

In Ayodhya, there’s a place known as Sita’s kitchen. Sita was a very good cook. And Draupadi was famous for her generosity. Nobody went hungry from her kitchen. During their stay in the forest, after being exiled from the palace, the Pandavas don’t have anything. Draupadi feels bad that she won’t be able to feed whoever comes to her door. To tease her, Duryodhana sends Durvasa and some other rishis to her. They ask her for food. She requests them to go and bathe in the river, while she prepares a meal for them. Once they depart, she goes inside and starts weeping in despair.

It is then that Krishna arrives. He says there must be something that she can offer the rishis. Dismayed, Draupadi shows him the empty vessels, saying that she’d fed her husbands and then eaten whatever little remained. Krishna picks up one leftover grain of rice and eats it. He is satiated and because of that, so are the rishis. They, in turn, feel they will end up disrespecting Draupadi if they don’t eat anything she offers, so they make a hasty exit. This is how Krishna protects Draupadi’s dignity.

However, Krishna tells Draupadi to pray to Surya, the sun god, for a solution to her problem. Draupadi does so and Surya gives her a thali, plate. There’s a phrase ‘Draupadi ki thali’, which is similar to the concept of ‘mataji ka bhandar’, implying that there will always be food in the kitchen. Each day, Draupadi’s thali stayed full until she ate. She would feed hundreds of people and be the last to eat. But once she had eaten, there would be no more food till the next day.

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