Duryodhana Proposes Schemes to Destroy the Pandavas
Dhritarashtra, hiding his true intentions from his virtuous brother Vidura, asks his son Duryodhana and the warrior Karna for counsel. Duryodhana responds not with a single plan, but with a list of malicious strategies to destroy the Pandavas, from sowing discord to outright murder, insisting they must act before the Pandavas' new alliance solidifies.
Dhritarashtra called his son Duryodhana and the great warrior Karna into a private council. He had just finished a public audience where he had praised the Pandavas — his brother Pandu’s sons — for their virtues and their newfound strength after marrying Draupadi, the daughter of King Drupada. But that praise was a mask.
Now, with Vidura gone, the king dropped the pretense. “I myself have the worries that you do,” he told Duryodhana. “But I did not wish to reveal my attitude to Vidura. Therefore, I particularly praised their qualities, so that Vidura does not know my true wishes, even through a gesture.” He looked at the two men before him. “This is the time. O Suyodhana! Tell me what you think. O Radheya! You also tell me what you think.”
Duryodhana did not hesitate. He had been waiting for this moment. What followed was not a single scheme, but a catalogue of conspiracies, each a different path to the same end.
First, he proposed psychological warfare. “Let us now use skilled and able Brahmanas who have our trust to create conflict among the Pandavas, between the sons of Kunti and the sons of Madri.” Split the family at its seams, turn brother against half-brother.
If that failed, target their new allies. “Or let us tempt King Drupada, his sons and all his advisers with large presents of wealth so that they abandon Kunti’s son, King Yudhishthira.” Buy the loyalty Drupada had just sworn.
Or make them leave voluntarily. “Or let them individually be told how difficult it is to live here, so that the Pandavas decide to live there, away from us.” A campaign of whispered discouragement.
Or turn their greatest strength — their unity — into a weakness. “Or let artful and skilled men create dissension among the sons of Pritha.” Break the bond between the five brothers themselves.
Then he turned to their shared wife, Draupadi. “Or let them incite Krishna against them. That should be easy, because they are many.” Set one woman against five husbands. “Let the Pandavas be dissatisfied with her, and she with them.”
But Duryodhana’s most direct plan focused on physical force. “O king! Let artful and skilled men secretly bring about Bhimasena’s death.” He identified the linchpin of the Pandavas’ power. “He is the strongest among them. O king! When he is dead, they will lose their enterprise and their energy. Without him, they will no longer wish for the kingdom, because he is their only support.”
He elaborated on the military calculation. “Arjuna is invincible in battle as long as he is supported from the back by Vrikodara. Without him, Phalguna is not even worth a fourth of Radheya in battle.” With Bhima gone, Arjuna would be diminished, and Karna could defeat him. “With Bhimasena dead, they will know their great weakness and knowing our great strength, the feeble ones will perish.”
He offered a deceptive alternative: lure them back to Hastinapura. “If the sons of Pritha come here and submit themselves to our desires, we can confidently destroy them.” Or corrupt them. “One after another, we can seduce them with pretty women so that Krishna is disenchanted with Kunti’s sons.”
Finally, the most brutal option. “Or we can send Radheya to bring them here and on the way here, get them killed through an attack by dacoits whom we trust.” A staged ambush, with Karna as the unwitting escort.
His conclusion was urgent. “Employ, without delay, whichever of these strategies seems to you to be faultless. Time passes. As long as their confidence in King Drupada, who is like a bull, is not established, until then, we can succeed. But not afterwards.”
He turned to his father, then to his friend. “O father! These are my views. We should suppress them. O Radheya! What do you think? Are these views good or bad?”