Who was the eldest of the Pandavas?

Who was the eldest of the Pandavas? The answer is Yudhishthira.

Yudhishthira was the eldest of the five Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata. He was the son of Kunti and was fathered, through divine intervention, by Dharma, the deity associated with righteousness and moral order. Because of his birth and status as Pandu’s eldest son, he had a strong claim to the Kuru throne.

Yudhishthira was also known as Dharmaraja or Dharmaputra. His character is defined by his commitment to dharma, although the dice game exposed how even his devotion to duty and royal convention could lead to disastrous choices. He gambled away his kingdom, his brothers and himself, resulting in the Pandavas’ thirteen-year exile.

A notable complication is that Karna was actually Kunti’s firstborn son, born before her marriage to Pandu. However, Karna was not raised as one of the five Pandavas and was revealed as their elder brother only after the war. In the standard five-Pandava grouping, Yudhishthira is the eldest.