The eldest Pandava, called the king of dharma, who gambles away his brothers, his wife and himself without anyone forcing his hand.
Appears in
The birth of the Kuru princes — A blind heir, a pale one and a renunciant's vow leave the succession contested before any of the cousins can walk.
The house of lac — A guest house built to burn: the first attempt on the Pandavas' lives, and the escape that lets them be thought dead.
The Rajasuya sacrifice — Yudhishthira's consecration as emperor — the height of the Pandavas' fortune, and the sight that decides Duryodhana to act.
The game of dice — A king who cannot refuse a challenge plays against a loaded opponent, and stakes his brothers, his wife and himself.
Draupadi in the assembly — Dragged into a full court, the queen puts a question of law to the elders — and every one of them declines to answer it.
The yaksha's questions — Four brothers drink before answering and fall beside the lake, and the fifth is asked what a man must be before he may drink
Abhimanyu inside the wheel — A boy who knows how to break into a formation and not how to break out of it is sent in first, and the gap closes behind him
Embodies
The impossible choice — Not good against evil, but duty against duty — every open course breaks an obligation the chooser also owes.
Dice and dispossession — A kingdom, a wife and a man's own self staked on a rigged game — and an assembly that let the wager stand.
Questions to explore
Why can a king renowned for dharma not simply decline a game he knows is rigged?
Does the epic treat the dice game as Yudhishthira's failure, or as the failure of a code that gave him no way out?
What does it mean that the most righteous brother is the one who loses everything?
