The Sarala Mahabharata of Odisha has an entirely different take on the infamous episode of the disrobing of Draupadi in the court of Hastinapura. According to Mahabharata composed in Sanskrit by Vyasa, when Draupadi was on the verge of being denuded in the presence of all of Kauravas and Pandavas including their guru, kith and kin, ministers and attendants, she prayed to Bhagavan Sri Krishna and accordingly Krishna Bhagavan gave her millions of sarees to protect her from shame. But Sarala Das made some changes in this story where Surya Deva has taken the place of Sri Krishna.
As per Sarala Mahabharata, Draupadi prayed to Narayana to save her from disgrace. Narayana advised her to pray to Surya Deva and asked Surya Deva to give her sarees and save her from disgrace.
Draupadi in her prayers and invocations has sung the praise
of the Surya Deva as ‘the
one without beginning’ (Anadi Purusa), ‘the one who can see the past and
future’ (Bhuta
Bhabisyatara drsta) ‘the master of earth, water, heat and wind’ (jala, sthala,
patala,
prithvi, ap, tej, bayu o marut ra karta), ‘the God of meditation’ (Jogeswar),
‘one
without any form and shape’ (anakar), ‘one who cannot be destroyed’ (abyay),
‘one who
knows the inner self’ (antaryami) and ‘one beyond death’ (akshaya purusha).
Here the
poet has used words like Aditya, Gagana bihari, Dibakar and Bhaskar etc. to
represent Surya or the Sun. In this context she had sung in praise of Surya
Deva, ‘who
killed the demon in the land of sun on the bank of Chandrabhaga for the
well-being of
the world’.