The Mahabharata says the blind elder brother lost the throne, and his cousin staked the kingdom, his brothers, himself and his wife at dice

The Mahabharata, traditionally attributed to Vyasa, is the longest Indian epic, with more than 100,000 verses. It says Dhritarashtra, the elder prince of the Kurus, did not obtain the kingdom "owing to his blindness," so his brother Pandu became king, and their half-brother Vidura was excluded by his mother's birth. Pandu's five sons, the Pandavas, and Dhritarashtra's hundred sons, led by Duryodhana, both claimed the throne. The kingdom was split, and the Pandavas built a capital at Indraprastha. In the dice game, Duryodhana's uncle Shakuni played against the eldest Pandava, Yudhishthira. The Sabha Parva lists what he staked and lost: his cattle and horses, his city and land, his brothers Nakula, Sahadeva, Arjuna and Bhima, himself, and last his wife Draupadi. Vidura argued that a man who had already lost himself could not stake her. A second game sent the Pandavas into exile; Arjuna vowed revenge in "the fourteenth year." At the end of the exile the Kauravas would not return the kingdom, and the war at Kurukshetra followed. Duryodhana died at Bhima's hands, and Yudhishthira was crowned at Hastinapura. Scholars date the text's compilation to between about the 3rd century BC and the 4th century AD.