Who was the actual reason for Kurukshetra?

Originally posted by: shani88

See, it goes like this - 

The tussle for the throne of HP started way before Draupadi was even born. 

Right from the beginning, Shakuni kept filling the idea to Duri about being the heir to HP, even though Yudi was the eldest. After Pandu's death, the Pandavas returned to HP. And Duri knew he was in trouble since Yudi was the jesht Kuru rajkumar. So, during childhood itself, Bhim got poisoned, and Drona favouring Arjun increased the hatred of Duri towards the Pandavas even more. Duri's logic being that the Pandavas are NOT really the sons of Pandu, therefore, they had no right to stake claim for the throne. But Duri completely forgot that his own dad Dhrit himself was conceived outside marriage through niyoga (let's not go there, that's a different matter completely).

Coming back to the topic, Duri's hatred for the Pandavas grew even more as the question of "worthiness" was also brought into the picture with regards to the yuvraj appointment. Yudi was clearly deemed to be "worthier" than Duri, and hence became yuvraj. Duri now wanted to konk off the Pandavas at any cost since he wanted to become yuvraj.

So, came the adharmi act of Lakshagrah (assassination attempt on the Pandavas), which resulted in the Pandavas going into hiding. Draupadi's swayamwar (where Duri's BFF got insulted), and Drau's marriage to the Pandavas only rubbed salt into Duri's wounds even more. Duri thought he had it easy with the Pandavas being given a barren piece of land, Khandavaprastha (as part of HP being split). Remember this - HP being split was done so as to avoid a war from taking place. But, the Pandavas managed to transform that barren piece of land into a prosperous kingdom, Indraprastha. 

By this point, Duri became increasingly jealous of the successes achieved by the Pandavas, even though they were no longer present in HP (THE most important point). 

So, he WANTED to take away IP from the Pandavas somehow or the other - the dice game (it is against Kshatriya dharma to refuse an invitation for dice or war, so Yudi accepted the invitation for the dice game). In the dice game, Shakuni used bewitched dice to cheat the Pandavas of everything they had (that still DOESN'T excuse Yudi from staking his kingdom, his brothers, and Drau - but the fact remains that cheating DID occur in the dice game). Drau got humiliated in that process. And then a repeat dice game was held which the Pandavas lost, and as a result, had to be exiled. 

Krishna was not happy with Yudi staking Drau, resulting in her humiliation. But Krishna was even angrier at the fact that the various crimes committed by Duri and Shakuni kept going unpunished as Dhrit was physically and psychologically blind. 

Also, Draupadi wanted her hubbies to avenge her humiliation (which she called "justice"). So, a war ended up being inevitable - only a matter of "when". Even after the exile was finished, Duri refused to return IP to the Pandavas. Krishna himself went to HP and talked peace, but even that failed, thanks to Duri wanting to arrest Krishna!! So war was the ONLY option in such a situation.

In short, the Pandavas and the Kauravas were ALWAYS at loggerheads with each other. Drau's humiliation and her subsequent call for "justice" only stoked the war-like situation to such an extent that it resulted in the worst kind of massacre and bloodshed ever seen. 

Blaming Drau for the war is completely unfair IMHO.

Originally posted by: warriorbrishti

Yes. I don't think Draupadi was the reason too and that is why I started the topic. But if we give the full credit(of war, i mean) to Duryodhan then the Pandavas are equally to blame. Coz, once WAR begins, both the parties results in each other's death and destruction. Duri and Shakuni has some hand in the war. But were the Pandavas not in action at all?

^^ Why blame Bheeshma who only did what a dutiful son would have done for his father whom he was meeting after nearly 25 years? It was Satyawati's father who made the atrocious demand to Shantanu to make his own grandsons the heir to the hastinapur kingdom replacing the worthy heir Bheeshma. Shantanu did not agree to that demand but due to depression was unable to carry out his royal duties to his kingdom. This is when Bheeshma took his oath to renounce his right to the kingdom. He further made the oath to remain a bachelor so as to rule out any risk of his descendants challenging Satyawati's children's right to the throne and thus satisfied Satyawati's father who agreed to let Shantanu marry her.