Draupadi (Sanskrit: द्रौपदी, romanized: draupadī, lit. 'Daughter of Drupada'), also referred to as Krishnā, Panchali and Yajnaseni, is one of the central characters of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata (c. 400 BCE – 400 CE). Born from a yajna (fire sacrifice) conducted by King Drupada of Panchala, she is the princess of the Panchala Kingdom and the common wife of the five Pandava brothers—Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva—in a polyandrous marriage sanctioned by divine prophecy and narratives of her previous lives. Attested as a partial incarnation of the goddess Shri, Draupadi initially serves as the queen of Indraprastha, overseeing the kingdom's finances and treasury. She is also described as a sakhi (close friend) of the god Krishna.

The most notable episode featuring Draupadi takes place during the game of dice at the Kuru court. In this game, Yudhishthira, having lost Indraprastha and his freedom, wagers and loses Draupadi to his cousin Duryodhana—the leader of the Kauravas. She is forcibly dragged into the royal assembly and deemed a slave. However, she challenges the assembly, questioning the legality of being staked after her husband had already forfeited his own freedom. After she is publicly humiliated by Duryodhana and his ally Karna for being married to five men, the Kaurava prince Dushasana attempts to disrobe her, but her honour is miraculously preserved, as her garment becomes endlessly extended. The Kuru king Dhritarashtra then intervenes and grants Draupadi two boons, resulting in the release of the Pandavas from bondage.

Afterwards, Draupadi accompanies the Pandavas into their thirteen-year exile after they lose their kingdom to the Kauravas. In the final year of exile, Draupadi lives incognito, disguised as a maid to Queen Sudeshna of Matsya. When she is harassed by the Matsya general Kichaka, she successfully persuades Bhima to kill Kichaka. After the exile, when Duryodhana refuses to restore the Pandavas' kingdom, Draupadi strongly supports the call for the Kurukshetra War, recalling the humiliations and assaults she had suffered and demanding punishment for her culprits. Although the Kauravas are slain, the war also leads to the deaths of her father, brothers, and her five sons. These sons—each born to one of the Pandavas—are collectively known by the matronymic Draupadeyas. After the Pandavas' victory, she becomes the empress of the Kuru Kingdom for thirty-six years. In the epic's conclusion, Draupadi joins the Pandavas on their final journey toward heaven, during which she is the first to fall.

Draupadi is a significant figure in Hindu and Indian culture, particularly noted for her beauty, courage, devotion, intelligence, resilience and rhetorical skills. She is also extolled as one of the panchakanya (five virgins), archetypes of female chastity whose names are believed to dispel sin when recited. Mediaeval classical literature introduces several new narratives centred on Draupadi, including her untied hair and the vow to wash her hair with Dushasana's blood as a symbol of revenge. In some parts of the sub-continent, a sect of Draupadi exists, where she is worshipped as a goddess. Her story has been an inspiration for various arts, performances and secondary literature.

The word Draupadī (lit. 'daughter of Drupada') is a patronymic, derived from the word Drupada, which means 'pillar'. Like other epic characters, she is referred to by multiple names in the Mahabharata. Some of her other names and epithets are as follows:

The story of Draupadi is told in the Indian script Mahabharata, one of the Sanskrit epics from the Indian subcontinent. The work is written in Classical Sanskrit and is a composite work of revisions, editing and interpolations over many centuries. The oldest parts in the surviving version of the text probably date to about 400 BCE.

The Mahabharata manuscripts exist in numerous versions, wherein the specifics and details of major characters and episodes vary, often significantly. Except for the sections containing the Bhagavad Gita which is remarkably consistent between the numerous manuscripts, the rest of the epic exists in many versions. The differences between the Northern and Southern recensions are particularly significant, with the Southern manuscripts more profuse and longer. Scholars have attempted to construct a critical edition, relying mostly on a study of the "Bombay" edition, the "Poona" edition, the "Calcutta" edition and the "south Indian" editions of the manuscripts. The most accepted version is one prepared by scholars led by Vishnu Sukthankar at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, preserved at Kyoto University, Cambridge University and various Indian universities.

Draupadi is not born of a woman and thus, she is often described as an ayonija (lit. 'one not born from a woman's womb'). Her birth is narrated in the Adi Parva of the epic. Drona—the teacher of the Kuru princes—defeats his former friend Drupada with the help of his student Arjuna and seizes half of Panchala. Seeking vengeance, Drupada realises that none of his sons or allies is capable of slaying Drona. As a result, he decides to perform a yajna (fire-sacrifice) to obtain a powerful son. He approaches the sage Upayaja, who initially refuses to conduct the rite, as it departs from the auspicious śrauta (Vedic) tradition and draws instead on non-śrauta practices. The ritual partakes of the nature of abhichara (black magic)—a death-dealing form of sacrifice—which Upayaja disapproves of. However, Drupada eventually wins over his elder brother, Yaja. With the sages Yaja and Upayaja serving as the chief priests, the yajna is conducted. After its completion, the priests instruct Prishati—Drupada's queen—to consume the sacrificial offering in order to conceive, but she refuses and asks them to wait until she has bathed and put on perfume. Unable to wait, Yaja pours the offering into the altar of the sacrifice. From the flames first emerges a youthful man, prophesied to slay Drona and fulfil Drupada's vengeance. Following him, Draupadi—as a fully grown youthful maiden—arises from the vedi (altar), who, unlike her brother, is not born to fulfil Drupada's task, but that of the gods. The Mahabharata includes an exceedingly flattering description of Draupadi as she arises from the altar,