In a pivotal scene from H S Nagaveni’s Gandhi Banda, a classic of modern Kannada fiction, Mahatma Gandhi arrives in Mangaluru for a public meeting. Some volunteers bring him to Draupadi, the Brahmin widow of a Muslim man, Adrama. Gandhi asks the women to deck her up with gold ornaments, put the vermilion mark on her forehead and himself adorns her hair with a flower, symbolically restoring her wifehood and womanhood.
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