Kaurava
Kaurava ( Sanskrit कौरव Kaurava ) is the name of a descendant of Kuru , the legendary Hindu king who is known as the ancestor of many of the Mahabharata protagonists .
Meanings
In the Mahabharata itself, the term Kaurava has two different meanings:
- In a broader sense it denotes all of Kuru's descendants, the Kauravas; this includes the Pandava brothers, and this meaning is mostly used in earlier parts of popular versions of the Mahabharata.
- In the narrower and more general sense, however, Kaurava refers to the descendants of the firstborn of King Kuru. This limits the meaning to the children of King Dhritarashtra , as his lineage to Kuru is the oldest. This interpretation also excludes the children of the younger brother Pandu , since his descendants have their own name - Pandavas .
King Dhritarashtra's children with his wife Gandhari are sometimes called Dhartarastra instead of Kaurava. The stubbornness of the eldest of Dhritarashtra's sons, Duryodhana , becomes the cause of the conflict between Kauravas and Pandavas, which culminates in the battle of Kurukshetra , which in turn is the main subject of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita .