Hinduism: Details about 'Dhritarashtra'
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home
|
In the Mahabharata Dhritarashtra (Sanskrit: धृतराष्ट्र, dhritarāshtra) was the son born by Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika and fathered by Vyasa. This blind king of Hastinapura was father to 100 children by his wife Gandhari. These children came to be known as the Kauravas. Duryodhana and Dushasana were the first two sons. BirthAfter Vichitravirya's death his mother Satyavati sent for her first born, Vyasa. According to his mother's wishes, he visited both the wives of Vichitravirya to grant them a son. When Vyasa visited Ambika, she saw his dreadful and forbidding appearance with burning eyes. In her frightened state, she closed her eyes and dared not open it. Hence her son, Dhritarashtra was born blind. Battle of KurukshetraSanjaya, Dhritrashtra’s charioteer who was born with the ability to see things from a distance, narrated important events of the Kurukshetra war, a war fought between the Kauravas(the sons of Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas, to the blind king. The first stanza of the Bhagavad Gita is a question from Dhritarashtra to Sanjaya asking him to recount the Kurukshetra war.The name is written Dhṛtarāṣṭṛa in IAST transliteration.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||