Duryodhana

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Duryodhana" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Duryodhana
Duryodhana (center, wearing blue) disrespects Krishna, who has come as an envoy before the Kurukshetra War, painting by Raja Ravi Varma
Information
Aliases	Suyodhana
Affiliation	Kaurava
Weapon	Gada (mace)
Family	Dhritarashtra (father) Gandhari (mother) Dushasana, Vikarna, and 97 more (brothers) Dushala (sister) Yuyutsu (half-brother)
Spouse	Princess of Kalinga
Children	Lakshmana Kumara and Lakshmanaa
Relatives	Pandavas (paternal half cousins) Shakuni (maternal uncle)

Duryodhana (Sanskrit: दुर्योधन, IAST: Duryodhana), also known as Suyodhana,^[1][2] 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.