Wives of Duryodhana

In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Duryodhana—the principal antagonist—is married to several princesses, though the epic provides little detail about them, not even mentioning any name. The mother of his son Lakshmana appears in prominence, who in her brief appearance in the Stri Parva, mourns the death of her husband Duryodhana and her son. Elsewhere, in the Shanti Parva, his marriage with an unnamed princess of Kalinga—daughter of King Chitrangada—is narrated, whom Duryodhana abducted from her svayamvara (a self-choice ceremony for selecting a husband), with the assistance of his close friend Karna. In the Bhishma Parva, a princess of Kashi Kingdom is mentioned as his bride.

The number of Duryodhana's wives is not clearly specified. Some variations of the Mahabharata introduce additional details about Duryodhana's wives. In the Southern Recension and Gita Press translation of the epic, it is mentioned that his chief wife is the princess of Kashi, the daughter of King Kashiraja, who is noted for welcoming Draupadi when she first arrives in Hastinapura.

Because of the sparse information about Duryodhana’s wives in the Mahabharata, later playwrights and storytellers expanded on their stories. In the play Urubhanga by Bhasa (c 200-300 CE), Duryodhana is depicted as having two wives—Malavi and Pauravi. The Venisamhara, a Sanskrit play by Bhatta Narayana (c. 11th century), was the first to introduce Bhanumati as Duryodhana's wife, in which she is the sole wife of Duryodhana. This version has since gained popularity and Bhanumati is often assumed to be Duryodhana’s wife in popular tradition.