Duryodhana

Duryodhana, also known as Suyodhana, is the primary antagonist in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He was the eldest of the Kauravas, the hundred sons of the king Dhritarashtra and his queen Gandhari. Being the first-born son of the king, he was the crown prince of the Kuru Kingdom and its capital of Hastinapura, often forced into ceding the title to his cousin Yudhishthira, who was one of the Pandava brothers and older than he. Aided by his maternal uncle Shakuni, Duryodhana tricked the Pandavas into surrendering their kingdom and forced them to go into exile. Later, Duryodhana waged the Kurukshetra War against his cousins and was helped by the warriors Bhishma, Drona and Karna. On the eighteenth day of the war, he was killed by Bheema. Duryodhana used his greater skill in wielding the mace to defeat his opponents. He was also an extremely courageous warrior but his greed and arrogance were the two qualities said to have led to his downfall. Birth When Gandhari's pregnancy continued for an unusually long period of time, Her mother-in-law Ambika and Ambalika were very upset with her. Pandu and Kunti earlier bore a son whom they named Yudhishthira. So 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 "Shata Putra Praptirasthu" (Sanskrit for "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 milk, 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. Early years