Through an analysis of some of the dialogues in a play by Girirāj Kiśor based on the Mahābhārata, this article shows that one of the themes of the play is that of subjects being dominated by a ruler and protesting against that dominance. The analysis also shows how a woman, Draupadī, has conversational power over men in the dialogues in which she participates. In her statements, she identifies with the people rather than the royal family into which she has married.The play is found to argue against the extreme dominance of a ruler over his subjects, and was thus acutely relevant at the time it was written and first performed, in 1976, a time when Indira Gandhi had abolished democratic rights during the Emergency.