What question did this study set out to answer?

This analysis aims to understand the portrayal of dharma through Duryodhana's conflicts in Roll of Dice.

March 14, 2026Open Access

In the Name of Dharma: Reading Duryodhana In Roll of the Dice By Anand Neelakantan

Key Points

This analysis aims to understand the portrayal of dharma through Duryodhana's conflicts in Roll of Dice.
Literary analysis of the novel Roll of Dice by Anand Neelakantan.
Critical evaluation of dharma in the context of Mahabharata and its retellings.
Examination of character development and inner conflicts of Duryodhana.
Duryodhana's character reflects significant contradictions in the concept of dharma.
The novel presents a critical perspective on traditional interpretations of dharma.
Inner realities of Duryodhana challenge the established socio-political norms of the Mahabharata.

Abstract

Indian Puranic literatures, the epic Mahabharata and socio- political system are designed on the basis of the concept dharma. It is in dharma that the priests, kings and others like are regulated to live and act. However, retelling of Mahabharata in various literary genre critically evaluate the concept of dharma of that time in a more critical and adaptive to the current readers of the epic. The novel Roll of Dice by Anand Neelakatan has well portrayed it in his first book of Ajaya series. He intelligently portrays doubts and conflicts about Dharma through the inner realities of the esteemed characters through the eyes of SDuruyodhana, the crown prince. The story develops in and through the interventions of the protagonist Suyodhana until at a point where he himself loses the compassion and dharma, he had nurtured so far. This essay is an analysis of the contradictions in exercising the dharma of Duryodhana and yudhistra.

In the Name of Dharma: Reading Duryodhana In Roll of the Dice By Anand Neelakantan

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