DURYODHANA aka Suyodhana Dhritarāshtra

Nearly 3,500 years ago, Sage Vyasa had come to Hastinapur. The then queen of Hastinapur, Gandhari, looked after the sage so well that he was pleased by her devotion. “Ask for any boon”, he told Gandhari. The Queen wanted 100 sons and asked for it. Gandhari became pregnant but even after two years she did not deliver any baby. Meanwhile, another queen of Dhristra had already delivered a baby who came to be called Yudhistra. Subsequently, Gandhari delivered a lump of flesh. Deeply disappointed she decided to throw it away. Vyasa then intervened and told her that his boon could not go in vain. He asked her to get 100 jars and placed a piece of flesh in each one of those jars filled with ghee. Gandhari replied that she wanted a daughter too apart from the 100 sons. Vyasa nodded in approval and cut the lump if flesh into 101 pieces. He then asked Gandhari to wait for two more years before opening the jar. Two years passed and when an anxious Gandhari opened the first jar, she found a baby boy whom she named Duryodhana. According to Aadhi Parva, (Chapter 114, Sloka 17) when Duryodhana started crying, several animals too started howling. Vidura, an adviser to Dhritarashtra, said it was an evil omen and asked Gandhari and Dhritarashtra to abandon it. But that was not to be and the rest as they say is history or rather Mahabharata. (Duryodhana’s real name was Suyodhana and he changed it to Duryodhana which means unconqurable) When the Kauravas were being taken out of the jars, Bheema was born to Kunti in the forest. After 100 sons, Gandhari took out Duhshala, a baby girl, from the 101st jar. Check out the Adi Parva (The book of the beginning) in the Mahabharata which deals with the birth of the Pandavas, Kauravas and other related aspects Duhshala married Jayadratha who was killed by the Pandavas during the Mahabharata war.

The eldest son of Gandhari and Dhritarashtra, Duryodhana is believed to be an avatar of demon Kali . • Duryodhana was the eldest son of Gandhari and Dhritarashtra. The literal meaning of Duryodhana is hard to conquer. He is believed to be an avatar of demon Kali who had bewitched the soul of Nala, forcing him to gamble away his kingdom. His younger brothers revered him. He was also an expert with mace weapons. Shakuni is considered to be the mentor of Duryodhana.

According to the myths, the birth of Duryodhana and other Kauravas was unique. Once Vyasa blessed Gandhari that she shall give birth to hundred children. When Gandhari became pregnant, her pregnancy continued for an unusually long period of time, she would beat her womb in frustration and would envy Kunti, the queen of Pandu, who had given birth to three of the five Pandavas.

Due to her actions, a hardened mass of flesh emerged from her womb. Gandhari was devastated, and worshipped Vyasa to help her out of this problem.

Vyasa then divided the flesh ball into one hundred equal pieces, and put them in pots of ghee, which were sealed and buried into the earth for one year. At the end of the year, the first pot was opened from which Duryodhana emerged followed by other Kauravas.

When Duryodhana was born, he seemed to be surrounded by bad omen. The elders of the kingdom like Vidhura and Bhishma advised Dhritarashtra to abandon the child. Infact, Vidhura predicted a violent end of the dynasty. However, Dhritarashtra was too attached to his first-born child and so did not abandon it.

As Duryodhana grew up, he was deemed to be very powerful. It was perceived that his body was made of thunder. Like Ravana ofRamayana, Duryodhana was well versed with the religious scriptures and was a scholar, but he too misused his knowledge.

He was jealous of the Pandavas, particularly Bhima who used to dominate the Kauravas in sport and skill, with his immense physical power and strength. Out of his intensive jealousy, Duryodhana also attempted to kill Bhima by poisoning his food, however Bhima was safe.

His affinity with Karna The one good characteristic of Duryodhana was his trust on Karna (illegitimate child of Kunti) whom he considered as his closest friend despite the caste difference. Duryodhanas affinity with Karna began when at the martial exhibition; the Kaurava and the Pandava princes demonstrated their skills before their elders, their guru Drona and the people of the kingdom. Meanwhile a great and effulgent warrior, Karna appeared and challenged Arjuna, who is considered by Drona to be the best of the warrior princes. But Karna was humiliated when Kripa asks him to ascertain his caste, as it would be inappropriate for unequal to compete.

Duryodhana immediately defended Karna, and made him the king of Anga so that he is regarded as Arjunas equal. Karna pledged his friendship to Duryodhana, as Duryodhana had rescued him from the source of continuing humiliation and hardship for him. Neither of them knew that Karna is in fact Kuntis eldest son born to Surya.

A very intense bond of friendship developed between the two, and Duryodhana became very close to Karna.

In the Kurukshetra War, Karna was Duryodhanas greatest hope for victory. He earnestly believed that Karna is superior to Arjuna, and that he could inevitably destroy him and his four brothers. While devoted to Duryodhana, Karna knows that even though his skills were as good as, if not better than Arjunas, he was incapable of killing Arjuna as he had Lord Krishna to protect him. When Karna got killed, Duryodhana mourned his death immensely.

The dice game When Dhritarashtra announced Yudhisthir as the heir to his throne, Duryodhana was left frustrated. To avoid any misunderstandings, Bhishma suggested to Dhritarashtra to divide the kingdom of Hastinapura. While the arid and barren land was handed over to Yudhisthir, Dhritarashtra kept the prosperous land for himself and his son. However, soon the Pandavas converted the land into a beautiful city called Indraprastha.

When the news of Indraprasthas beauty reached everywhere, Duryodhana decided to see the city personally. When he went to the Pandavas palace, he mistook water to be flooring and fell into the water. On seeing this Draupadi burst out laughing and insulted him by saying that, a blind mans son would obviously be blind. Duryodhana on hearing this remark left the city in anger. On reaching Hastinapura, Shakuni (Duryodhanas uncle) planned a plot through which he could forcibly take away all the belongings of the Pandavas.

Shakuni invited the Pandavas for the dice game. Shakuni who was an expert in the game was to play the game against Yudhisthir who was comparatively a novice in the game. As a result of this, Yudhisthir continuously lost the game to Shakuni. In the process he lost everything that he had kept at stake, which included his kingdom, his four brothers, himself and finally his wife too. To add to more insult Duryodhana ordered his brother Dushashana to get Draupadi to the forum. When Dushashana dragged Draupadi by her hair and tried to disrobe her, the elders in the forum were shocked and ashamed by Kauravas action. Draupadi was left humiliated. Unable to bear this injustice done to the Pandavas, Dhritarashtra and Bhishma made Duryodhana to return back everything back to Yudhisthir.

But when the plot was repeated, Shakuni set the condition that Yudhisthira and his brothers would have to spend thirteen years in exile in the forest before they may receive their kingdom back. He also stated that the thirteenth year must be passed incognito, or else they would be compelled to repeat the term of exile.

Kurukshetra battle When the Pandavas returned back after thirteen years of exile, they asked back for their kingdom. However, Duryodhana did not wish to give it back. Despite by being chided by his elders like Bhishma, Vidhura and Dhritarashtra, Duryodhana remained adamant on his decision. This made the outbreak of Kurukshetra battle inevitable.

By the look at Kauravas army as compared to that of Pandavas, one could have predicted an easy win for the Kauravas. The reason being that the Kauravas had invincible warriors like Bhishma, Drona, Kripa, Ashwathama, and Shalya. While Pandavas had only Krishna on their side. Duryodhana would constantly force Bhishma and Drona to blackmail the Pandavas or convince the Pandavas to play another game of dice. Not only this, he was involved in an unethical destruction of Abhimanyu- son of Arjuna.

But little did Duryodhana know that by engaging in unethical ways of battle, he was inviting distraught from the Pandavas side. The Kaurava side begin to slowly loose the battle with the death of stalwarts like Drona, Bhishma and even Karna (who was slain by Arjuna after days of valorious fight). Arjuna also killed atleast thousands of Kuru soliders in a single day to avenge the death of his son Abhimanyu. This made the Kauravas weak.

Duryodhanas hopes began to get shattered and after making some final desperate efforts, he fled the battlefield and hid near a lake, within which he survived by his mystic powers of yoga. He came out from the river only after Ashwathama and Kripa encouraged him to face his destiny with courage.

On learning that except for Duryodhana all her sons have been killed, Gandhari was left shocked. Despite knowing her sons evil tendencies, Gandhari out of motherly love decides to bless her son. After years of blindfolding her eyes out of respect for her blind husband, Gandhari- an ardent devotee of God Shiva, decided to remove her blindfold to use the great mystic power of her eyes in order to make every part of Duryodhanas body invincible to all attack. For this purpose, she called upon Duryodhana to her tent and told him to appear before her naked. As Duryodhana was entering the tent stark naked, Krishna who was just leaving her tent criticized Duryodhana who then covered his thigh and roin and appeared before his mother.

When Gandharis eyes fell on Duryodhanas body, she was shocked to see his thighs and groin covered. Hence, she could not bless his thighs and groin, which became susceptible to the enemys attack. On the fateful day when Duryodhana fought against Bhima, he began to get exhausted. Finally, on indication of Lord Krishna (who knew that Gandhari had not blessed his thigh and groin), Bhima hit Duryodhana on his thigh. The strike was so hard that it landed Duryodhana on the ground and proved fatal for him.

Before dying, Duryodhana argued that the means used by Bhima to kill him was illegal. To this, Krishna said that Duryodhana was not the right person to argue as not once in his lifetime did he follow the rules.

After the death of Duryodhana, the Pandavas cremated him.

Duryodhana did not return half the kingdom to pandavas when exile was over. He did not listen counsels of elders in his family and in Hastinapur court. This behaviour show bad side of character of Duryodhana which finally made the war inevitable. It was Duryodhana whose character leads to the war of Kurukshetra and mass destruction of Kuru race. He was repeatedly frustated when pandavas were leading in the war. His hope finally shattered when Karna was slayed and went to hide in a lake. He was slayed by Bhima when Bhima violated rules of single combat by attacking at his thigh. Thus the life of a most important character in the Mahabharata ended. His character is seen as person with evils and who brought upon destruction of his own race by his condemnable behaviour.