Panchali (pāñcālī)

Panchali means the woman of Panchala, and is one of Draupadi's common names alongside Krishnaa for her dark colouring and Yajnaseni for her birth from the sacrificial fire. Each name places her differently: as a kingdom's daughter, as a woman whose beauty is described in the same word as the dark god's, and as a being who arrived out of a fire lit for revenge. She is the only figure in the epic whose names all point at causes larger than herself.