The Mahabharata has been a fascinating story for all kinds of readers and writers for a long time. Many of us have read the Mahabharata again and again, be it as part of school text-books or in the form of story books, comic books etc. The Mahabharata is an epic tale and one of its kind. It portrays all the emotions known to human beings and other life forms. One should be careful while narrating this story not to lose any thread and the grip on the story.
The book I, Duryodhana narrates the story of the Mahabharata in Duryodhana’s voice. He talks about what he knows about the happenings around, what he has done and why, giving justification for his acts while on his death bed. He also tries to explain why he lost the war in spite of having so many powerful warriors on his side. Duryodhana presents himself as a victim of many false accusations, tricky situations, conspiracies, and deceit by his very own trusted allies like Shakuni and sometimes Radheya (Karna). So, this book is more like an autobiographical narration of Duryodhana. One thing new is that we get to read more about Duryodhana’s feelings here, as compared to the other typical narrations of the Mahabharata.