20 Interesting & unknown facts about Kauravs!

11. Gandhari Boons Duryodhana: –

It is believed, Gandhari, his mother was thinking, “I must protect my son. This is cheating. With Krishna on their side, Pandavas will get victory.”

Gandhari thought, “I have my siddhi.” So, she said, “My dear Duryodhana, come and see me in the night without any clothes. When you stand before my eyes, I will take off the blindfold and by the force of my siddhi over the years, I will make you so strong that no one can touch you.”

Gandhari made a single exception to her blindfolded state, when she removed her blindfold to see her eldest son Duryodhana. She poured all her power into her son’s body in one glance, rendering Duryodhana’s entire body, except his loins, as strong as thunderbolt.

But Krishna foiled Gandhari’s plan by asking Duryodhana to cover up his privates before meeting his mother. So, at the end of it, Duryodhana’s thighs could not be strengthened because they were covered.

12. The Gada Yudh: –

On the eighteenth day of the war, with his army reduced to himself, Ashwatthama, Kripa and Kritvarma, Duryodhana goes to meditate in a lake. When the Pandavas and Krishna eventually find him, Duryodhana tells them that he wants to gift the kingdom to them, and retire to the forest. Yudhishthira balks at the offer, telling him that Hastinapur is not Duryodhana’s to gift. Instead, he offers that Duryodhana may pick any of the Pandava brothers to fight against one-to-one with a weapon of his choice, with the winner of the conflict the victor of the war.

Despite his proposed advantage over Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Nakula, or Sahadeva with the gada, Duryodhana picks his nemesis Bhima. Despite Bhima’s physical advantage, Duryodhana had the better technique due to his devotion to his craft. After a long and brutal battle between the two disciples of Balarama, Duryodhana begins to exhaust Bhima, and nearly makes Bhima faint. At this point, Krishna, observing the fight, calls out to Bhima and signals him by repeatedly clapping his own thigh with his hand. Bhima victoriously attacks Duryodhana with his mace and strikes his thigh, mortally wounding Duryodhana. After having his face insultingly kicked by Bhima, Duryodhana bemoans that he was slain by unfair means, given that it was illegal to attack below the waist in a mace fight.

13. Hastinapur The Land of Swarga: –

According to the Mahabharata, after entering the Svarga (heaven) with a human body on Indra’s invitation, Yudhishthira witnessed that Duryodhana “was seated on a beautiful throne and he shone with the splendour of the sun and around him stood in attendance the goddess of heroism and other entities of righteousness”. Yudhishthira found this insufferable and reminded the dwellers of Svarga about his sinful deeds.

Following that, Narada smiled at Yudhishthira and explained that Duryodhana had suffered for his sins, and that ultimately, Duryodhana was a warrior who had defended his dharma and fought bravely and valiantly, having been a great ruler, a true friend, and a terrible foe.

Since Kuru, the ancestor of the Hastinapur kingdom, had a boon that anyone of their heirs dying on their land would always reach heaven irrespective of their deeds, the Kauravas after their death were settled in heaven with their ancestors. 

14. Dussasana’s birth: –

Durvasa was the one through whose benevolent intervention Gandhari’s children were born. The fond father of Dussasana laid the infant in the sage’s lap, hoping that his son would get a blessing from him. The great sage kissed the infant and blessed that he has the strength of a thousand lions. Then as the infant cried and fidgeted a bit, his fist hit the sage in the chest, and he fainted. When he revived, he cursed him that his brother punishes him by dismembering his right arm in the battle: sodara saasti deu tote dakshina bhuja upaadi (“brother punish you by uprooting your right arm”), as Sarala put it. And the sage Vyasa smiled when Durvasa pronounced the curse. As one who knew the past and the future, Vyasa surely knew the script.

15. The previous Curse of Dussasana: –

The genesis of it all lay in something that had happened aeons and aeons ago – that was the dawn of creation, when from the residue things were to begin again. From the tears of Vishnu, who had opened eyes for a split second, emerged fifteen Brahmas, and then Vishnu closed his eyes and resumed his Yoga Nedra (“yogic posture”, literally “yogic sleep”). The Brahmas saw Saraswati at Vishnu’s head, and wanted sex with her. Angry, the mother goddess created Ketuka, and as the Brahmas surrounded her to sexually assault her, Saraswati asked her to devour them. One by one she devoured all but one, Sudraka Brahma, who prayed to Vishnu for protection. Vishnu asked Ketuka to spare him, but Saraswati intervened and told him that Sudraka was really wicked, and had sought sex with her. Vishnu asked her to spare him till the aeon of Dwapara. Ketuka, he told her, would be born as Draupadi then, and would have five Pandavas as her husband, and Sudraka Brahma would be born as Dussasana. He would torment her in public, and her husband Bhima would avenge her by dismembering him in the battlefield. He would pour his blood on her hair, and it would be then that she would savour his blood. The script was already there. Thus, as re-enactment of the past event, Dussasana’s torment of Draupadi had to have sexual overtones, reminiscent of the Brahmas’ attitude towards Ketuka.

16. It Was Him After All Durmasena: –

The son of Duhshasana who helped his father many times in the Kurukshetra war. He was also present inside the Chakra Vyuh on the thirteenth day of the war and killed Abhimanyu when he was bare handed with his mace. On the 14th day of the Kurukshetra war, when the battle continued after sunset he was killed by Bhima.

17. Ashwatthama The Chiranjivi by Curse of Lord Krishna: –

Along with Kripa and Kritavarma, Ashwatthama plans to attack the Pandavas camp at night. Ashwatthama proceeds with butchering the remaining warriors, including Shikhandi, Yudhamanyu, Uttamaujas, and many other prominent warriors of the Pandava army; many texts put an emphasis on his exploits against those from Panchal. He also kills Draupadi’s children in their sleep. Even as some soldiers try and fight back, Ashwatthama remains unharmed due his activated abilities as one of the eleven Rudras.

The Pandavas and Krishna who were away during night, now return to their camp the next day morning. Hearing the news of these events Yudhishthira faints and the Pandavas become inconsolable. Bhima angrily rushes to kill Drona’s son. They found him to sage Vyasa’s ashram near the bank of Bhagiratha.

The now triggered Ashwatthama invokes the Brahmastra against the Pandavas to fulfill the oath of killing them. Krishna asks Arjuna to fire the Brahmashirastra, the anti-missile, against Ashvatthama to defend themselves. Vyasa intervene and prevent the weapons from clashing against each other. He asks both Arjuna and Ashwatthama to take their weapons back. Arjuna, knowing how to do so takes it back. Out of rage, Ashwatthama instead directs the weapon towards the womb of the pregnant Uttara in an attempt to end the lineage of the Pandavas. The angered Pandavas want to kill Ashwatthama, but Sage Vyasa stopped them to do this.
As a reconciliation, Ashwatthama was asked by Vyasa to surrender the gem on his forehead to Pandavas.Since he is Rudra’s ansh, he is among the seven immortal beings (Chiranjivi).This event, with Ashwatthama retreating into the forest to start his exile, marked the end of the terrible Mahabharata war.

18. Jayadratha in Kurukshetra: –

After the incidence of abduction of Draupadi and then captured by Padavas…but he was let off by the Draupadi as she suggested that he was already treated like a slave…..After his humiliation at the hands of Pandavas, Jayadratha gives control of his kingdom to his wife and did severe penance towards Lord Shiva. Pleased with his austerities, Shiva appears before him and grants him a boon, Jayadratha asked, ‘May I be able to defeat in battle all the five sons of Pandu on their chariots!’. Shiva, however, told him ‘This cannot be as it is destined for combination of Krishna and Arjuna cannot be defeated in any war. Still unchanged, to his wish, Jayadratha asked that he must cause a paramount destruction to Pandavas. The lord twisted his word and gave the boon that ” For any one whole day of his choice, during the oncoming war, Jayadratha can beat any warrior from the opposite side, except Arjuna”. Saying these words, the consort of Uma, vanishes with his followers. Jayadratha returns to ruling his kingdom and waiting for that one day. 2 years later, naturally, Jayadratha fights on the side of his brother-in-law Duryodhana in the Kurukshetra War. On the 1st day of the Mahabharata war, in the noon he defeated King Drupada, but spares him. On the 13th day of the Mahabharata war, when the chakravyuha is launched by Dronacharya, Jayadratha makes use of Lord Shiva’s boon and invokes his supreme strength. Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu manages to enter the formation; he intends for the Pandava forces to follow after him and smash the formation from the inside. Jayadratha moves to close the gap, and is able to hold all of the Pandava brothers and their forces at bay with ease. As part of Drona’s strategy, Arjuna and Krishna are busy battling Susharma and the Trigata Army elsewhere. Abhimanyu, who does not know how to exit from the chakravyuha, is trapped and brutally killed by the Kaurava Warriors in a combined attack, and the day ends.

The Pandavas are startled after finding that Jayadratha was able to hold the world’s most powerful warriors at bay. In particular, Draupadi, Yudhishthira, and Bhima feel very guilty for not killing Jayadratha when they did have the chance. Arjuna blames Jayadratha to be the cause for Abhimanyu’s death. He vows to kill him the very next day before sunset, failing which Arjuna would kill himself by jumping in a pyre of fire. This sets the stage for the epic 14th day of battle.

19. Arjuna’s Revenge from Jayadratha: –

Dronacharya arranged a combination of 3 vyuhas in order to protect Jayadratha from Arjuna.

Bhima, Satyaki and Arjuna tear through the Kaurava army. But it was clear that Arjuna couldn’t accomplish the goal before the sunset. At a climactic moment, with the sun nearly set and thousands of warriors still between Arjuna and Jayadratha, Krishna sends his Sudarshana Chakra in order to mask the sun and create an illusion of sunset. The Kaurava warriors rejoice over Arjuna’s defeat and look forward for his imminent suicide. Jayadratha was hiding behind Duryodhana, relieved that he was saved. Therefore, he came out of the formation. Suddenly the sun was free from the eclipse and Krishna tells Arjuna, pointing at the sun that the sun had not set, but it was only a solar eclipse. He then pointed at the hiding Jayadratha, telling Arjuna to sever his head. He then tells Arjuna to shoot the head into the lap of Jayadratha’s father. Arjuna then quickly picked up his Gandiva and shot an Aindrastra at Jayadratha. Jayadratha’s head than flew away very far and landed on lap of his father, Vridhakshatra. His father, being a sage had granted him a boon that whosoever will be responsible for his son’s severed head to fall onto the ground will have his head burst into 100 pieces. Therefore, when his father, horrified at having his son’s head in his lap, hurriedly got up, the severed head fell to the ground, killing Vridhakshatra at the same moment.

20. Aftermath of Kauravas only sister, Dushala: –

Dushala was actually married to Jayadhrata. Now Dushala felt lonely after her husband’s death. After the Mahabharata War ended, her son, Suratha was made the king of Sindhu. Once, the Pandavas raided Sindhu, and Arjuna slayed Suratha. Arjuna felt shattered with the death, as he cared for Dushala, and he had killed her only son. Hence, in order to compensate, he left Sindhu to Suratha’s son (Dushala’s grandson)

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