Duryodhan- A Misunderstood Character Or Not? - Page 6

"When Samba forcibly took away Laksmana, the elder members of the Kuru dynasty were pleased to see that he was actually the suitable match for her."🤔🤔🤔

I was under the impression Laxmana desired Sambha in the Swyamvar and Kurus rejected him. As per Kshatriya Dharma, abducting a bride is legal only when the bride gives her consent. This one was pretty illegal and IMO it was completely wrong on the part of Balram and Yadus to force their will upon Kauravas and Laxmana in particular. So the moral of the story is - Might is Right.
Edited by Darklord_Rehan - 12 years ago

Rehan

I responded to your post here, rather than hijack the quiz show of name the character (where your turn is next 😆)

Actually, if one combines this w/ what Duryodhan did to Lakshmanaa's mother Bhanumati, it turns out to be poetic justice.  As one may know, Bhanumati was having a swayamvara where Duryodhan wasn't invited, but like Bheeshma did in case of Amba/Ambika/Ambalika, Duryodhan, w/ Karna went there and seized Bhanumati against her will.  He then put her on his chariot and rode off w/ her, while Karna routed all the other suitors, leaving Bhanumati w/ Hobson's choice.  In the link that Shivang/Urmila provided, once a girl was even touched by another man, she was unfit to be married to other men.  As a result, Bhanumati was stuck w/ Duryodhan.

Fast forward to Lakshmanaa's swayamvar, and Samba came there and did exactly what Duryodhan had done, but he was surrounded by the Kauravas and captured (the link that Shivang provided had to be inaccurate, since the Pandavas were in exile at the time and Arjun therefore was nowhere around: also, there was no way Arjun would ever have taken Duryodhan's side against a member of Krishna's family, so whoever wrote that originally did some careless writing.  Besides, Krishna was in the forest w/ the Pandavas, which is why Balarama was asked to rescue Samba.)  I'm just puzzled about what the Kauravas planned to do w/ Samba - make him a ghar-jamai?  There was no way Lakshmanaa's swayamvara could be resumed and she could marry her choice, and if Samba was killed, she'd simply be either widowed, or single for life.

Also, when Balarama came, did he try to get back just Samba, or Samba w/ Lakshmanaa as well?  I thought it was just the former, in which case, he was perfectly justified, since Samba didn't belong to Hastinapur, and the 2 states weren't enemy states (and if they were, it'd then behoove Balarama to fight them and get Samba back).  When the Kuru's rebuffed him, he uprooted Hastinapur and put it in the water (was Ganga wide enough to take Hastinapur?  I thought it'd be in the middle of the sea) until the Kauravas panicked, and returned not only Samba, but handed over Lakshmanaa as well.  Incidentally, when did she marry him - b4 or after Balarama rescued him?

So you're right - Lakshmanaa herself didn't deserve this, but this was the right family to humiliate under this pretext - after all, Bheeshma had forced Ambika & Ambalika to marry against their will, and ruined Amba, while Duryodhan did the same to Bhanumati.  So seeing the likes of Duryodhan & Bheeshma humiliated was poetic justice.

As an aside, Balarama should have put Hastinapur in the middle of the sea and left it there - somewhere  south of Muscat, so that they'd never have any contact w/ Aryavarta again, and after the Pandava exile, they'd peacefully have gotten back Indraprastha.  Since Balarama was an advocate that the Kauravas & Pandavas shouldn't fight, come what may, that would have ensured his vision, and he could have forcefully taken Samba (w/ or w/o Lakshmanaa) back to Dwarka. 😈

Coming back to the original question, 'Whether Duryodhana was misunderstood or not?', what I learn is whatever people say, he is an evil character. All one has to do is simple analysis. Is it OK for me to behave like Duryodhan? No way. Throughout the life, he had only one aim. To ruin Pandavas. And this is the main reason, he got limited success in life. Why Pandavas were not jealous of him? Though he was not good, he never had to suffer in life. He commanded the largest army in the epic and we see all of them willingly fought for him and died. Those persons who must have rightfully supported Pandavas, supported him. They include even Salya. He was the best mace fighter. Balarama admired him. He was a good mace fighter and a reasonably good archer also. Still he behaved in cheap ways in many areas. if at all, he accepted to leave Pandavas in peace, he had nothing to lose. But he never did that and brought about the ruin of many persons.