01Ajatashatru
He was called Ajatashatru, the one whose enemy was never born, and the people of Hastinapura loved him for it. Dhritarashtra made him crown prince, and that was what set Duryodhana burning. After Draupadi’s wedding the Pandavas were given the wild Khandavaprastha, and there they raised Indraprastha. Maya the asura built Yudhishthira a hall such as no king had seen, and he performed the Rajasuya, with his brothers bringing tribute from every quarter of the land.
02The game
Called to play at Hastinapura, he went, because a kshatriya does not refuse a challenge and an elder’s summons. Shakuni threw for Duryodhana. Yudhishthira staked his wealth and lost, his kingdom and lost, then Nakula, Sahadeva, Arjuna and Bhima, then himself, and last Draupadi. Dhritarashtra’s boons undid the loss, but he was called back for one more throw, and lost again: twelve years in the forest and a thirteenth in disguise. He kept every day of the term, while Bhima and Draupadi raged at him to break it.
03At the Yaksha’s lake
In the forest his four brothers went one by one to a lake for water, drank against the warning of an unseen voice, and fell dead. Yudhishthira came last and answered the Yaksha’s questions instead. Asked which one brother he wanted back, he chose Nakula, Madri’s son, so that each of his father’s wives should have a son living. The Yaksha revealed himself as Dharma, his own father, and gave all four back. In the year at Virata’s court he lived as Kanka, a brahmin who played dice with the king.
04The half-truth and the dog
On the fifteenth day only his word could make Drona lay down his bow. Bhima had killed an elephant named Ashvatthama, and Yudhishthira said that Ashvatthama was slain, adding indistinctly, the elephant. His chariot, which had always run four fingers above the ground, sank down and touched the earth. After the war he ruled thirty-six years. Then he set out for the Himalaya with his brothers and Draupadi, and a dog followed them. One by one the others fell. Indra came with his chariot, but Yudhishthira would not enter svarga without the dog, and the dog became Dharma.
Famous verses
आनृशंस्यं परो धर्मः परमार्थाच्च मे मतम् । आनृशंस्यं चिकीर्षामि नकुलो यक्ष जीवतु ॥
Compassion is the highest dharma, higher in my view than the highest gain. I wish to act with compassion: Yaksha, let Nakula live.Mahabharata 3.297.71 (BORI CE), Yudhishthira to the Yaksha