The character of Yuyutsu in the Mahabharata presents us with a curious case of a Kaurava prince who fought on the Pandava side at Kurukshetra. Yuyutsu it is said, accepted King Yudhishtra’s eleventh hour invitation to anyone who wanted to switch sides before the start of the battle, ostensibly, onto the “right” side of dharma. In a morally unambiguous worldview, the Kauravas were the “bad guys” and one can only imagine the reasons why Yuyutsu would realise at the last moment that he ought to actually be with the “good guys”.
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| RGK as Yuyutsu, the Kaurava with a conscience. |
Of course, once the fighting started transgressions and excesses occurred on both sides. What was a dharmic action and what was not, and from whose point of view, is the stuff of soaring philosophical debate that makes the characters in the Mahabharata so complex, and the idea of dharma so perplexing. In Ultimate Kurukshetra the ethical dilemma behind Yuyutsu’s crucial decision is presented as the epic narrative frame, into which we are thrust into the on-ground action in medias res.
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