Your thoughts on yudhishtra

Share what do you think of dharmraj mahagyaani yudhishtra.

Suffice it to say I strongly dislike him. Will add the points later.

First of all, let me say I don't believe in divine hogwash ie he brought his brothers to life, his akshay patra thing, he went to swarg alone with the dog etc. I believe these are either painted in divine light or interpolations.

i don't like him, though I prefer him over the Kauravas.

Most important IMO, Yudhishthira's dharma is a product of an extremely flawed system of monarchial hierarchy. It is a product of patriarchy, of societal hierarchy, of class discrimination and of absolute monarchy. Let me explain. Dwapar Yug is an era where what other kings do, what is the "parampara" and what is acceptable to preserve the hierarchy is considered LAW aka Dharma. Please note, Yudhishthir's dharma is not like the Indian Constitution which is same for all and is universal law. Do not see this from the lens of socialism and democracy. I would like to draw attention to how unfair some of the laws were and that there was no existing written code of law. It isn't even Chanakya's Arthshaastra. Ancient India went via laws as prescribed by previous generations, hence loopholes were plenty. A man who is a clear product of the system, of patriarchal hierarchy and of societal restoration of order is not likeable for me. Hence, he is definitely Dharmaraj, but his dharma - is it really Dharma? And what is Dharma? The answer to such questions have been painted in divinity by the likes of demigods and royalty. Does common people play a part? No. Why then, is dharma of Dwapar Yuga equated with what is right as per morality. Isn't morality subjective? It is.

Apart from this,

Firstly, what he did in the dice hall is unforgiveable. Nothing of his dharma path, forgiveness or anything else will cover this up. He was a gambler, he gambled away his whole empire, got his wife humiliated and watched quietly. I don't care how many Yaksha questions he answered but someone who does this to a woman, as a woman I can't bring myself to like him. Moreover, his words in Virat Parva when Draupadi complains about Keechak is basically what patriarchal privileged men say - don't do drama and go back to your room. (Paraphrasing)

Secondly, he always lived and feasted on the success of his brothers. If you follow closely, Bheem and Arjun are the ones who did all the important things - winning wars, forming alliances etc.

Thirdly, he was spineless. Imagine asking YOUR WIFE to forgive the ones who assaulted and humiliated you. Reminds me of those who say let it go when a woman is sexually harassed.

I'll add more when I can.

Juari

And other words I can't say due to rules of IF

There r few characters I really don’t like from mahabharat and he s on of them, I really don’t like this man and his so called dharma, he s anything but dharmaraj for me.

u cant go and stake ur kingdom just like that, he s a king and he s respnsible for his citizens, this kingdom s hard earned by his brothers and innocent citizens depended on him. Here he failed as a king, people might say it’s dwapar yug and he has right, no even in dwapar yug he s king, a father to his people u can’t gamble them away just like that.

And next u can’t just stake ur brothers just like that, they r people not some things, he took advantage of their love and loyalty towards him, here he failed as big brother.

And the worst one comes here, he just went on and staked his wife, can’t he see what game his cousins r playing here, u can’t just stake ur wife that too ur lawfully wedded wife , a woman for god sake, but he did, not only that the worst thing s he went on described her physically while staking from her height to breasts and naval what not inch by inch he described her here, what was he thinking by doing this, simple it’s crystal clear show off, look what I have what a beautiful wife I have , I might have lost everything but I still have the most beautiful woman, what r we supposed to say this man here I have no words frankly.

Another one s he shamelessly asks her come to dice hall exposing her naval and beg mercy to bheeshma and maharaj, now y should she come like that, now how can we ever justify him here.

When duryodhan says if atleast one pandava speaks against this i ll give her freedom back, if yudi wants he can say he s wrong but he didn’t because he knows if he does that people ll never accept him as king and ll never call him dharmaraj, here he wants to protect his misplaced dharma over his wife honour. H s a big failure as husband here.

In virat parva when keechak harasses her he simply says don’t do drama here go to inner quarters , now atleast show some sympathy to her, and even asks her forgive those men who harassed her, he simply doesn’t care about her honor.

i am sure he might have done gud deeds also, but personally a big no from me.

Acc. to me almost everybody in mahabharat had a faulty sense of Dharma except krishnaji ofcourse.Now coming to Yudi ,I never understood why he was called dharamraj by answering yaksha questions then it is just bookish knowledge nothing else .See we all know about his role in dice hall so there is nothing to exaggerate.Here he was mediocre king, brother and husband.Now coming to keechak incident then I would have supported him if he hadn't use the words like-Draupadi u should bear it as u r wife of great warriors by saying that he was protecting her in a way that if by any chance they were found then they had to wait for her revenge for more years but the words😠😠.And now coming to swargrohan part then he was punished only for that ridiculous lie and not for dice hall etc then it is bullshit.Now coming to his role as king after war then nothing is given but I personally believe that without his brothers(krishnaji also) he would have never became an emperor.

Thoughts on Yudhisthira?

Scoundrel, passive aggressive, selfish, unnecessarily glorified, useless, jealous, judgemental, hypocrite.

For Yudhisthira, this one line applies: Following by the letter of law, not in spirit.

Again, like I said about Karna, give me Duryodhana any day...at least he is what he is.

Originally posted by: CaptainSpark

First of all, let me say I don't believe in divine hogwash ie he brought his brothers to life, his akshay patra thing, he went to swarg alone with the dog etc. I believe these are either painted in divine light or interpolations.

i don't like him, though I prefer him over the Kauravas.

1) same though i think these were just metaphor which were mistranslated 😛Colored Text and over the years had taken a shape of something completely different.

Most important IMO, Yudhishthira's dharma is a product of an extremely flawed system of monarchial hierarchy. It is a product of patriarchy, of societal hierarchy, of class discrimination and of absolute monarchy. Let me explain. Dwapar Yug is an era where what other kings do, what is the "parampara" and what is acceptable to preserve the hierarchy is considered LAW aka Dharma. Please note, Yudhishthir's dharma is not like the Indian Constitution which is same for all and is universal law. Do not see this from the lens of socialism and democracy. I would like to draw attention to how unfair some of the laws were and that there was no existing written code of law. It isn't even Chanakya's Arthshaastra. Ancient India went via laws as prescribed by previous generations, hence loopholes were plenty. A man who is a clear product of the system, of patriarchal hierarchy and of societal restoration of order is not likeable for me. Hence, he is definitely Dharmaraj, but his dharma - is it really Dharma? And what is Dharma? The answer to such questions have been painted in divinity by the likes of demigods and royalty. Does common people play a part? No. Why then, is dharma of Dwapar Yuga equated with what is right as per morality. Isn't morality subjective? It is.

2) i agree. Yudhishtra stood for everything that ancient Indian preached and practice , all the societal norms that existed more to safeguard the interest and status of kings of those times rather than to look in public interest. Everything that was wrong. Everything that ultimately led to the great war to the ultimate doom. To the most heinous crime you can commit. Probably that is the reason he never says that he did wrong because he didn't. Because according to him he followed what "dharma" or rather norms of those time preached that he had right over everything and everyone in his empire in his family who he can gamble away like an object

Apart from this,

Firstly, what he did in the dice hall is unforgiveable. Nothing of his dharma path, forgiveness or anything else will cover this up. He was a gambler, he gambled away his whole empire, got his wife humiliated and watched quietly. I don't care how many Yaksha questions he answered but someone who does this to a woman, as a woman I can't bring myself to like him. Moreover, his words in Virat Parva when Draupadi complains about Keechak is basically what patriarchal privileged men say - don't do drama and go back to your room. (Paraphrasing)

3) He was a gambler through and through. In the dice hall extremely desperate to win. Probably the success of imperial campaign went to his head

The guy never regrets never accept his mistake because according to those times being a king he had the "right" to do whatever he did. When drapaudi points out to his duty as a king of establishing a just system and punishing the wrong doers he rebukes and mocks her in return.

Secondly, he always lived and feasted on the success of his brothers. If you follow closely, Bheem and Arjun are the ones who did all the important things - winning wars, forming alliances etc.

4) He was shrewd that way. Knew his brother s nerves. Held their reins in his hands and exactly knew how to get his job done.

Thirdly, he was spineless. Imagine asking YOUR WIFE to forgive the ones who assaulted and humiliated you. Reminds me of those who say let it go when a woman is sexually harassed.

I'll add more when I can.

Originally posted by: swathi90

There r few characters I really don’t like from mahabharat and he s on of them, I really don’t like this man and his so called dharma, he s anything but dharmaraj for me.

u cant go and stake ur kingdom just like that, he s a king and he s respnsible for his citizens, this kingdom s hard earned by his brothers and innocent citizens depended on him. Here he failed as a king, people might say it’s dwapar yug and he has right, no even in dwapar yug he s king, a father to his people u can’t gamble them away just like that.

And next u can’t just stake ur brothers just like that, they r people not some things, he took advantage of their love and loyalty towards him, here he failed as big brother.

And the worst one comes here, he just went on and staked his wife, can’t he see what game his cousins r playing here, u can’t just stake ur wife that too ur lawfully wedded wife , a woman for god sake, but he did, not only that the worst thing s he went on described her physically while staking from her height to breasts and naval what not inch by inch he described her here, what was he thinking by doing this, simple it’s crystal clear show off, look what I have what a beautiful wife I have , I might have lost everything but I still have the most beautiful woman, what r we supposed to say this man here I have no words frankly.

Another one s he shamelessly asks her come to dice hall exposing her naval and beg mercy to bheeshma and maharaj, now y should she come like that, now how can we ever justify him here.

When duryodhan says if atleast one pandava speaks against this i ll give her freedom back, if yudi wants he can say he s wrong but he didn’t because he knows if he does that people ll never accept him as king and ll never call him dharmaraj, here he wants to protect his misplaced dharma over his wife honour. H s a big failure as husband here.

In virat parva when keechak harasses her he simply says don’t do drama here go to inner quarters , now atleast show some sympathy to her, and even asks her forgive those men who harassed her, he simply doesn’t care about her honor.

i am sure he might have done gud deeds also, but personally a big no from me.

I loathe him completely. Exactly he failed as a king. He failed to maintain the faith that his citizens showed in him he failed to live upto the expectation that the entire Aryavarth put onto him when they agreed to accept his supremacy. How can one go and gamble away everything just like that. The kingdom also belonged to the empress krishna who worked so hard to maintain it. The kingdom also belonged to his four brothers who toiled hard throughout the imperial campaign . And a his citizens. He failed all of them.

The guy was a gambler and extremely overconfident and self centered.

Absolutely. He was the symbol of the system of orthodox culture and here is a little bit of more explanation-

For instance -

Gambling his empire - This means as per Dwapar standards, he had "rightful ownership" over his kingdom, and he supported this, he used this for the sake of satisfying in own greed for more, his addiction. What happened to this so called DHARMA which allows citizens to be OWNED by the ruler? This is a flawed system and he was a product and symbol of this hierarchy, which I do not support.

Staking his wife/asking her to put up with Keechak- Ownership over wife, and to such an extent that he decides to take the privilege of patriarchy and stake her. I am not accepting "Shakuni told him to", which brings me to my next point ie

Respecting everyone elder by age/position - It is again a spoof to keep masses in check, and the attempt to minimize questioning the King and your elders. Yudhishthir knew what was happening is wrong. What excuse is "listening to elders" when they are wrong. If your king tells you to rape someone, would you? Respect should be for the person, not the position or the age.

King is God- Almost related to the above point, let me explain the term absolute monarchy. It means the king is absolute and the representative of God on earth. Later, Hobbes the political scientist also spoke of this. Divinity is a shield here used by the kings, Yudhishthir did this very well. He painted himself as the epitome of Dharma, as he was born of "God Dharma" so of course, rep of the Supreme on Earth. Note that Krishna never fed this to people, people believed it. But Yudhishthir did this for himself, hence contributed to a system of flawed values.

He never had his own thoughts, it was all system driven and that too he gained absolutely nothing out of it.