ABSTRACT
After a war, in a civilized dispensation, questions are often raised regarding what or who to blame for it and not just in technical terms. The answer is always the ruler or the head of the state because only he can formally declare the war. Twelve years of exile in the forest and living incognito for another year after that in a king’s service, had hardened Yudhisthira’s attitude towards Duryodhana. For Draupadi, the peace initiative of Yudhisthira was entirely unacceptable, and she reminded Krsna about the humiliations she had suffered, for which she held the Kauravas directly or indirectly responsible. In the name of dharma, the Kauravas and the Pandavas together, in Krsna’s presence, drew up a code for the conduct of the war, so that it did not transgress civilized limits. In the Sarala Mahabharata, Yudhisthira was the embodiment of dharma, but Duryodhana was by no means the embodiment of dharma, and theirs was not an uncivilized world.
