Duryodhana is the oldest son of King Dhrtarashtra and hence the head of the Kauravas, one of the two royal factions whose battle for dominance lies at the core of the Mahabharata, the later of the two major Hindu epics.
Duryodhana and his ninety-nine brothers had an unusual birth.
Gandhari, their mother, gives birth to a large lump of meat that is divided and placed in one hundred pots of clarified butter.
The lumps grow into babies in these pots.
When the court astrologers are asked to analyze the omens surrounding Duryodhana's birth, they decide that Duryodhana would be the destruction of the nation and his family, and that it would be better to leave him to the elements.
Dhrtarashtra is unable to do so due to fatherly impulses, which sets the scenario for the ultimate conflict.
Even though the story of the epic is driven by the hostility between Duryodhana and his cousins, the Pandavas, and the Kauravas are entirely decimated as a result of this animosity, it would be wrong to portray Duryodhana as an unredeemable villain.
He's more ill-starred than evil— arrogant, obstinate, unable to accept his faults, and, after a point, unwilling to give his cousins any benefit.
These weaknesses are amplified by his father Dhrtarashtra's lack of strong guidance, and they ultimately spell his demise.
Early on, a schism develops between the cousins, exacerbated in part by the fact that the Pandavas are more heroic than Duryodhana and his siblings.
Bhima, the Pandava sibling known for his great strength, used to lash all a hundred Kauravas at once when he was a youngster.
This, of course, does not endear him to them.
When their archery master, Drona, asks the capture of King Drupada as a preceptor's fee later in youth, the Pandava brother Arjuna succeeds, while Drupada defeats Duryodhana in combat.
Another schism arises when the Pandavas oppose Duryodhana's friend Karna's ability to join in an archery duel, alleging that Karna's unknown parentage disqualifies him from competing against monarchs.
Duryodhana sidesteps the problem by crowning Karna as King of Anga, but the feud between the cousins has already begun.
This terrible blood is seen in a variety of plots.
Duryodhana attempts to assassinate the Pandavas by constructing a flammable lac home for them, which is subsequently set on fire.
The Pandavas, on the other hand, manage to escape unscathed.
Later, Duryodhana seduces Yudhishthira (a Pandava brother) into a dice game.
Yudhishthira stakes all he has, including himself, his brothers, and their common wife Draupadi, and loses everything.
Duryodhana and his brother Duhshasana publicly ridicule Draupadi as a result of their defeat, and Bhima takes a solemn promise to murder them both.
Dhrtarashtra grants the Pandavas their independence, which they soon lose in yet another dice game.
As a result of their defeat, the Pandavas agree to spend twelve years in exile in the forest and the thirteenth year living in secret, with the caveat that if they are discovered in the thirteenth year, the cycle would begin all over again.
Despite Duryodhana's best efforts, the Pandavas manage to avoid discovery for the thirteenth year and send envoys to Duryodhana to claim their part of the kingdom at its conclusion.
Duryodhana responds, perhaps encouraged by Yudhishthira's remark that he and his brothers would be content with a meager five villages, that he will not give them enough land to fit under the tip of a needle.
The Pandavas prepare for battle in the face of such obstinacy and injustice in order to reclaim what is rightly theirs.
Duryodhana battles courageously throughout the war, but his armies dissolve around him over the eighteen days of warfare.
Duryodhana's last fight is with Bhima, who kills him by smashing his thigh with his mace in revenge for Duryodhana's previous insult to Draupadi (he had commanded her to sit on his thigh, which was a euphemism for the genitals).
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