DUDRYODHANA under DHRITHARASHTRA
Blind King Dhritarashtra of
Hasthinapura and and his wife Queen Gandhari from Gandhar got hundred
children. That is more magical than the Pandava story of Kunti. Gandhari's pregnancy continued for an
unusually long period of time, she beat her womb in frustration. This caused a
hardened mass of grey-coloured flesh to issue from her womb. She
implored Vyasa, the great sage who had blessed her as "shatha putra
praptirasthu" ("blessed with a hundred sons"), to redeem his
words. Vyasa divided the ball of flesh into one hundred and one equal pieces,
and put them in pots of ghee, which were sealed and buried into the earth
for two years. At the end of the second year, the first pot was opened, and
Duryodhana emerged. Followed by other brothers and a sister of Duryodhana.
Duryodhana (Dur = Extremely
hard + Yodhana = Yudh/Fight), the one
with whom the fight is extremely hard. He is also known as Suyodhana, is a
major character in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
Duryodhana's hatred for the Pandavas
stems from his sincere belief that he being the son of the eldest
brother and the then king is the heir apparent to the throne of
Hastinapura. Because of his blindness, his father had to renounce the throne in
favor of the younger brother, Pandu. Duryodhana deeply believed that what
was rightfully his was being given away to his older cousin Yudhishthira.
He also felt that the Pandavas were sons of Kunti and (devas/deities), not
of Pandu. He never believed that their divine origin alone proved their
superiority, on many occasions questioning their merits, and always calling
them the 'Kaunteya' (sons of Kunti). He also bore a deep hatred of Bhima,
who was younger than him but much stronger and dominated his brothers in sport
and skill with his immense physical power and strength. When they were young,
Bhima's bullying and taunting was a constant source of pain for Duryodhana and
his brothers.
Learning martial skills from his
gurus Dronacharya, he proved to be extremely skilled with the mace.
He then went to specialize in mace fighting under Balarama and went
on to become his favorite pupil. Balarama described Duryodhana's body
to be "lightning made flesh" and declares him to be the greatest mace
fighter of his generation.
During their childhood Bhima used his
brute strength to inflict injuries on the Kaurava brothers. As Bhima
was gluttonous, Duryodhana, guided by Shakuni attempted to kill Bhima by
feeding him poison, but Bhima survived the trap and emerged even stronger than
before. Duryodhana then participated in a plot by Shakuni to burn the
Pandavas in a house of wax at Varnavata; however, they managed to escape the
trap having been warned by Vidura.
After the Pandavas reveal that they have
survived the wax house, with a new wife to
boot, Bhishma suggests that the kingdom be divided in order to ease
the obvious tension. Yudhishthira is given half the kingdom and made
king of Khandavprastha, so as to avoid a clash with the Kaurava princes
over the whole Kuru Kingdom. Duryodhana becomes the crown prince
of Hastinapura, and owing to the age and blindness of his father, he
accumulates much control and influence, managing the state affairs himself with
a group of his advisers that include his uncle Shakuni,
brother Dushasana, Bhishma, Vidura, and Karna.
At the martial exhibition where
the Kaurava and Pandava princes demonstrate their skills
before their elders, their guru Drona and the people of that
kingdom, Karna appears and challenges an
unsuspecting Arjuna, who is considered by Drona to be the
best of the princes. But Karna is stopped when Kripa asks him to ascertain his lineage,
as it would be inappropriate for unequal to compete. Karna, not being a kshatriya, hangs his head in shame.
Duryodhana immediately defends Karna,
arguing that it is actions, and not birth, that defines a warrior. Using the
boon granted to him by Dhritarashtra, Duryodhana makes Karna king
of Anga so that he is regarded as Arjuna's equal. Karna pledges his
allegiance and friendship to Duryodhana. Neither of them know that Karna is in
fact Kunti's oldest son, born to (sun god) Surya, before her marriage to Pandu.
Duryodhana remains jealous of
Yudhishthira, especially after the Pandavas along
with Krishna transform Khandavaprastha to Indraprastha.
Moreover, Yudhishthira performs the Rajasuya Yagna and gains the
authority over several other kingdoms; Indraprastha's prosperity and fame
appear to exceed Hastinapura's. Duryodhana is unable to contain his anger,
which is intensified when Bhima, Arjuna, the twins, and the servants
laugh at him when he slips into a pool of water during a visit to Indraprastha.
In popular culture, television shows and
post-modern novels on Mahabharata attribute this blame
to Draupadi with an added statement "the son of the blind man
also is blind", but the scene in the canonical text of Vyasa's Sanskrit
epic is different. This enrages Duryodhana and increases his hostility towards
the Pandavas.
Raging in jealousy by the prosperity and
fame of Indraprashta, and being humiliated by the Pandavas, makes Duryodhana
furious and he wishes to throw down the Pandavas. To support his will,
Shakuni devises a scheme to rob Yudhishthira of his kingdom and wealth by
defeating him in a game of dice, which Shakuni cannot lose due to his
superior skill over Yudhishthira's ineptitude and addiction to the game of
dice.
Unable to resist the challenge,
Yudhishthira gambles away his entire kingdom, his wealth, his four brothers and
even his wife, in a series of gambits to retrieve one by staking another.
Duryodhana encourages his brother Dushasana to drag Draupadi into the court. As
she is Duryodhana's property after Yudhishthira gambled everything away to him,
Duryodhana tells Draupadi to sit on his left thigh, showing and patting it to
insult her for revenge. He also instructs Dushasana to disrobe her, however,
she is saved by Krishna. Due to this action, Bhima swears he would break
Duryodhana's thigh.
As an enraged Draupadi is about to curse
the Kuru clan, Gandhari intervenes. Fearing retribution by the
Pandavas, their allies, and history, Dhritarashtra and Gandhari
reverse all of Yudhishthira's losses. But then (either through Duryodhana
forcing his father to command the Pandavas to play again, or through Shakuni's
vicious tricks) the game is repeated. For this game of dice Shakuni sets the
condition that upon losing, Yudhishthira and his brothers must spend thirteen
years in exile in the forest before they may reclaim their kingdom. The
thirteenth year must be passed incognito, or else the term of exile would be
repeated. The Pandavas lose and begin their exile.
In the Chaturdhari compilation, it is
interpolated that Karna took up the task of establishing Duryodhana
as the Emperor of the world (India). Karna embarks upon a worldwide military
campaign, otherwise called Digvijaya Yatra. Bringing tribute and
allegiance from all the kings ruling over in then India except Dwarika, Karna
helped Duryodhana to perform the Vaishnava yajna to
please Vishnu and crown Duryodhana as "Emperor of the
World", as Yudhishthira did with the Rajasuya Yagna. No person in the
entire universe, except Lord Vishnu, had performed this Vaishnava sacrifice.
Duryodhana thus became the most powerful and the wealthiest man in the world.
With the help of Karna, Duryodhana even made plans and preparations to
conquer Indra, the lord of the heavens and the father
of Arjuna in order to become the sovereign ruler of both heaven and
earth.
At the end of the exile term, Duryodhana
refuses to return Yudhishthira's kingdom, despite the counsel
of Bhishma, Dronacharya, and Vidura.
Although Dhritarashtra openly criticizes his son, he tacitly desires
that Duryodhana retain his throne. In a final attempt at securing
peace, Krishna returns with the Pandavas' final proposal:
the Pandavas would give up all claims
to Indraprastha and Hastinapura in exchange for five
villages. Scoffing, Duryodhana says he will not even give even a needlepoint of
land to the Pandavas. Egged on by Krishna, Duryodhana attempts to arrest him.
Krishna reveals his Vishvarupa form. The
entire Kaurava court, save for Bhishma, Drona, Vidura, and
Dhritarashtra (who was granted divine vision in order to see that by supporting
his son, he was going against God), is temporarily blinded by the form.
This confirms to those present that Krishna is indeed
an avatar of Vishnu. Duryodhana, being vastly egoistic (in some
versions of the story an outright atheist), brushes off the incident, not
convinced of Krishna's divinity, and believing that strength of arms,
not philosophy, would win him a war.
Gandhari always kept asking her son to
take the right path and Duryodhana kept answering “Mother, I know what is right
and I am not able to follow; I know what is wrong and I kept following that. As
my desire is what leads me and I am not able to control it.” No wonder the son
of a blind father (symbolically -
philosophically) can not follow righteous path.
200126 – 2020 January 26
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