Kauravas

Duryodhana

दुर्योधन

The Eldest Kaurava

Who was Duryodhana?

Duryodhana was the eldest son of the blind king Dhritarashtra and Queen Gandhari in the Mahabharata, and the Pandavas' rival for the Kuru throne. His refusal to share the kingdom, from the house of lac through the dice game to his last mace duel, drives the family to war.

Quick Facts

Key facts about Duryodhana
Sanskrit nameदुर्योधन
Title / EpithetThe Eldest Kaurava
FactionKauravas
Key traitsAmbitious, Proud, Jealous
Featured in320 stories
Also known asSuyodhana
FatherDhritarashtra
MotherGandhari
TeacherDrona; Balarama for the mace
WeaponMace
Killed byBhima
Died atSamantapanchaka, Kurukshetra

About Duryodhana

Born from a hundred jars

Gandhari carried her pregnancy for two years. When she heard that Kunti had already borne a son, she struck her own womb and delivered a hard mass of flesh, which Vyasa divided into a hundred and one portions and kept in jars of ghee. Duryodhana came out first. At his birth he cried like an ass and jackals and vultures answered, and Vidura urged the king to abandon the child for the family's sake. Dhritarashtra could not do it.

The poison and the house of lac

Raised beside the Pandavas, he hated Bhima most. He fed him poisoned food and threw him bound into the Ganga, and Bhima came back from the world of the Nagas stronger than before. Duryodhana learned arms from Drona and the mace from Balarama. At the tournament he crowned Karna king of Anga and won a friend for life. When Yudhishthira was named heir apparent, he had the minister Purochana build a house of lac at Varanavata to burn the Pandavas and their mother, and they escaped through a tunnel.

The crystal floor and the dice

At Yudhishthira's imperial sacrifice in Indraprastha, the hall built by Maya fooled him: he lifted his robe over a floor he took for water and fell into water he took for floor, and Bhima and the servants laughed. The taunt about the blind son of a blind father, often put in Draupadi's mouth, comes from later retellings. With his uncle Shakuni he invited Yudhishthira to dice, won the kingdom, the brothers and Draupadi, and bared his thigh to her in the hall, drawing Bhima's vow to break it. In the exile years he rode to Dvaitavana to flaunt his wealth, was captured by the gandharva Chitrasena and freed by Arjuna, and in his shame resolved to starve himself until the Danavas talked him out of it.

Not a needle's point of land

When Krishna came as envoy, Duryodhana refused even five villages and said he would not give up as much land as the point of a needle could pierce. He then plotted to take Krishna prisoner. With eleven armies against seven he lost his commanders one by one: Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Shalya. On the eighteenth day he hid in the Dvaipayana lake, holding the water still by his art, until taunts brought him out to fight Bhima with the mace. He was the better fighter, but at Krishna's signal Bhima struck him on the thigh, a blow the rules forbade. Lying with his thighs broken, he made Ashwatthama commander, and died after hearing of the night raid on the Pandava camp.

The king who would not yield

The epic lets him speak for himself. Dying, he accused Krishna of winning by deceit and said he had ruled, given and fought as a king should. Yudhishthira later found him in heaven, seated in splendour for having died a warrior's death. He is the Mahabharata's portrait of envy, but not a simple villain, and readers still argue how much of the ruin was his alone.

Read the episodes

The stories on this site that Duryodhana's life above is drawn from, in reading order.

  1. The Birth of the Princes
  2. The Tournament of Champions
  3. The House of Lac and the Demons
  4. The Palace of Illusions
  5. The Dice Game
  6. The Ghosha Yatra
  7. The Messenger of Peace
  8. Duryodhana's Last Stand

In Their Words

It is clear that this son of yours will bring about the destruction of this lineage.

Duryodhana

Traits

  • Ambitious
  • Proud
  • Jealous

320 tales on this site name Duryodhana, in canonical reading order.

Places in Duryodhana's Story

Drawn from the stories Duryodhana appears in.

Others counted among the Kauravas.