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Draupadi. Painting by Raja Ravi Varma.

In the epic Mahābhārata, Draupadi, also known as Kṛṣṇā draupadī (Devanagari: कृष्णा द्रौपदी; approximate pronunciation: [krɪʂɳaː d̪rəʊpəd̪iː]) is the "emerged" daughter of King Drupada of Panchāla and the wife of the five Pandavas. When Yudhisthira becomes the king of Hastinapura at the end of the war, Draupadi (again) becomes the queen of Indraprastha. She is also variously referred as Kṛṣṇā (or Krishnaa, meaning one of darker complexion), Panchali (meaning one from the kingdom of Panchāla), Yajnaseni (meaning one born from a Yajna or fire-sacrifice), Mahabhaartii (great wife of the five descendents of Bharata) ^[1] and Sairandhri (literally: an expert maid, her assumed name during her second exile in which she worked as Virat kingdom's queen Sudeshna's hair-stylist). She had five sons, one by each of the Pandavas: Prativindhya, Sutasoma, Shruthakeerti, Satanika, and Srutasena. She has been described in the Mahabharata to be extraordinarily beautiful- undefeated by any woman of her time in terms of beauty. She is one of the Panch-Kanya (The Five Virgins) of Ancient Hindu Mythology along with her mother in law Kunti.

Birth[link]

King Drupada of Panchala had been defeated by the Pandava prince Arjuna on behalf of Drona, who subsequently took half his kingdom to humiliate him. To gain revenge on Drona, he performed a fire-sacrifice (yajña) to obtain a means of besting him. Draupadi emerged as a beautiful dark-skinned young woman together with her sibling Dhṛṣṭadyumna from the sacrificial fire. She was named Kṛṣṇā for her dark complexion, though she is better known as Draupadī "daughter of Drupada".

Draupadi's Description[link]

"Of eyes like lotus-petals and of faultless features endued with youth and intelligence, she is extremely beautiful. And the slender-waisted Draupadi of every feature perfectly faultless, and whose body emitteth a fragrance like unto that of the blue lotus for two full miles around."

".. the five (Pandavas)--attracted towards Draupadi like mighty elephants towards a lake overgrown with lotuses, or like fire covered with ashes, Krishna the foremost of Yadu heroes began to reflect. And he said unto Rama (Valadeva), 'That is Yudhishthira; that is Bhima with Jishnu (Arjuna); and those are the twin heroes.' And Rama surveying them slowly cast a glance of satisfaction at Krishna(Draupadi)."

"And the sons of Pritha(Kunti) also, of mighty arms, and the illustrious twin heroes, beholding Draupadi, were all likewise struck by the shafts of Kama."

"..the Pandavas all cast their eyes upon the princess of Panchala. And the princess of Panchala also looked at them all. And casting their glances on the illustrious Krishna, those princes looked at one another. And taking their seats, they began to think of Draupadi alone. Indeed, after those princes of immeasurable energy had looked at Draupadi, the God of Desire invaded their hearts and continued to crush all their senses. As the lavishing beauty of Panchali who had been modelled by the Creator himself, was superior to that of all other women on earth, it could captivate the heart of every creature. And Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, beholding his younger brothers, understood what was passing in their minds. And that bull among men immediately recollected the words of Krishna-Dwaipayana. And the king, then, from fear of a division amongst the brothers, addressing all of them, said, 'The auspicious Draupadi shall be the common wife of us all.' "

"Yudhishthira said, 'With Draupadi as stake, who is neither short nor tall, neither spare nor corpulent, and who is possessed of blue curly locks, I will now play with thee. Possessed of eyes like the leaves of the autumn lotus, and fragrant also as the autumn lotus, equal in beauty unto her (Lakshmi) who delighteth in autumn lotuses, and unto Sree herself in symmetry and every grace she is such a woman as a man may desire for wife in respect of softness of heart, and wealth of beauty and of virtues. Possessed of every accomplishment and compassionate and sweet-speeched, she is such a woman as a man may desire for wife in respect of her fitness for the acquisition of virtue and pleasure and wealth. Retiring to bed last and waking up first, she looketh after all down to the cowherds and the shepherds. Her face too, when covered with sweat, looketh as the lotus or the jasmine. Of slender waist like that of the wasp, of long flowing locks, of red lips, and body without down, is the princess of Panchala. O king, making the slender-waisted Draupadi, who is even such as my stake, I will play with thee, O son of Suvala.'"

Marriage to the Pandavas[link]

Arjuna wins Draupadi in her swayamvara.

Draupadi with her five husbands - the Pandavas. The central figure is Yudhishthira; the two to his left are Bhima and Arjuna. Nakula and Sahadeva, the twins, are to his right. Their wife, at far right, is Draupadi. Deogarh, Dasavatar temple.

Drupada intended that Arjuna alone win the hand of his daughter. Upon hearing of the Pandavas' supposed death at Varanavata he set up a swayamvara for Draupadi intending to bring Arjuna out into the open. The princes vying for Draupadi's hand had to shoot five arrows at a revolving target, while looking only at its reflection in a bowl. Drupada was confident that Arjuna alone could accomplish this task. Arriving with his brothers disguised as Brahmins (priests), Arjuna successfully tackled the target, which other kings and prince were unable to accomplish.

While in exile, Kunti, mother of the Pandavas often advised her sons that they share everything they have (or obtain through Bhiksha i.e. alms) equally amongst themselves. Upon returning home with Draupadi, on purpose, Yudhisthira addresses his mother first "Look mother, I have brought Bhiksha (alms)!". Kunti, unmindful of what Yudhisthira was referring to, unassumingly asked her son to share whatever it is with his brothers. Thus, in order to obey their mother's order all five accepted Draupadi as their wife.

When Krishna visits the family, he explains to Draupadi that her unique position as the wife of five brothers results from a certain incident in her previous birth, She was born as Nalayani (daughter of Nala and Dhamayanthi) She had in that lifetime prayed to Shiva to grant her a husband with fourteen desired qualities. Shiva, pleased with her devotion, tells her that it is very difficult to get a husband with all fourteen qualities that she desired. But she sticks to her ground and asks for the same. Then Lord Shiva grants her wish saying that she would get the same in her next birth with fourteen husbands, she was shocked and asked lord shiva is it a boon or curse, shiva replied back saying "My child do not get worried, you will regain your virginity each an every morning you take bath, till the end of your life you will live with virginity" Hence she gets married to fourteen brothers each who represents a given quality: The just Yudhisthira for his wisdom of Dharma; The powerful Bhima for his strength that exceeded that of a thousand elephants combined; The valiant Arjuna for his courage and knowledge of the battlefield; the exceedingly handsome Nakula and Sahadeva, for their love. The five Pandava brothers were said to have the fourteen qualities desired by Draupadi in her previous birth.

None of Draupadi's children survive the end of the epic. Parikshita, grandson of Subhadra and Arjuna, is the sole Pandava descendent who survives, at the end of Mahābhārata.

Karna at swayamvara[link]

Karna was a suitor for Draupadi at her swayamvara. Unlike most other contenders, he was easily able to wield and string the bow, but as he got up to take part, Draupadi refused him the honor of taking in the competition. She refused to be the wife of a suta-putra (son of a charioteer). The Pandavas were also present in the swayamvara, disguised as brahmanas. Following the failure of the other princes, Arjuna stepped into the ring and successfully hit the target, winning Draupadi's hand. This insult by Draupadi thus was one of the reasons of her downfall in the court room after the 'dice game'course. Karna insulted Draupadi by saying that Pandavas were all like sesame seeds removed from the kernel and she should now find some other worthy husbands. Draupadi was very faithful and loved the Pandavas from the deep of her heart though she had special love for Arjuna who had won her hand.^[2]

Duryodhana's insult[link]

Indraprastha was built at the site of the Khandava forest. The pride of buildings was the Palace of Illusions and this was where Draupadi took Duryodhana and his entourage. The moment Duryodhana entered the palace he encountered an atmosphere of mystery. A retinue of maidservants appeared through a wall and lined up before the guests. The courtyard was divided in two parts. The surface of one part appeared to ripple like the surface of a lake. The surface of the other part appeared solid as granite flooring and when Duryodhana stepped on the apparently solid part of the courtyard, there was a splash and Duryodhana found himself waist deep in water, drenched from head to foot. When Draupadi's maids saw this from the balcony they were amused. Duryodhana felt extremely insulted that Draupadi and her maids saw his embarrassing predicament. Draupadi's statement of "andhey ka putra andha" meaning "blind man's (referring to Dhritrashtra) son is blind" further enraged Duryodhana. (In the original text, Pandavas laughs with their servants. Draupadi, being a queen, is absent from such a public place as a court. No words are spoken by her. Popular insult of "blindman's son" is a later addition). ^[3]. This was the last straw, he swore revenge on her and such a revenge that Pandavas would fall at his feet begging for mercy.

The Game of Dice[link]

Draupadi, the wife of all five Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata, is presented to a parcheesi game where Yudhishthira, the king of Hastinapura, had gambled away all his material wealth.

This key incident is often considered to mark a definitive moment in the story of Mahābhārata. It is one of the driving reasons that ultimately led to the Mahābhārata war, though it cannot be considered the central or the most important one.

Yudhishthira and his four brothers were the rulers of Indraprastha under the sovereignty of King Dhritarashtra. Dhritarashtra’s son Duryodhana who resided in the capital of the empire Hastinapura was always jealous of his cousins and the wealth they had acquired by building Indraprastha. To take revenge on the Pandavas, his uncle Shakuni came up with a plan and together with his brothers, his friend Karna and maternal uncle Shakuni, he conspired to call the Pandavas at Hastinapura and win their kingdoms in a game of gambling. Shakuni was skilled at winning by unfair means. The idea was that Shakuni would play against Yudhishthira and win at the gambling table what was impossible to win at the battlefield.

As the game proceeded, Yudhishthira lost all his wealth and kingdom one by one. Having lost all material wealth, he went on to put his brothers at stake one by one and lost them too. Ultimately he put himself at stake, and lost again. All the Pandavas were now the servants of Kauravas. But for the Shakuni, the humiliation of Pandavas was not complete. He prods Yudhishthira that he has not lost everything yet; Yudhishthira still has Draupadi with him and if he wishes he can win everything back by putting Draupadi at stake. Yudhishthira walks into the trap and to the horror of everybody present, puts Draupadi as a bet for the next round. But Bhishma and Drona oppose this move recalling that a woman cannot be put at stake even if it is their own wife. However, Yudhishthira ignores their call and puts her at stake much to the ire of Bhishma, who in his frustration breaks his chair. Playing the next round, Shakuni wins. Duryodhana commands his younger brother Dushasana to bring her into the forum, if not forcefully. Dushasana barges into the living quarters of Draupadi, who was "clad in one piece of attire" as referring to the sari.^[4] Dushasana grabs her by the hair and brings her into the court dragging her by the hair.

Bhima and Draupadi, as depicted in yakshagana.

Now in an emotional appeal to the elders present in the forum, Draupadi repeatedly questions the legality of the right of Yudhishthira to place her at stake when he himself had lost his freedom and as a consequence did not possess any property in the first place. Everybody remains dumbfounded. Bhishma, the patriarch of the Kaurava family and a formidable warrior, has only this explanation to offer to Draupadi - “The course of morality is subtle and even the illustrious wise in this world fail to always understand it.” Duryodhana now commands the Pandavas to strip themselves in the manner of dasa. They obey by stripping off their upper garments. Then to the horror of everybody present, Duryodhana orders Dushasana to disrobe Draupadi and he tries to disrobe Draupadi of her sari. Seeing her husbands unable to help her, Draupadi prays to Lord Krishna to protect her. A miracle occurs henceforward, which is popularly attributed to Krishna but in Vyasa's Mahabharata, Draupadi's saviour is named as Dharma (who could be just morality, the god Dharma, Krishna as the Lord of Dharma, or even Vidura or Yudhishthira, or even a logical paradox of Draupadi's question - did Yudhishthira have the right to stake her when he had already lost himself). As Dushasana unwraps layers and layers of her sari, her sari keeps getting extended. Bhima is furious at Dushasana and says, "I Bhim, Pandu's son vows until I will tear open Dushasana's chest and drink his blood I will not show my face to my ancestors." Finally, a tired Dushasana backs off without being able to strip Draupadi. Duryodhana repeatedly challenges Yudhishthira’s four brothers to disassociate themselves from Yudhishthira’s authority and take their wife back. No one dares to denounce their loyalty to their eldest brother. In order to provoke the Pandavas further, Duryodhana bares and pats his thigh looking into Draupadi’s eyes, implying that she should sit on his thigh. In rage Bhima vows in front of the entire assembly that "one day he will break that very thigh of Duryodhan in battle".

The only Kaurav who objects to the disrobing of Draupadi in the court is Vikarna. Vikarna also appeals the assembly to answer the questions raised by Daruapadi but in vain.

Finally, the blind monarch Dhritarashtra's conscience is stirred, in part fearing the wrath of Pandavas against his sons. He intervenes and asks Draupadi to wish for whatever she desires. Draupadi asks her husbands the Pandavas to be freed from bondage. Dhritarashtra grants her wish and also restores to Pandavas all they lost in the game of dice. Free from the bondage Bhima immediately proposes to his brothers to slay all Kauravas present then and there itself. Yudhishthira, however, restraints him from taking any action.

Shakuni and Duryodhana later convince Dhritarashtra to invite Pandavas for a new game of dice, with modified rules, that the loser would go for 12 years exile and another one year anonymity. Yudhisthira asks Dhritrashtra what his order would be, as Dhritrashtra being the king and elder to their own father, where Dhrithrashtra could not reply anything. Thus, Yudhisthira understanding his intention decides to play another game. It was following the defeat in this new game that Pandavas were sent into exile for 13 years.

Abduction of Draupadi by Jayadratha[link]

Droupathi taken to forest by Simhika, who plans to kill her

While the Pandavas were in the Kamyaka forest, they often went hunting, leaving Draupadi in the care of Dhaumya, their priest. At this time Jayadratha, the son of Vriddhakshatra, the husband of Duryodhana’s sister Dussala, passed through Kamyaka forest on the way to Salwa Desa. There he saw Draupadi. Jayadratha then started beseeching her to go away with him and desert her husbands who had fallen upon bad times. Draupadi pointed out that it was wrong to desert one’s spouses when they were in difficulty and then gave him a rather long and deliberately delaying speech on exactly the sort of bad time her husbands would give him on their return.Jayadratha then said “thou canst not frighten us(he was with several other Kings when he saw and abducted Draupadi) now with these threats. We, too, O Krishna, belong by birth to the seventeen high clans, and are endowed with the six royal qualities.” and was sure that he could beat the Pandavas in battle. Draupadi said “Even Indra himself cannot abduct her for whose protection Krishna and Arjuna would together follow, riding in the same chariot.” And she spoke of the way in which Jishnu (Arjuna) would rout Jayadratha and his armies. She also said, “The warring princes of the Andhaka and the Vrishni races, with Janardana at their head, and the mighty bowmen of the Kaikeya tribe, will all follow in my wake with great ardour”. Failing with words Jayadratha tried violence and she called for Dhaumya’s help. Though she pushed him to the ground, he overpowered her and forced her onto his chariot. Meanwhile the Pandavas had finished their hunt and Yudhisthira observed that all the animals were disturbed in one direction and was suddenly overcome by premonitions. So he and his brother climbed their chariots pulled by horses of Saindhava breed and gave chase in the direction of the disturbance.And on learning of their wife's abduction by Jayadratha they rushed towards that host with great fury( like hawks swooping down on their prey. And possessed of the prowess of Indra, they had been filled with fury at the insult offered to Draupadi. But at sight of Jayadratha and of their beloved wife seated on his car, their fury knew no bounds).Then follows the exciting description of a battle in which the five pandavas routed the Sauviras, Ikshwakus, Sivis, and Saindhavas and their armies. Jayadratha in fear ran away, leaving Draupadi behind in all this confusion. Dharmaja urged Bhima to spare Jayadratha’s life for the sake of Dussala and Gandhari, much to the indignation of Draupadi.And that highly intelligent lady said to her two husbands, Bhima and Arjuna with indignation mixed with modesty, 'If you care to do what is agreeable to me, you must slay the chief of the Saindhava clan! That foe who forcibly carries away a wife, and he that wrests a kingdom, should never be forgiven on the battle-field, even though he should supplicate for mercy!'.Thus admonished, it was decided to make him humiliated. Then the two valiant warriors went in search of the Saindhava chief. Bhima and Arjuna caught up with Jayadratha and Arjuna asked him how an unmanly fellow like himself had the guts to take a woman away by force. Thereafter there was more running away than actual fighting and Bhima caught Jayadratha and wanted to kill him. Arjuna reminded him of Dharmaraj(Yudhisthira)’s words, so they brought Jayadratha to their hermitage.After bringing the chained Jayadratha back to the hermitage where he was to declare to be slave of Pandavas and was hence, shaved on his head at five places and then freed.(Book 3: Vana Parva-Draupadi-harana Parva)

Kichaka's death[link]

Syrendri with Virata's wife

Kichaka with Draupadi.

Droupathi in Virata's palace Raja Ravi Varma

While the Pandavas were leading their normal life in their own disguised form, one day Kichaka, the brother of Sudeshana, and the commander of king Virata’s forces, happened to see the Draupadi. He was filled with lust by looking at her. He asked her to marry him, but Draupadi refuses him saying that she is already married to ‘Gandharvas’, so as not to reveal their true identity as they were in exile. She warns Kichaka that her husbands are very strong and he would not be able to escape death at their hands. Later he forces his sister, queen Sudeshna to help him win Draupadi. Sudeshna orders Draupadi to fetch wine from Kichak's house. Draupadi tries to dissuade the queen from sending her to kichaka's house but fails. When Draupadi goes to get wine, Kichaka tries to molest her. Draupadi escapes and runs into the court of Virata. Kichaka kicks her in front of all the courtiers including Yudhisthira who was also present in the court at that time. The king being weak in front of Kichaka does not take any action. Draupadi asks about the duties of a king and dharma. Draupadi then curses Kichaka in the court that her husbands ‘Gandharvas’ will surely kill him. However, Kichaka only doubts their whereabouts and asks those present in the court that where are they then. Yudhisthra then in disguise of being the king's adviser replies, that they Gandharvas would not come as they want her to forgive Kichaka for the time being. With this the king asks Kichaka to leave for the honour of the court and praises Yudhistira's reply as he himself could not think of anything. Later that night, Pandavas together hatch a plan to kill Kichaka. Khichaka meets her later again and tells her that he is the strongest in that country and she has no way other than to accept him. Draupadi, as per the plan, agrees with him but on condition that none of his friends or brothers should know about their relationship. Kichaka accepts her condition and promises her that he will not let anyone know. Draupadi asks Kichaka to come to the dancing hall at night. Bhima(in the guise of Draupadi) that night in the dancing hall, fights with Kichaka and kills him. (Book 4: Virata Parva, Kichaka-badha Parva)

Devotion to Krishna[link]

Perhaps Draupadi’s most exceptional quality was that Shri Krishna considered her his sakhi (friend) and sister. One day when Krishna cut his finger, Draupadi immediately tore off a piece of her sari and bandaged his cut. Krishna said that with this loving act, she wrapped him in debt and he would repay each “thread” when the time comes. Indeed, when Draupadi needed Krishna’s protection and fervently prayed for his help, he came to the rescue and gave her unlimited cloth. This is one of the stories of the origin of the Raksha Bandhan festival.

Once, while the Pandavas were in exile, Durvasa Muni, who was known for his quick anger, suddenly decided to drop in along with his many thousands of disciples. He would naturally want something to eat for himself and his followers, but the Pandavas had just eaten and there was no more food left. Fearful of Durvasa’s anger, Draupadi prayed to Krishna. When he appeared, Draupadi took the last grain of rice in the pot and asked Krishna to eat half for himself and half for the whole world. When Durvasa and his disciples arrived, they were all so full that they did not want anything to eat, and thus left peacefully.

Draupadi is an exemplification of bhakti, and she experienced God’s divine presence constantly in her life. When she questioned Krishna about everything that had happened to her, he reassured her: “Soon wilt thou, O Krishna, behold the ladies of Bharata's race weep as thou dost. Even they, O timid one, will weep like thee, their kinsmen and friends being slain. They with whom, O lady, thou art angry, have their kinsmen and warriors already slain. With Bhima and Arjuna and the twins, at Yudhishthira's command, and agreeably to fate, and what hath been ordained by the Ordainer, I will accomplish all this. Their hour having arrived, the sons of Dhritarashtra, if they do not listen to my words, will surely lie down on the earth turned as morsels of dogs and jackals. The mountains of Himavat might shift their site, the Earth herself might spilt into a hundred fragments, the firmament itself with its myriads of stars might fall down, still my words can never be futile. Stop thy tears, I swear to thee, O Krishna, soon wilt thou see thy husbands, with their enemies slain, and with prosperity crowning them."

Her Existence And Personality[link]

As per the Garuda Purana Draupadi is the incarnation of Bharati-Devi, The Consort of Lord Vayu. As per Narada Purana and Vayu Purana, Draupadi is the composite Avatar of Goddesses Shyamala (wife of Dharma), Bharati (Wife of Vayu), Shachi (wife of Indra), Usha (wife of Ashwins), and Parvati (wife of Shiva), and hence married their earthly counterparts in the form of the five Pandavas. Enraged at a jest by Parvati, Shyamala, Shachi and Usha, Brahma cursed them to human birth. Parvati thought of the solution wherein they would be born as one woman, Draupadi, and hence share the earthly body for a smaller period of time. They requested Bharati to be with them in their human birth. Draupadi's characteristic fight against injustice reflects Parvati or her Shakti, Kali, inhabiting Draupadi's mortal flesh at times. At other times, Draupadi was docile and even waited to be rescued (as in case of Jayadratha and Jatasura) showing the qualities of other goddesses like Shachi and Usha. Other times, she showed astuteness in hiding their true identity and asking Vayu's son Bhima to kill the evil Keechaka, like Bharati would. Draupadi was also avatar of Goddess Shree, who was joint wife to five Indras, who incarnated as the Five Pandavas.

She was to be born several times for imprisoning the Indras. The first time was as Vedavati who cursed Ravana (who is another goddess Avatar Swaha, wife to Agni). She then came in place of Sita's avatar, to be the cause of Ravana's death, while Agni hid the real Sita. Her third incarnation was partial: either Damayanti (whose husband, Nala, was equivalent to Dharma, Vayu, and Indra, just like the Pandavas) or her daughter Nalayani. She married Sage Mudgala. The fifth avatar was Draupadi herself. So, we find in Draupadi, a composite avatar of Kali, Parvati, Shachi, Shyamala, Usha, Bharati, Shree, and Swaha, the eight goddesses.

Draupadi was a multifaceted personality: she could be fiery and angry when the situation called for it, but she still had a compassionate nature. She encouraged people to face life with the same inner strength that she did. For example, after Abhimanyu’s death, she consoled his grieving widow, Uttara, by reminding her of the cause for which Abhimanyu gave his life. She encouraged Uttara to gather her strength for the sake of her and Abhimanyu’s child, whom she was carrying at the time. After the war, Draupadi looked after Gandhari with respect and affection, even though Gandhari’s sons had wronged her in so many ways.

Because of her virtuous nature, Draupadi is considered one of the panchakanya, a group of five women who are especially venerated in the Hindu tradition. The other four are: Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas and an accomplished scholar of the Atharva Veda; Tara, the wife of Vali who was instrumental in reconciling Rama with Sugreev; Ahalya, Sage Gautam’s wife who was given a blessing of purity from Shri Ram; and Mandodari, the virtuous wife of Ravana who had the courage to speak out against her husband when he abducted Sita. Simply remembering these virtuous women, according to tradition, destroys great sins.

Draupadi's Description of the Pandavas[link]

Her description of Pandavas to Jayadratha when he abducts her, "With a complexion like that of pure gold, possessed of a prominent nose and large eyes, and endued with a slender make, that husband of mine is known among people by the name of Yudhishthira, the son of Dharma and the foremost of the Kuru race. That virtuous prince of men granteth life to even a foe that yields. Therefore, O fool, throwing down thy arms and joining thy hands, run to him for thy good, to seek his protection. And that other man whom thou seest with long arms and tall as the full-grown Sala tree, seated on his chariot, biting his lips, and contracting his forehead so as to bring the two eye-brows together, is he,--my husband Vrikodara! Steeds of the noblest breed, plump and strong, well-trained and endued with great might, draw the cars of that warrior! His achievements are superhuman. He is known, therefore, by the name of Bhima on earth. They that offend him are never suffered to live. He never forgetteth a foe. On some pretext or other he wrecketh his vengeance. Nor is he pacified even after he has wrecked a signal vengeance. And there, that foremost of bowmen, endued with intelligence and renown, with senses under complete control and reverence for the old—that brother and disciple of Yudhishthira—is my husband Dhananjaya! Virtue he never forsaketh, from lust or fear or anger! Nor doth he ever commit a deed that is cruel. Endued with the energy of fire and capable of withstanding every foe, that grinder of enemies is the son of Kunti. And that other youth, versed in every question of morality and profit, who ever dispelleth the fears of the affrighted, who is endued with high wisdom, who is considered as the handsomest person in the whole world and who is protected by all the sons of Pandu, being regarded by them as dearer to them than their own lives for his unflinching devotion to them, is my husband Nakula possessed of great prowess. Endued with high wisdom and having Sahadeva for his second, possessed of exceeding lightness of hand, he fighteth with the sword, making dexterous passes therewith. Thou, foolish man, shall witness today his performances on the field of battle, like unto those of Indra amid the ranks of Daityas! And that hero skilled in weapons and possessed of intelligence and wisdom, and intent on doing what is agreeable to the son of Dharma, that favourite and youngest born of the Pandavas, is my husband Sahadeva! Heroic, intelligent, wise and ever wrathful there is not another man equal unto him in intelligence or in eloquence amid assemblies of the wise. Dearer to Kunti than her own soul, he is always mindful of the duties of Kshatriyas, and would much sooner rush into fire or sacrifice his own life than say anything that is opposed to religion and morals." (Book 3: Vana Parva, Section 268)

Polyandry[link]

The marriage of Draupadi with five Pandava men, i.e., polyandry, was not regarded without censure by the society spoken of in the epic. The Indo-Aryan texts almost never mention or allow polyandry, although polygamy was common among men of higher social ranks. Her marriage to five men was controversial. However, when questioned by Kunti to give an example of polyandry, Yudhisthira cites Gautam-clan Jatila (married to seven Saptarishis) and Hiranyaksha's sister Pracheti (married to ten brothers).^[5]

Draupadī's polyandrous marriage seems to have been a historic event; otherwise the author of the Mahābhārata, who is at his wit's end to justify it, would have quietly kept silence about it. ... The Mahābhārata proceeds to give several fantastic reasons in justification of Draupadī's marriage; only one of them may be given by way of illustration. Draupadī got five husbands in this life because in one of her previous existences she had five times uttered the prayer to God, 'Give me a husband' (Mbh 1:213). [See also Mbh 1:206:2,27; 1:210:29 for contemporary cultural responses to polyandry.]^[6]

Owing to her marriage to five husbands, Draupadi had to live with each one of them turn-by-turn for one year each. She had the boon to be born virgin every year, and is therefore called an eternal Kanya (a virgin).^[7] In the Svargarohana Parva of Mahabharat, during their final journey to heaven, Draupadi and all Pandavas but Yudhisthira fall on their way. The reason for the fall of Draupadi is quoted as she being more doting towards Arjuna than the rest of the brothers. Draupadi always loved Arjuna more because Arjuna was the one who won the swayamvara and was also the close friend of Krishna.

Her End[link]

Draupadi falls as the Pandavas proceed.

When her husbands retired from the world and went on their journey towards the Himalayas and Indra's heaven, she accompanied them, and was the first to fall on the journey. When Bhim asked Yudhisthir, "This princess never did any sinful act. Then why is she fallen on Earth?" Yudhisthir replied, "Though we were all equal unto her, she had great partiality for Dhananjay(Arjun). She obtains the fruit of that conduct today."

"Beholding his brothers fallen on the Earth, king Yudhishthira the just said unto that deity of a 1,000 eyes these words: ‘My brothers have all dropped down here. They must go with me. Without them by me I do not wish to go to Heaven, O lord of all the deities. The delicate princess (Draupadi) deserving of every comfort, O Purandara, should go with us. It behoveth thee to permit this."

"He also beheld the princess of Panchala, decked in garlands of lotuses. Having attained to Heaven, she was sitting there, endued with a form possessed of solar splendour. King Yudhishthira suddenly wished to question her. Then the illustrious Indra, the chief of the gods, spoke to him, ‘This one is Sree herself. It was for your sake that she took birth, as the daughter of Drupada, among human beings, issuing not from any mother’s womb, O Yudhishthira, endued with agreeable perfume and capable of delighting the whole world. For your pleasure, she was created by the wielder of the trident. She was born in the race of Drupada and was enjoyed by you all."

Draupati as a village goddess[link]

Reclining Draupati's head - near Auroville.

Draupati Amman idol in Udappu, Sri Lanka

The Draupati Amman cult (or Draupati cult) is a tradition that binds together a community of people in worshipping Draupati Amman as a village goddess with unique rituals and mythologies. Fire walking or theemithi is a popular ritual enacted at Draupati Amman temples.^[8]

Draupadi as Goddess of Fortune[link]

"Arjuna is there, and Draupadi is directly the Goddess of Fortune. There was this injunction that wherever Draupadi will be there, there will be no scarcity of food." ^[9]

References[link]

• Eminent women in the Mahabharata by Vanamala Bhawalkar.
• Marriage to the Pandavas
• Mahabharata (1999) by Krishna Dharma
• Mahabharata by VedaVyasa
• Shri Krishna tele-serial by late Shri Ramanand Sagar
• Karna Puran
• Mrityunjay a Marathi novel.
• Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, English translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
• [1]

Modern Interpretations[link]

In the feminist play WE ARE SO DIFFERENT NOW by Shauna Singh Baldwin (2009), Draupadi, still on earth unable to go to heaven, talks a modern Indian woman out of committing suicide http://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Different-Now-ebook/dp/B003DA42W6/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311484176&sr=1-8

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Draupadi

• http://moralstories.wordpress.com/2006/05/15/draupadi-an-ikon-of-a-true-indian-woman/
• http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm
• Draupadi, the Woman: Epitome of Feminity and Feminism by Madhuri Guin
• The Kaurava race of Sri Lanka and the worship of Draupadi

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Nana Patekar
Born	Vishwanath Patekar (1951-01-01) 1 January 1951 (age 61) Murud-Janjira, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Actor, Filmmaker
Years active	1978 – present
Spouse	Neelakanti Patekar
Parents	Dinkar Patekar Sanjana Patekar

Vishwanath "Nana" Patekar (born 1 January 1951) is an Indian actor and filmmaker.

Biography[link]

Born Vishwanath Patekar in Murud-Janjira, Maharashtra, to Dinkar Patekar (a painter) and his wife Sanjanabai Patekar. He is an alumnus of the Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai.^[1]

Career[link]

He acted in movies such as Gaman (1978), Mohre (1987) and Salaam Bombay! (1988) and was noticed by the mainstream Bollywood industry for his portrayal of the villain in the 1989 film, Parinda, for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was also awarded the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for the role. He won the Filmfare Best Villain Award in 1992 for Angaar.

In 1994, he won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in Krantiveer (1994). He also won the Filmfare Award and the Star Screen Awards in the best actor category.

Patekar has played many types of roles. He has played the occasional villain but been a hero in most of his films. He played a truant, gambling son in Krantiveer (1994), a wife beater in Agni Sakshi (1996), a deaf father to Manisha Koirala in Khamoshi: The Musical (1996) and a schizophrenic in Wajood (1998). In the movie Ab Tak Chappan (2005) he plays a police officer who is a sharpshooter. Patekar has also done comic roles in Welcome (2007) in which he plays a powerful crime lord who once desired to be an actor in films.

He turned director with his movie Prahaar: The Final Attack co-starring Madhuri Dixit. His other films as an actor include Hu Tu Tu and Bluff Master. For his performance in Apaharan, he received the Filmfare Best Villain Award as well as the Star Screen Award Best Villain. He is going to be in Sangeeth Sivan's next film, which is a remake of the Telugu film Athadu (2005) and as the character Anjaneya Prasad (CBI officer), which was originally played by Prakash Raj.

Patekar did some playback singing in the films Yeshwant (1997), Wajood (1998) and Aanch (2003).

He has an honorary Captain's rank from Indian Army. He underwent training for his role as a Army officer in Prahaar and was thus awarded the rank. He joined the Territorial Army in the early 1990s.^{[citation needed]} At the age of 54, he took up the sport of rifle shooting. He qualified for the G.V. Mavlankar Shooting Championship.^[2]

He has also acted in few Marathi movies and plays. He is known to donate generously to the poor.^[3][4]

Nana Patekar starred in the Marathi film Deool, released on 4 November 2011.

Awards[link]

Patekar is the only actor ever to win Filmfare Awards in the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Villain categories.^[5]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Director[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nana Patekar at the Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nana Patekar

• Nana's interview

Angelina Jolie
Jolie at the Cannes premiere of The Tree of Life in 2011
Born	Angelina Jolie Voight (1975-06-04) June 4, 1975 (age 37) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Citizenship	United States, Cambodia, Sarajevo (honorary)
Occupation	Actress, director, writer, producer, humanitarian
Years active	1982; 1991–present
Spouse	Jonny Lee Miller (1996–1999) Billy Bob Thornton (2000–2003)
Partner	Brad Pitt (2005–present)
Children	6
Parents	Jon Voight Marcheline Bertrand
Relatives	James Haven (brother) Chip Taylor (uncle)

Angelina Jolie ( /dʒoʊˈliː/ joh-LEE, born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress and director. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011.^[1][2] Jolie promotes humanitarian causes, and is noted for her work with refugees as a Special Envoy and former Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has been cited as the world's "most beautiful" woman, a title for which she has received substantial media attention.^[3][4][5][6]

Jolie made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in Lookin' to Get Out (1982), but her film career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in the cyber-thriller Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical television films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999).

Jolie achieved wide fame after her portrayal of video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and established herself among the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood with the sequel The Cradle of Life (2003).^[7] She reinforced her reputation as a leading action star with Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and Wanted (2008)—her biggest non-animated commercial successes to date^[8]—and received further critical acclaim for her performances in the dramas A Mighty Heart (2007) and Changeling (2008), which earned her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Jolie made her directorial debut with the wartime drama In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011).

Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie now lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship notable for fervent media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, and three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne.

Early life and family[link]

Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the sister of actor James Haven, niece of singer-songwriter Chip Taylor, and goddaughter of actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father's side, Jolie is of German and Slovak descent,^[9][10] and on her mother's side, she is of primarily French Canadian, Dutch, and German ancestry.^[9] Like her mother, Jolie has stated that she is part Iroquois;^[11] her only known Native ancestor was a Huron woman born in 1649.^[9]

Jon Voight at the Academy Awards in 1988; Jolie can be seen behind his right shoulder

After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother lived with their mother, who abandoned her acting ambitions to focus on raising her children.^[12] As a child, Jolie regularly saw movies with her mother and later explained that this had inspired her interest in acting; she had not been influenced by her father.^[13] When she was six years old, her mother and stepfather, filmmaker Bill Day, moved the family to Palisades, New York;^[14] they returned to Los Angeles five years later. She then decided she wanted to act and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years and appeared in several stage productions.

At the age of 14, Jolie dropped out of her acting classes and aspired to become a funeral director.^[15] She began working as a fashion model, modeling mainly in Los Angeles, New York, and London. During this period, she wore black clothing, experimented with knife play, and went out moshing with her live-in boyfriend.^[13] Two years later, after the relationship had ended, she rented an apartment above a garage a few blocks from her mother's home.^[12] She graduated from high school and returned to theater studies, though in recent times she has referred to this period with the observation, "I am still at heart—and always will be—just a punk kid with tattoos."^[16]

Jolie suffered episodes of suicidal depression throughout her teens and early twenties.^[15] She felt isolated at Beverly Hills High School among the children of some of the area's affluent families, as her mother survived on a more modest income, and she was teased by other students, who targeted her for being extremely thin and for wearing glasses and braces.^[13] She found it difficult to emotionally connect with other people, and as a result she started to self-harm;^[17] later commenting, "I collected knives and always had certain things around. For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was somehow therapeutic to me."^[18] She also began experimenting with drugs; by the age of 20, she had tried "just about every drug possible," including heroin.^[19]

Jolie has had a difficult relationship with her father. Due to Voight's marital infidelity and the resulting breakup of her parents' marriage, she was estranged from her father for many years.^[20] They reconciled and he appeared with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), but their relationship again deteriorated.^[12] In July 2002, Jolie—who had long used her middle name as a stage name to establish her own identity as an actress—filed a request to legally drop Voight as her surname, which was granted on September 12, 2002.^[21] In August of that year, Voight claimed his daughter had "serious mental problems" on Access Hollywood.^[20] In response, Jolie released a statement in which she indicated that she no longer wished to pursue a relationship with her father.^[20] She explained that because she had adopted her son Maddox, she did not think it was healthy for her to associate with Voight.^[22] In the wake of her beloved mother's death from ovarian cancer on January 27, 2007,^[23] Jolie again reconciled with her father after a six-year estrangement.^[24]

Career[link]

Early work: 1982; 1991–1997[link]

When she was seven years old, Jolie had a small part in Lookin' to Get Out (1982), a movie co-written by and starring her father, Jon Voight. She committed to acting at the age of 16, but initially found it difficult to pass auditions, often being told that she was "too dark."^[15] She appeared in five of her brother's student films, made while he attended the USC School of Cinema-Television, as well as in several music videos, namely Lenny Kravitz's "Stand by My Woman" (1991), Antonello Venditti's "Alta Marea" (1991), The Lemonheads's "It's About Time" (1993), and Meat Loaf's "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" (1993). She began to learn from her father, as she noticed his method of observing people to become like them. Their relationship during this time was less strained, with Jolie realizing that they were both "drama queens."^[13]

Jolie began her professional film career in 1993, when she played her first leading role in the low-budget, straight-to-video science-fiction sequel Cyborg 2, as Casella "Cash" Reese, a near-human robot, designed to seduce her way into a rival manufacturer's headquarters and then self-detonate. Jolie was so disappointed with the film that she did not audition again for a year.^[15] Following a supporting role in the independent film Without Evidence (1995), Jolie starred as Kate "Acid Burn" Libby in her first Hollywood picture, Hackers (1995). The New York Times wrote, "Kate (Angelina Jolie) stands out. That's because she scowls even more sourly than [her co-stars] and is that rare female hacker who sits intently at her keyboard in a see-through top. Despite her sullen posturing, which is all this role requires, Ms. Jolie has the sweetly cherubic looks of her father, Jon Voight."^[25] The movie failed to make a profit at the box office, but developed a cult following after its video release.^[26]

She next appeared in the 1996 comedy Love Is All There Is, a modern-day loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set among two rival Italian family restaurant owners in The Bronx, New York. In the road movie Mojave Moon (1996) she played a young woman who falls for Danny Aiello's middle-aged character, while he develops feelings for her mother, played by Anne Archer. That same year, Jolie also portrayed Margret "Legs" Sadovsky, one of five teenage girls who form an unlikely bond in the film Foxfire after they beat up a teacher who has sexually harassed them. The Los Angeles Times wrote about her performance, "It took a lot of hogwash to develop this character, but Jolie, Jon Voight's knockout daughter, has the presence to overcome the stereotype. Though the story is narrated by Maddy, Legs is the subject and the catalyst."^[27]

In 1997, Jolie starred with David Duchovny in the thriller Playing God, set in the Los Angeles underworld. The movie was not well-received by critics; Roger Ebert noted that "Angelina Jolie finds a certain warmth in a kind of role that is usually hard and aggressive; she seems too nice to be [a criminal's] girlfriend, and maybe she is."^[28] She then appeared in the television film True Women (1997), a historical romantic drama set in the American West and based on the book by Janice Woods Windle. That year, she also appeared as a stripper in the music video for "Anybody Seen My Baby?" by the Rolling Stones.

Breakthrough: 1998–2000[link]

Jolie's career prospects began to improve after she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in TNT's George Wallace (1997). She portrayed Cornelia Wallace, the second wife of Alabama Governor George Wallace, played by Gary Sinise. The film was very well received by critics and won, among other awards, the Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film. Jolie also received an Emmy Award nomination for her performance.

In 1998, Jolie starred in HBO's Gia, portraying supermodel Gia Carangi. The film chronicled the destruction of Carangi's life and career as a result of her addiction to heroin, and her decline and death from AIDS in the mid-1980s. Vanessa Vance from Reel.com noted, "Angelina Jolie gained wide recognition for her role as the titular Gia, and it's easy to see why. Jolie is fierce in her portrayal—filling the part with nerve, charm, and desperation—and her role in this film is quite possibly the most beautiful train wreck ever filmed."^[29] For the second consecutive year, Jolie won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also won her first Screen Actors Guild Award.

In accordance with Lee Strasberg's method acting, Jolie preferred to stay in character in between scenes during many of her early films, and as a result had gained a reputation for being difficult to deal with. While shooting Gia, she told her then-husband Jonny Lee Miller that she would not be able to phone him: "I'd tell him: 'I'm alone; I'm dying; I'm gay; I'm not going to see you for weeks.'"^[30] After Gia wrapped in 1997, Jolie announced that she had given up acting for good, because she felt that she had "nothing else to give."^[31] She separated from Miller and moved to New York, where she enrolled at New York University to study filmmaking and attend writing classes; she later described it as "just good for me to collect myself."^[31] Encouraged by her Golden Globe Award win for George Wallace and the positive critical reception of Gia, she resumed her career.^[15]

Jolie returned to film in the 1998 gangster movie Hell's Kitchen. Later that year, she appeared in Playing by Heart, part of an ensemble cast that included Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson, Ryan Phillippe, and Jon Stewart. The film received predominantly positive reviews, and Jolie was praised in particular. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Jolie, working through an overwritten part, is a sensation as the desperate club crawler learning truths about what she's willing to gamble."^[32] Jolie won the Breakthrough Performance Award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

In 1999, she starred in the comedy-drama Pushing Tin, alongside John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. The film received a mixed reception from critics, and Jolie's character—Thornton's seductive wife—was particularly criticized. The Washington Post wrote, "Mary (Angelina Jolie) [is] a completely ludicrous writer's creation of a free-spirited woman who weeps over hibiscus plants that die, wears lots of turquoise rings and gets real lonely when Russell spends entire nights away from home."^[33] She then co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector (1999), an adaptation of a crime novel by Jeffery Deaver. Jolie played a police officer haunted by her cop father's suicide, who reluctantly helps Washington track down a serial killer. The movie grossed $151 million worldwide,^[8] but was a critical failure. The Detroit Free Press concluded, "Jolie, while always delicious to look at, is simply and woefully miscast."^[34]

Jolie next took the supporting role of the sociopathic mental patient Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted (1999), an adaptation of author Susanna Kaysen's memoir of the same name. While Winona Ryder played the main character in what was hoped to be a comeback for her, the film instead marked Jolie's final breakthrough in Hollywood.^[36] She won her third Golden Globe Award, her second Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Variety noted, "Jolie is excellent as the flamboyant, irresponsible girl who turns out to be far more instrumental than the doctors in Susanna's rehabilitation."^[37]

In 2000, Jolie appeared in her first summer blockbuster, Gone In 60 Seconds, in which she played Sarah "Sway" Wayland, the ex-girlfriend of car thief Nicolas Cage. The role was small, and The Washington Post criticized that "all she does in this movie is stand around, cooling down, modeling those fleshy, pulsating muscle-tubes that nest so provocatively around her teeth."^[38] She later explained that the film had been a welcome relief after the emotionally heavy role of Lisa Rowe. It became her highest grossing movie up until then, earning $237 million internationally.^[8]

International success: 2001–present[link]

Although highly regarded for her acting abilities, Jolie's films to date had often not appealed to a wide audience, but Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) made her an international superstar. An adaptation of the popular Tomb Raider videogame, Jolie was required to learn an English accent and undergo extensive martial arts training to play the title role of Lara Croft. She was generally praised for her physical performance, but the movie generated mostly negative reviews. Slant commented, "Angelina Jolie was born to play Lara Croft but [director] Simon West makes her journey into a game of Frogger."^[39] The movie was an international success nonetheless, earning $275 million worldwide,^[8] and launched her global reputation as a female action star.

Jolie then starred opposite Antonio Banderas as his mail-order bride in Original Sin (2001), a thriller based on the novel Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich. The film was a major critical failure, with The New York Times noting, "The story plunges more precipitously than Ms. Jolie's neckline."^[40] In 2002, she starred in Life or Something Like It as an ambitious television reporter who is told that she will die in a week. The film was poorly received by critics, though Jolie's performance received positive reviews. CNN's Paul Clinton wrote, "Jolie is excellent in her role. Despite some of the ludicrous plot points in the middle of the film, this Academy Award-winning actress is exceedingly believable in her journey towards self-discovery and the true meaning of fulfilling life."^[41]

Jolie at the Cologne premiere of Alexander in 2004

Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), which established her among Hollywood's highest-paid actresses.^[7] The sequel was not as lucrative as the original, earning $156 million at the international box office.^[8] She appeared in the music video for Korn's "Did My Time", which was used to promote the film. She next starred in Beyond Borders (2003), as a socialite who joins aid workers in Africa and Asia. The film reflected Jolie's real-life interest in promoting humanitarian relief, but it was critically and financially unsuccessful. The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Jolie, as she did in her Oscar-winning role in Girl, Interrupted, can bring electricity and believability to roles that have a reality she can understand. She can also, witness the Lara Croft films, do acknowledged cartoons. But the limbo of a hybrid character, a badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world, completely defeats her."^[42]

In 2004, Jolie starred alongside Ethan Hawke in the thriller Taking Lives. She portrayed an FBI profiler summoned to help Montreal law enforcement hunt down a serial killer. The movie received mixed reviews and The Hollywood Reporter concluded, "Angelina Jolie plays a role that definitely feels like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of excitement and glamour."^[43] She also provided the voice of the angelfish Lola in the DreamWorks animated movie Shark Tale (2004), and had a brief appearance in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), a science fiction adventure film shot entirely with actors in front of a bluescreen. That same year, Jolie played Olympias in Alexander, about the life of Alexander the Great. The film failed domestically, which director Oliver Stone attributed to disapproval of the depiction of Alexander's bisexuality,^[44] but it succeeded internationally, with revenue of $139 million outside the United States.^[8]

Jolie then starred opposite Brad Pitt in the 2005 action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which tells the story of a bored married couple, John and Jane Smith, who find out that they are both secret assassins. The film received mixed reviews, but was generally lauded for the chemistry between the two leads. The Star Tribune noted, "While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry."^[45] The movie earned $478 million worldwide, making it the seventh-highest grossing film of 2005.^[46]

Jolie as Christine Collins on the set of Changeling in 2007

Jolie next appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006), a film about the early history of the CIA, as seen through the eyes of Edward Wilson, an officer based on James Jesus Angleton and played by Matt Damon. Jolie played the supporting role of Margaret "Clover" Russell, Wilson's neglected wife. According to the Chicago Tribune, "Jolie ages convincingly throughout, and is blithely unconcerned with how her brittle character is coming off in terms of audience sympathy."^[47]

In 2007, Jolie made her directorial debut with the documentary A Place in Time, which captures daily life in 27 locations around the world during a single week. The film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and was intended for distribution to high schools through the National Education Association.^[48] Jolie then starred as Mariane Pearl in the documentary-style drama A Mighty Heart (2007). Based on Pearl's memoir of the same name, the film chronicles the kidnapping and murder of her husband, The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in Pakistan. The Hollywood Reporter described Jolie's performance as "well-measured and moving," played "with respect and a firm grasp on a difficult accent."^[49] Jolie was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance. She also played Grendel's mother in the animated epic Beowulf (2007), which was created through the motion capture technique.

Jolie co-starred alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in the 2008 action movie Wanted, an adaptation of Mark Millar's graphic novel of the same name. The film received predominately favorable reviews and proved an international success, earning $342 million worldwide.^[8] She also provided the voice of Master Tigress in the DreamWorks animated movie Kung Fu Panda (2008). With revenue of $632 million internationally, it became the third-highest grossing film of 2008.^[50] That same year, Jolie took on the lead role in Clint Eastwood's drama Changeling.^[51] Based in part on the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, the film stars Jolie as Christine Collins, who is reunited with her kidnapped son in 1928 Los Angeles—only to realize the boy is an impostor. The Chicago Tribune noted, "Jolie really shines in the calm before the storm, the scenes [...] when one patronizing male authority figure after another belittles her at their peril."^[52] Jolie received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award.

Jolie on the Salt panel at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2010

Jolie next starred in the 2010 thriller Salt, her first film in two years. She starred alongside Liev Schreiber as CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who goes on the run after she is accused of being a KGB sleeper agent. Originally written as male, the character Salt underwent a gender change after a Colombia Pictures executive suggested Jolie for the role to director Phillip Noyce. The film was an international success with revenue of $294 million.^[8] It received mixed to positive reviews, with Jolie's performance earning praise; Empire remarked, "When it comes to selling incredible, crazy, death-defying antics, Jolie has few peers in the action business."^[53] She also starred opposite Johnny Depp in The Tourist (2010), which was a major critical failure. Peter Travers wrote, "Depp and Jolie hit career lows, producing the chemistry of high-fashion zombies."^[54] After a slow start at the domestic box office, the film went on to gross $278 million worldwide.^[8] Jolie received a controversial Golden Globe Award nomination, which was speculated to have been given merely to ensure her high-profile presence at the awards ceremony.^[55][56]

In 2011, Jolie reprised her voice role as Master Tigress in the animated DreamWorks sequel Kung Fu Panda 2. It became the fourth-highest grossing film of 2011 and Jolie's highest grossing film to date, earning $666 million at the international box office.^[8][57] She also made her directorial feature debut with In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), a love story between a Serb soldier and a Bosniak prisoner of war, set during the 1992–95 Bosnian War. Jolie, who had twice visited Bosnia-Herzegovina in her capacity as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, explained that she made the film to rekindle attention for the survivors of a war that took place in recent history.^[58] The film, which Jolie also scripted and co-produced, aroused both praise and criticism in the Balkans; the response from Bosniak war-victims advocacy organizations was "overwhelmingly positive,"^[59] while a Serb war prisoners group decried the film for its alleged anti-Serb bias.^[60] Sarajevo's regional government named Jolie an honorary citizen of the capital for raising awareness of the war.^[61] In the Land of Blood and Honey won the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America, which honors films that highlight provocative social issues.^[62] It also received a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Jolie will play the Disney villain Maleficent in the upcoming film of the same name, where the character's background story will be revealed.^[63]

Humanitarian work[link]

Jolie stated that she first became personally aware of worldwide humanitarian crises while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) in Cambodia.^[65] She contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for information on international trouble spots.^[64] To learn more about the conditions in these areas, Jolie began visiting refugee camps around the world. In February 2001, she went on her first field visit, an 18-day mission to Sierra Leone and Tanzania; she later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed.^[64] In the following months, she returned to Cambodia for two weeks and met with Afghan refugees in Pakistan.^[66][67] She covered all costs related to her missions and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as UNHCR field staff on all of her visits.^[64] Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on August 27, 2001.^[68]

Since then, Jolie has been on field missions around the world and met with refugees and internally displaced persons in more than 30 countries.^[69] Asked what she hoped to accomplish, she stated, "Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon."^[66] Jolie aims to visit what she terms "forgotten emergencies," crises that media attention has shifted away from.^[70] She is noted for not shying away from traveling to areas that are at war:^[71] she visited the Darfur region of Sudan during the Darfur conflict in 2004;^[72] Chad during its civil war in 2007;^[73] Iraq during the Second Gulf War in 2007 and 2009;^[74][75] Afghanistan during the ongoing war in 2008 and 2011;^[76] and Libya during the Libyan revolution in 2011.^[77]

After more than a decade of service as Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie was promoted to the rank of Special Envoy of High Commissioner António Guterres on April 17, 2012. As Special Envoy, she represents the UNHCR and High Commissioner António Guterres at the diplomatic level and works to facilitate long-term solutions for people displaced by large-scale crises, such as Afghanistan and Somalia. "This is an exceptional position reflecting an exceptional role she has played for us," said a UNHCR spokesman.^[78]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Jolie at World Refugee Day in 2005

In addition to her work with the UNHCR, Jolie uses her public profile to promote humanitarian causes through the mass media. Her early field visits were chronicled in her book Notes from My Travels, which was published in conjunction with the release of her film Beyond Borders (2003). She filmed a 2005 MTV special, The Diary of Angelina Jolie & Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa, portraying her and noted economist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on a trip to a remote group of villages in Western Kenya. Jolie has also regularly released public service announcements promoting World Refugee Day and other causes.

Over time, Jolie became more involved in promoting humanitarian causes on a political level. She has regularly attended World Refugee Day in Washington, D.C., and she was an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2005 and 2006. She also began lobbying humanitarian interests in the U.S. capital, where she met with members of Congress at least 20 times between 2003 and 2006, during which she pushed for several bills to aid refugees and vulnerable children in the Third World and the United States.^[68] She explained in 2006, "As much as I would love to never have to visit Washington, that's the way to move the ball."^[68] In 2007, she became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.^[79]

Jolie has established several charitable organizations. In 2003, she founded the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation—named the Maddox Jolie Project until 2007—which is dedicated to community development and environmental conservation in Cambodia's northwestern province Battambang.^[80] In 2006, she partnered with the Global Health Committee to establish the Maddox Chivan Children's Center, a daycare facility for children afflicted and affected by HIV in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.^[81] That same year, she and her partner Brad Pitt founded the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to aid humanitarian causes worldwide.^[82] In 2007, Jolie and noted economist Dr. Gene Sperling founded the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which funds education programs for children affected by man-made or natural disasters.^[83] In 2008, she collaborated with the Microsoft Corporation to establish Kids in Need of Defense, a pro bono movement of law firms, corporate law departments, NGOs and volunteers committed to providing legal counsel to unaccompanied immigrant children in the U.S.^[84] In 2010, she established the Jolie Legal Fellows Programme, which recruits lawyers to support governmental child protection efforts in Haiti.^[85]

Jolie has received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. In 2002, she received the inaugural Humanitarian Award by the Church World Service's Immigration and Refugee Program.^[86] In 2003, she was the first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association. In 2005, she was awarded the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA.^[87] On July 31, 2005, King Norodom Sihamoni awarded Jolie Cambodian citizenship for her conservation work in the country.^[88] In 2007, Jolie received the Freedom Award by the International Rescue Committee.^[89] In 2011, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres presented Jolie with a gold pin reserved for the most long-serving staff, in recognition of her decade as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.^[90]

Personal life[link]

Relationships[link]

Jolie had a serious boyfriend for two years from the age of 14. Her mother allowed them to live together in her home, of which Jolie later said, "I was either going to be reckless on the streets with my boyfriend or he was going to be with me in my bedroom with my mom in the next room. She made the choice, and because of it, I continued to go to school every morning and explored my first relationship in a safe way."^[91] She has compared the relationship to a marriage in its emotional intensity, and said that the breakup compelled her to dedicate herself to her acting career at the age of 16.^[92]

During filming of Hackers (1995), Jolie had a romance with British actor Jonny Lee Miller, her first lover since the relationship in her early teens.^[15] They were not in touch for many months after production ended, but eventually reconnected and married soon after on March 28, 1996. She attended her wedding in black rubber pants and a white T-shirt, upon which she had written the groom's name in her blood.^[93] Jolie and Miller separated in September 1997 and divorced on February 3, 1999. They remained on good terms, and Jolie later explained, "It comes down to timing. I think he's the greatest husband a girl could ask for. I'll always love him, we were simply too young."^[94]

Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt at the Deauville premiere of The Assassination of Jesse James in 2007

Jolie had a brief relationship with model-actress Jenny Shimizu on the set of Foxfire (1996). She later said, "I would probably have married Jenny if I hadn't married my husband. I fell in love with her the first second I saw her."^[95] Shimizu claimed in 2005 that her relationship with Jolie had lasted many years and continued even while Jolie was romantically involved with other people.^[96] In 2003, asked if she was bisexual, Jolie responded, "Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel that it's okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!"^[97]

After a two-month courtship, Jolie married actor Billy Bob Thornton on May 5, 2000, in Las Vegas. They met on the set of Pushing Tin (1999), but did not pursue a relationship at that time as Thornton was engaged to actress Laura Dern.^[98] As a result of their frequent public declarations of passion and gestures of love—most famously wearing one another's blood in vials around their necks—their marriage became a favorite topic of the entertainment media.^[99] Jolie and Thornton announced the adoption of a son from Cambodia in March 2002, but abruptly separated three months later. Their divorce was finalized on May 27, 2003. Asked about the sudden dissolution of their marriage, Jolie stated, "It took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it's scary but... I think it can happen when you get involved and you don't know yourself yet."^[100]

In early 2005, Jolie was involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal when she was accused of being the reason for the divorce of actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. She and Pitt were alleged to have started an affair during filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). She denied this on several occasions, but later admitted that they "fell in love" on the set.^[101] She explained in 2005, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife."^[97] Jolie and Pitt did not publicly comment on the nature of their relationship until January 2006, when Jolie confirmed to People that she was pregnant with Pitt's child.^[102] Pitt and Jolie announced their engagement in April 2012, after seven years together.^[103] The couple—dubbed "Brangelina" by the entertainment media—are the subject of worldwide media coverage.

Children[link]

On March 10, 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, seven-month-old Maddox Chivan, from an orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.^[104] He was born as Rath Vibol on August 5, 2001, in a local village.^[105] Jolie applied for adoption after she had visited Cambodia twice, while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and on a UNHCR field mission. The adoption process was halted in December 2001 when the U.S. government banned adoptions from Cambodia amid allegations of child trafficking.^[106] Once the adoption was finalized, she took custody of Maddox in Namibia, where she was filming Beyond Borders (2003).^[106] Although Jolie and her then-husband Billy Bob Thornton announced the adoption together, she in fact adopted Maddox as a single parent.^[107][108]

Jolie adopted a daughter, six-month-old Zahara Marley, from an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 6, 2005. Zahara was born as Yemsrach on January 8, 2005, in Awasa.^[109] At the time of the adoption, Zahara was wrongly believed to be an AIDS orphan and it was unknown whether she herself had contracted HIV, but she later tested negative.^[110] Shortly after they returned to the United States, Zahara was hospitalized for dehydration and malnutrition.^[110] In November 2007, media outlets reported that Zahara's biological mother wanted her daughter back, but she denied these reports, saying she thought Zahara was "very fortunate" to have been adopted by Jolie.^[109]

A pregnant Jolie with director Clint Eastwood at the Cannes premiere of Changeling in 2008

Jolie was accompanied by her partner Brad Pitt when she traveled to Ethiopia to take custody of Zahara.^[111] She later indicated that she and Pitt had made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia together.^[112] In December 2005, Pitt's publicist announced that Pitt was seeking to adopt Maddox and Zahara.^[113] To reflect this, Jolie filed a request to legally change her children's surnames from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which was granted on January 19, 2006.^[114] The adoptions were finalized soon after.^[115]

In an attempt to avoid the media frenzy surrounding their relationship, Jolie and Pitt went to Namibia for the birth of their first biological child. On May 27, 2006, Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, in Swakopmund. Pitt confirmed that their newborn daughter would have a Namibian passport.^[116] The couple decided to sell the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images themselves, rather than allowing paparazzi to make these valuable photographs. People paid a reported $4.1 million for the North American rights, while Hello! obtained the British rights for a reported $3.5 million.^[117] All profits were donated to charities serving African children.^[117]

On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a son, three-year-old Pax Thien, from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.^[118] He was born as Pham Quang Sang on November 29, 2003, in HCMC, where he was abandoned soon after birth.^[119] Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent, because Vietnam's adoption regulations do not allow unmarried couples to co-adopt.^[118] The rights for the first post-adoption images of Pax were sold to People for a reported $2 million, as well as to Hello! for an undisclosed amount.^[120] In April, Jolie filed a request to legally change her son's surname from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which was approved on May 31, 2007.^[121] Pitt's adoption of Pax was finalized in the United States on February 21, 2008.^[122]

At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008, Jolie confirmed that she was expecting twins. For the two weeks she spent in a seaside hospital in Nice, France, reporters and photographers camped outside on the promenade.^[123] She gave birth to a son, Knox Léon, and a daughter, Vivienne Marcheline, on July 12, 2008.^[124] The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People and Hello! for a reported $14 million—the most expensive celebrity pictures ever taken. The proceeds were donated to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.^[124]

In the media[link]

Jolie at the New York premiere of A Mighty Heart in 2007; several of her tattoos are visible

During the first decade of her career, Jolie—who does not employ a publicist or an agent^[125]—maintained a "wild child" persona in her communication with the media. She openly discussed her love life, including her bisexuality and her interest in BDSM.^[17] After she kissed her brother during the Academy Awards in 2000, their close relationship became the subject of tabloid media speculation, which she dismissed.^[126] She spoke about her experiences with drugs and depression, and recalled the time, in 1997, when she almost hired a hitman to kill her, as well as the three days, just before her marriage to Billy Bob Thornton, that she was sectioned at UCLA's psychiatric ward.^[15] By the mid-2000s, Jolie's involvement with the UNHCR and the adoption of her son Maddox had transformed her public image from Hollywood eccentric into humanitarian and devoted mother.^[105][125]

Jolie has attracted notable media attention for her physical appearance—particularly her full lips and her many tattoos, being her most distinctive features. She has been named the world's "most beautiful" or "sexiest" woman by various media outlets, including Vogue in 2002,^[3] Esquire in 2004,^[127] American FHM and British Harper's Bazaar in 2005,^[4][128] People and Hello! in 2006,^[5][129] Empire in 2007,^[130] and Vanity Fair in 2009.^[6] Jolie's extensive collection of tattoos has often been addressed by interviewers. She has fourteen known tattoos, among which the Latin proverb "quod me nutrit me destruit" (what nourishes me destroys me), the Tennessee Williams quote "A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages," two sak yant designs featuring a prayer of protection and a twelve-inch-by-eight-inch tiger, and six sets of geographical coordinates indicating the origins of her children.^[131] Over time, she has covered or lasered several of her tattoos, including the name of her second husband, "Billy Bob", and the Chinese characters "死" (death) and "勇" (courage).^[131]

Today, Jolie is one of the best-known celebrities around the world. According to the Q Score, in 2000, subsequent to her Oscar win, 31% of respondents in the United States said Jolie was familiar to them; by 2006 she was familiar to 81% of Americans.^[68] In a 2006 global industry survey by ACNielsen in 42 international markets, Jolie, together with her partner Brad Pitt, was found to be the favorite celebrity endorser for brands and products worldwide.^[132] She was the face of St. John and Shiseido from 2006 to 2008, and in 2011 had an endorsement deal with Louis Vuitton reportedly worth $10 million—a record for a single advertising campaign.^[133] She was among the Time 100, a list of the most influential people in the world as assembled by Time, in 2006 and 2008.^[134][135] Forbes named her Hollywood's highest-paid actress in 2009 and 2011, with estimated annual earnings of $27 million and $30 million respectively,^[1][2] and she topped the magazine's Celebrity 100, a ranking of the world's most powerful celebrities, in 2009.^[136] People named her one of 2012 Most Beautiful at Every Age.^[137]

Filmography[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Notes from My Travels. Pocket Books. 2003. ISBN 0-7434-7023-0.
• "Justice for Darfur". The Washington Post. February 28, 2007.
• "A Year for Accountability". The Economist. November 15, 2007.
• "The 2009 TIME 100: Somaly Mam". Time. April 30, 2009.
• "The Case Against Omar al-Bashir". Time. June 5, 2009.
• "Justice Delayed Is Not Justice Denied". Newsweek. December 10, 2009

References[link]