Draupadi was a heroic princess of the Hindu epic of Mahabharata. She is the one who was firm and a woman with an unbending will. She was the daughter of Drupad, the king of Panchala, and the wife and queen of the five great Pandavas. This fiery princess is in no way less than Bheema or Arjuna in strength and spirit, valour and virtue. Her story is a saga of suffering and disgrace but she took everything in her stride and vanquished each one of the perpetrators of her humiliation and agony.

Karna is the quintessential tragic hero. People might see him in a negative light as he supported the Kauravas in the Mahabharat, but the fact is that his life was quite unfortunate. All throughout his life, he had suffered rejection. He was abandoned as a baby by his mother, he was rejected by Dronacharya, he was rejected by Draupadi during swayamwar, and was denied the most coveted throne in the world although he was the rightful heir to it. However, he believed in his Karma and lived his life with courage and confidence in himself.

From years people have been talking about Draupadi and Karna’s soft corner for each other, and the regrets they later had for insulting each other in Mahabharat’s two crucial episodes. Although, Draupadi was destined to marry Arjun along with his four brothers, here we look upon why Draupadi should have married Karna instead of Pandavas. Take a look.

1. Karna possessed all those qualities, which each Pandava had

Draupadi in her past life had prayed to Lord Shiva for a husband with moral value, strength, good built, wisdom, along with the quality of being intelligent, handsome and a good archer. Although these qualities were divided among the Pandavas – Yudishtr known for moral values, Bheem for physical strength, Arjun for good archery, Nakul for his physical appearance and Sehdev for his intelligence, Karna possessed them all.

Karna, the mighty warrior was not only a good archer, in fact, far most powerful than arjuna. If krishna would not have been there, arjuna did not had a chance against karna. Even the lord krishna once said that karna is better than Arjuna. It took three curses to kill karna, whereas Arjuna was saved by krishna many times.

2. Karna had the same valor and virtue as possessed by the Pandavas

Karna was at par with all the Pandavas when it came to valour and virtue. If Draupadi had married Karna, she would have never been a target from being ridiculed every time for having a physical relationship with five men. As Karna’s wife, she would have had a win-win situation. No insults plus a man with valour and virtue. Life would have been good. But, for all the dharma and political reasons, she was destined to marry the Pandavas.

3. Karna would have never publicly humiliated or even gambled Draupadi

This is obvious! Being Karna’s wife, she would have been on the other side.

Years later, when Lord Krishna revealed to Draupadi that Karna is no sutra putra but Kunti’s son, Draupadi regretted her words during swayamvar. Actually, Draupadi did not mean any insult when she called Karna a sutra putra in her swayamvar.

Apparently, she rejected Karna because she wanted to marry Arjuna. Her father Drupad was so impressed by Arjuna in the battle, that he arranged the entire swayamvar with the most complicated test of Archery only to drag Arjuna out of the hiding. He used to speak and brag about Arjuna’s might to Draupadi and Draupadi started a liking to Arjuna because of this. And seeing Karna lifting the bow, she feared he would win the contest and also her. So, in order to marry Arjun, she needed an excuse and in haste she said, “I cannot marry a sutra putra.” to which all the kings laughed at Karna. Here, although Draupadi saw Karna’s humble nature she was compelled to insult him which years later became the cause of her humiliation.

4. Karna would have never shared Draupadi like Arjun

Draupadi all her life loved Arjun more than any other brother (Had Draupadi married Karna, she would have never faced the dilemma of marrying four other brothers as well). However, Arjun wasn’t happy that he had to share his wife with 4 other brothers and so his love was more inclined to his other wife Subhadra. Draupadi also knew this fact and this is why, Karna could be the right man.

5. Karna Stood for Draupadi

There is a general conception that Karna insulted Draupadi in the rajya sabha and became one of the reason for her vastraharan. However, we actually fail to analyze the reason of his insult – Just like Draupadi insulted Karna in her swayamvar (though she did not wanted to) so that she could marry Arjun. Karna too insulted Draupadi so that it would infuriate the Pandavas who were sitting like Duck to take some actions against the injustice happening with Draupadi.

Karna could not support Draupadi then as he was in Team Kauravas. In addition, he did not even want people to see his soft side for Draupadi and so he wanted to ignite Pandavas through his kadu – vachan. But, unfortunately, Pandavas turned deaf ears to Karna’s insult and Draupadi started hating Karna forever until Krishna told her his real intention before the war started.

6. Draupadi wouldn’t be in exile.

As wife of Karna, Draupadi would have rather enjoyed the life of a queen with all materialistic happiness, which was not the case with the Pandavas. She would have also spent quality time with her children.