Yudhisthira was the son of King Pandu and Queen Kunti. He was born of a boon given to Queen Kunti by Durvaasa rishi who had granted her the power to invoke the devas and thus Yudhisthira was the image of the Lord of Righteousness (Dharma) or Yama. He was known for his honesty and his steadfasteness to Dharma.

Yudhisthira was the eldest of the five Pandavas (Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva. As detailed in the Mahabharata, Yudhisthira and his brothers were forced to fight the Kauravas (their paternal cousins) for the Kingdom of Hastinapura (around modern-day Delhi).

Interestingly, because of his reputation for steadfastness to truth, he, according to the Mahabharata, is the only human who ascended to Swarga, or heaven in his own bodily form rather than through death. However, he was punished for his only crime of making one lie to Drona by receiving a vision of Naraka or hell.