Moily traces life, journey of Draupadi in new book

Congress leader and author M Veerappa Moily traces the life and journey of Draupadi from her birth from the sacrificial fire to her marriage with the five Pandava brothers, to losing her fortune and honour to the Kauravas in a gamble and finally the war of Kurukshetra.
"The Flaming Tresses of Draupadi" narrates the saga of one of the most important, intriguing and complex female characters of Hindu mythology.
The book, published by Rupa, was released recently by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Draupadi vowed to never tie her hair till the day the Pandavas avenged the humiliation she had been subjected to by the Kauravas. Her hair would be left untamed and wild till the day Bhima would kill Dushyasana and smear her hair with his blood.

She finally emerged as a strong female character that ultimately brought to retribution all those who had done injustice to her.
Moily, a former chief minister of Karnataka and a Union minister, has written several books in both Kannada and English. His most ambitious work till date is the epic "Shree Ramayana Mahaveshanam", which received the Moortidevi Award of the Bhartiya Jnanpith.

According to him, Draupadi was an exemplary character for the age she lived in and the age that followed it.
He says he was pained to see that no work has ever been written without gender bias and by treating both the sexes fairly.

"As I studied the Mahabharata repeatedly and came in contact with different sources of folk literature, Draupadi's character emerged as an answer to all my pain and discomfort. It shone brilliantly on the mind of the poet in me," he says.