Yudhiṣṭhira
Sign in to saveAlso known as Dharmaputra, Dharmarāja
Yudhishthira (), also known as Dharmaputra () and Dharmaraja (), was the eldest among the five Pandavas, and is also one of the central characters of the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata. He was the king of Indraprastha and later the King of the Kuru kingdom in the epic.
Key facts
- Character.name
- Yudhishthira
- Character.image
- Yudhisthira and His Dog, Ascending.jpg
- Character.caption
- Yudhishthira entering heaven alive with his dog, painting by Nandalal Bose, c. 1913
- Character.weapon
- Bow and arrow, Javelin
- Character.spouse
- Draupadi Devika
- Character.family
- Dharma (father)Pandu (adoptive father)Kunti (mother)Madri (step-mother) (brothers)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Yudhisthira
- present in work
- Mahabharata
- described by source
- Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
- name in native language
- युधिष्ठिर
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~34 min read
Encyclopedic overview
24 sectionsContents
- Etymology and historicity
- Birth and early life
- Boyhood
- Youth
- Marriages
- Ruling the Indraprastha
- Rajasuya
- The game of dice
- Exile
- Obtaining the Akshaya Patra
- Tale of Nala and Damayanti
- Yudhishthira and Nahusha
- Yudhishthira and Markandeya
- Yaksha Prashna
- Ajñātavāsa
- Kurukshetra war
- Yudhishthira's curse
- Reign after the war
- Retirement and ascent to heaven
- Assessment
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
Yudhishthira (), also known as Dharmaputra () and Dharmaraja (), was the eldest among the five Pandavas, and is also one of the central characters of the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata. He was the king of Indraprastha and later the King of the Kuru kingdom in the epic.
Yudhishthira was the son of Kunti, the first wife of King Pandu, fathered by the personification of Dharma, due to a curse preventing Pandu from having children. Yudhishthira held a strong belief in dharma (morals and virtues) and was chosen as the crown prince of Kuru. However, after the Lakshagriha incident, he was presumed dead and his cousin Duryodhana was appointed as the new heir. The kingdom was split in half due to a succession dispute between Yudhishthira and Duryodhana. Yudhishthira received the barren half, which he later transformed into the magnificent city of Indraprastha.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Yudhiṣṭhira” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.