Why did Kauravas hate Pandavas?

Question

Kauravas were more powerful than Pandavas in many areas.

What was the main reason that Kauravas hated Pandavas?

Did Pandavas hate Kauravas too?

Answer 1

both @noob and @Ishika are correct in their statements but just to make things a little more clear, the father of Kauravas (Dhritarashtra) and the father of Pandavas (Pandu) were brothers wherein Dhritarashtra was the elder brother but he was blind since birth that is why it was decided that Pandu would become the next king of Hastinapur. At one point of time Pandu renounced his kingdom and started living in the forest, giving the responsibilities of the kingdom to Dhritarashtra (this is a very abridged version of the story, a lot of incidents take place in order for this to happen).

Duryodhan was the eldest son of Dhritarashtra whereas Yudhishthira was the eldest son of Pandu (need to note that Yudhishthira was elder than Duryodhan). The Pandavas as children grew up in the forest having no idea that they were entitled to a kingdom, on the other hand Duryodhan grew up in the castle believing that he was the righful heir of hastinapur. Once the Pandavas returned to the Palace of Hastinapur, the Yudhishthira was made the new King of Hastinapur and hence the basic reason of rivalry between the Kauravas and Pandavas.

A lot of things did happen over the course of time from being children to adults in the lives of both the sides to increase the animosity but I guess that's for a different time.

Answer 2

There can be several reasons for the enmity and hatred between the Pandavas & the Kauravas.

1. Destiny

Well, few things are pre-ordained, and the enmity in the case of Pandavas & Kauravas can also be said to be the part of fate, Daiva-vidhAna (the divine plan), as says the Agni Purana.

Chapter 13, Agni Purana

कर्णः कुन्त्यां हि कन्यायां जातो दुर्योधनाश्रितः। कुरुपाण्डवयोर्वैरन्दैवयोगाद् बभूव ह ।। ११ ।।
दुर्योधनौ जतुगृहे पाण्डवानदहत् कुधीः । दग्धागाराद्विनिष्क्रान्ता मातृषष्ठास्तु पाण्डवाः ।। १२ ।।

• 11, 12. Karṇa, born to Kuntī, when she was a virgin, became a dependent of Duryodhana. By destiny, there was enmity between the Kurus (Kauravas) and Pāṇḍavas. The wicked Duryodhana burnt the Pāṇḍavas in the lac house. The Pāṇḍavas escaped from the burnt house along with their mother as the sixth.

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2. Greed, & Ignorance

Besides, the seeds and evil of greed for power and kingdom, borne due to misunderstandings propagated, promoted and provoked by Shakuni, and heinous acts and crimes ignored by Dhritrashtra, fomented the hatred to new heights.

As the Devi-Bhagavat Purana notes -

Greed

Chapter 16, Book 6, Devi Bhagavat Purana

This greed makes a man forsake all his religious rites and long-existing customs and observances of his family; and it is due to this avarice of gold that men kill their fathers, mothers, brothers, friends, Gurus, sons, acquaintances, sisters, and sisters-in-law and others. Really when a man is bent on avarice, nothing heinous remains to him that cannot be done by him. This greed is a more powerful enemy than anger, lust and egoism. O King! Men abandon their lives for their greed; what more can be said than this? So one should be always alert on this. O King! Your forefathers, the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas, were all religious and they followed the path of virtue and goodness. Yet they all were ruined simply for this greed. See! The dreadful fight and separation amongst the relatives took place where there were the high-souled persons like Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Kripācārya, Karṇa, Vahlika, Bhīmasena, Yudhiṣṭhira, Arjuṇa, and Keśava, only through the avaricious feelings. In this battle Bhīṣma, Droṇa and the sons of Pāṇḍavas were all slain; the brothers and fathers were all slain in battle. Thus what improper acts and mischiefs can there be that cannot be committed when the human minds are overpowered by this greed?

Ignorance

Verse 7.37.37-42, Śatarudra-saṃhitā, Shiva Purana

• 37 to 42. O Pāṇḍavas, you need not be over-anxious. You are all blessed and contented. You have not let truth slip by. The noble nature of the good remains unchanged even at death. They do not forsake virtue. They fruitfully resort to Truth. As far as we are concerned, you and the Kauravas ought to be equal. Still our partiality is towards the virtuous. This partiality is approved by the learned. Virtue was at the outset abandoned by the wicked and blind Dhṛtarāṣṭra due to greed. Your kingdom was seized. Undoubtedly you and they are his sons when your real father is dead. You are noble souls and hence you deserve to be viewed sympathetically. Afterward, his son was never dissuaded by him. If only he had done so, this calamity would not have occurred.

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3. Jealousy

Duryodhana, being inherently evil, true to his character of being incarnate of Kali-demon, hated the Pandavas since starting, owing to their "natural superiority" in all things over the Kauravas.

Chapter 126, Sambhava Parva, Adi Parva, Mahabharata

Then the sons of king Pandu, having gone through all the purifying rites prescribed in the Vedas, began to grow up in princely style in the home of their father. Whenever they were engaged in play with the sons of Dhritarashtra, their superiority of strength became marked.

In speed, in striking the objects aimed at, in consuming articles of food, and scattering dust, Bhimasena beat all the sons of Dhritarashtra. The son of the Wind-god pulled them by the hair and made them fight with one another, laughing all the while.

And Vrikodara easily defeated those hundred and one children of great energy as if they were one instead of being a hundred and one. The second Pandava used to seize them by the hair, and throwing them down, to drag them along the earth. By this, some had their knees broken, some their heads, and some their shoulders.

That youth, sometimes holding ten of them, drowned them in water, till they were nearly dead. When the sons of Dhritarashtra got up to the boughs of a tree for plucking fruits, Bhima used to shake that tree, by striking it with his foot, so that down came the fruits and the fruit pluckers at the same time.

In fact, those princes were no match for Bhima in pugilistic encounters, in speed, or in skill. Bhima used to make a display of his strength by thus tormenting them in childishness but not from malice.

"Seeing these wonderful exhibitions of the might of Bhima, the powerful Duryodhana, the eldest son of Dhritarashtra, began to conceive hostility towards him. And the wicked and unrighteous Duryodhana, through ignorance and ambition, prepared himself for an act of sin.

As regards, the Pandavas, we can say that perhaps the Pandavas didn't hate on their malicious cousins, true to their righteous and piety-driven character steered by Yuddhisthira, but certainly, they weren't much found of Kauravas either, after what all they endured due the malice driven acts of Kauravas.