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.

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.

Duryodhana's hatred for the Pandavas stemmed from his sincere belief that he being the son of the eldest brother should be the heir apparent to the throne of Hastinapura.

He also bore a deep hatred of Bhima, who was younger and but stronger than he and dominated his brothers in sport and skill with his immense physical power and strength.

Using the boon granted to him by Dhritarashtra, Duryodhana made Karna king of Anga so that he was regarded as Arjuna's equal.

Neither of them knew that Karna was in fact Kunti's oldest son, born to (the sun god) Surya, before her marriage to Pandu.

Duryodhana then participated in a plot by Shakuni to burn the Pandavas in a house of wax at Varnavata; however, they managed to escape the trap having been warned by Vidura.

In the Shanti Parva, the divine sage Narada narrated the marriage of Duryodhana with the daughter of King Chitrangada of Kalinga.

On reaching Hastinapur, Duryodhana justified his act by giving the example of his grandfather Bhishma abducting three princesses of Kashi for his stepbrother.

Little is revealed about them in the Mahabharata other than Lakshmana Kumara's death in the Kurukshetra War and Lakshmanā's marriage to Krishna's son Samba.

[9][10] After the Pandavas revealed that they had survived the wax house, with a new wife to boot, Bhishma suggested that the kingdom be divided in order to ease the obvious tension.

Duryodhana became the crown prince of Hastinapura, and owing to the age and blindness of his father, he accumulated much control and influence, managing the state affairs himself with a group of his advisers that included his uncle Shakuni, brother Dushasana, Bhishma, Vidura, and Karna.

Moreover, Yudhishthira performed the Rajasuya Yagna and gained authority over several other kingdoms; Indraprastha's prosperity and fame appeared to exceed Hastinapura's.

Duryodhana was unable to contain his anger, which was intensified when Bhima, Arjuna, the twins and the servants laughed at him when he slipped into a pool of water during a visit to Indraprastha.

Unable to decline the invitation, due to diplomacy, Yudhishthira gambled away his entire kingdom, his wealth, his four brothers and even his wife, in a series of gambits to retrieve one by staking another.

After Yudhishthira lost Draupadi, On advise of Karna ,Duryodhana encouraged his brother Dushasana to drag her into the court as she was now his property.

But then (either through Duryodhana forcing his father to command the Pandavas to play again or through Shakuni's vicious tricks) the game was repeated.

When Bhima killed him for humiliating Draupadi, Duryodhana blamed Matsya's King Virata for his friend Kichaka's death.

He ordered his wife's cousin Susharma to attack Matsya from other side but they failed to conquer it because Arjuna and Bhima defended it.

At the end of the exile term, Duryodhana refused to return Yudhishthira's kingdom, despite the counsel of Bhishma, Dronacharya, and Vidura.

The entire Kaurava court, saved for Bhishma, Drona, Vidura, Kripa and Dhritarashtra (who was granted a divine vision in order to see that by supporting his son, he was going against God), was temporarily blinded by the form.

Duryodhana, being vastly egoistic (in some versions of the story an outright atheist), brushed off the incident, not convinced of Krishna's divinity, and believing that strength of arms, not philosophy, would win him a war.

The most powerful warriors – Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Ashwatthama, Kripa, Shalya, Bhurisravas, Bhagadatta, Vrishasena, Kritavarma even those who were critical of him were forced to fight for Duryodhana due to their previous commitments.

[22] On the eighteenth day of the war, with his army reduced to himself, Ashwatthama, Kripa and Kritvarma, Duryodhana went to meditate in a lake.

Instead, he offered 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 being the victor of the war.

Despite his proposed advantage over Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Nakula, or Sahadeva with the gada, Duryodhana picked his nemesis Bhima.

After having his face insultingly kicked by Bhima, Duryodhana moaned that he was slain by unfair means, given that it was illegal to attack below the waist in a mace fight.

Krishna consoled Balarama by reminding him of Duryodhana's evil deeds and reprimanded him for trying to influence a war he refused to participate in.

Ashwatthama promised Duryodhana that he would dispatch the Pandavas and their allies to the abode of Yama and requests his permission to continue the war.

[citation needed] Urubhangam is a Sanskrit play written by Bhasa in the 2nd or 3rd century AD with Duryodhana as its primary protagonist.