© 2018 JETIR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 10 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) DHRITARASHTRA - The Blind Father Dhritarashtra was blind from birth and he even turned blind eye for all the bad deeds of his children. He was the eldest son of king vichitraveerya. Vichitraveerya died soon after his marriage to the princesses of kashi. The kingdom would collapse without an heir. Ved vyas was approached, son of Satyavati and Parashara to impregnate the princesses by Niyoga process. The first wife Ambika gives birth to a blind child, the reason for blindness was she had closed her eyes as she was terrified by ved vyass’s appearance. This child was named Dhritarashtra. The second wife Ambalika gave birth to a pale child. He was named Pandu. Another child was born to a daasi and he was named Vidhur. Bhishma takes full responsibility to train and mold them into great warriors of Hastinapura. Dhritarashtra always dreamt of being “The King”. He loved his small brother Pandu but she never accepted Vidhur as his brother. Pandu respected Dhritarashtra and always obeyed him as a younger brother. Pandu was not into being king and he also wanted his elder brother to be the king. Dhritarashtra had never accepted his blindness and he was insecure about himself. Satyavati decided to crown him as king. During the coronation ceremony, Vidhur sweared in as Mahamantri and he took the vow to serve Hastinapura with all his knowledge of dharma. Vidhur opposed the coronation of Dhritarashtra in the name of dharma. He says dharma doesn’t allow a blind person to be the king, the king has to fight the wars in order to have trust of the people, the king should not just feel but should also be able to see the pain of his people, and enemies can take advantage of him being blind. Bhishma agrees with Vidhur. Dhritarashtra blames Pandu for breaking his trust. Was it his fault for being blind? Was it dharma or adharma that happened to Dhritarashtra? Though he was as strong as he could defeat over thousands of elephants he was denied in front of everyone and was stated incomplete to be a king according to dharma. He was considered unfit to be a king. Was this the so called dharma? When Pandu died due to a curse, he was approached by Bhishma to be the king! Now dharma doesn’t say anything about him being blind? Bhishma went to Gandhara kingdom to get bride for Dhritarashtra. The king of Gandhar was forced to give his daughter to protect his kingdom. Gandhari was very dear to Shakuni. When Shakuni gets the news of his JETIR1810132 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 244 © 2018 JETIR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 10 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) sister going to be married to a blind prince, he rushes back to the palace. He questioned his father how could a father do this to his own daughter? Shakuni takes an oath to destroy the kuru clan. On the other side Dhritarashtra was happy about his marriage to Gandhari. He wanted his wife to become his eyes and describe everything to him. When Gandhari came to know that Dhritarashtra was blind from birth she decided to be blind fold for rest of her life to share grieve and sufferings of her husband. But Dhritarashtra felt insulted and offended. He was annoyed to an extent that he didn’t accept her as his wife. Gandhari was beautiful, righteous, ethical and she was trained in Kshatriya arts. She made a huge sacrifice of being blind fold but, she was not understood rather she was insulted and pained for her sacrifice. When people are in any of relationship they always tend to change the other person rather than understanding them. We should try and change ourselves rather than expecting the other person to change. Dhritarashtra didn’t try to understand her sacrifice. According some people Gandhari was pativrata, didn’t have any other resentment. But some people still argue over the blind fold. It is said that Gandhari didn’t know about his blindness before marriage and when she got to know about his blindness she blind fold herself to show her non-acceptance. Pandu leaves the kingdom with Kunti and Madri after being cursed by a sage. The kingdom was abandoned. Dhritarashtra was appointed to be the representative of Pandu until he returned from forest. Gandhari had blessing of 100 sons. Ved vyass was moved by Gandhari’s honest prayers and granted her blessing of 100 children. Gandhari was pregnant for almost 2 years but didn’t give birth yet. When kunti gives birth to Yudhishthira, Dhritarashtra was displeased and furious over Gandhari. He tried to hurt her; he ordered Gandhari’s daasi sugda to come to his room. Gandhari was both in pain and anger. She started to pound her stomach with intention to kill the child in her womb. She went into labour and gave birth to a mass of flesh. Ved vyass divides the flesh into 101 small pieces and keeps them in pot with required herbs. He and Gandhari had 100 sons called Kauravas and a daughter Dushala. This process of birth in today’s world is known as test tube baby. First born out of 100 was Dhuryodhan, Dhritarashtra’s eldest son. While Dhuryodhan was born Vidhur and Bhishma knew that he was born with bad omen and would destroy the whole kuru clan. They suggested Dhritarashtra and Gandhari to kill him, but their love for the child didn’t allow them to do that. Any parent would’ve done the same. JETIR1810132 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 245 © 2018 JETIR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 10 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) After Pandu’s death kunti came back to Hastinapura with his 5 sons. Dhritarashtra grandly welcomed them. Both Kauravas and Pandavas were trained in every art of Kshatriyas by guru Dronacharya. They excelled in every art. Dhritarashtra loved his children especially Dhuryodhan and he didn’t stop them for anything rather he fulfilled all their wishes. Shakuni stayed in Hastinapura and was in charge of his 100 sons. He filled the minds of his children with loath and revenge. Dhuryodhan wanted the whole kingdom for himself. Shakuni and Dhuryodhan planned to kill all Pandavas including kunti by burning them alive with the help of purochana. Purochana was a trusted associate of Dhuryodhan and an architect. Dhritarashtra was also involved in it and he sends them to Varanavat. It was because of Vidhur the Pandavas escaped at right time. Dhritarashtra accepted everything his children wanted but he couldn’t become a proper father, he didn’t teach them what is wrong and right rather he just kept watching his children turn in to demons. Later Dhritarashtra gives Pandavas half of the kingdom. They converted the forest into beautiful Indraprastha. Dhuryodhan was not happy about that he wanted the whole kingdom. He plans with Shakuni to get everything that Pandavas had. He invites them to play the game of dice, eventually because of Shakuni Pandavas lost everything including their kingdom, wealth, themselves and even their wife Draupadi. Dhuryodhan orders Dushasan to drag her into the court and undress in front of everyone. Dhritarashtra being the king could have stopped this bad incident but he decided to be silent. He was blinded by the love for his children. In society parents only care about their children. They don’t even try to realize what is right? Or what is wrong? Every person does love his/her child but, they don’t realize the other person is also someone else’s child. That person is also dear to his /her parents and most importantly he/she is also a HUMAN. Even today such incidents do happen where people ignore even when they can help. Some people are demons of lust whereas others are ignorant. Some people do wrong and others do nothing about it. He did return everything back to Pandavas as he was afraid to lose his children However he couldn’t stop the battle of kurukshetra. Dhritarashtra was confident that Kauravas would win the war as Bhishma, Drona, Karna and other unconquerable warriors were on their side. JETIR1810132 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 246 © 2018 JETIR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 10 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) One day Sage Vyasa came to palace and offered Dhritarashtra divine vision, power of seeing so that he could see the Mahabharata. But he rejected the boon as he didn’t want to see his beloved children being killed. He didn’t want to witness the fall of kuru clan. Instead he asked the boon to be given to Sanjaya, his charioteer. Sanjaya was a person with great knowledge he was like a guide to Dhritarashtra. Sanjaya narrated the whole kurukshetra war. He told Dhritarashtra how Bhima killed all his 100 sons during the war. Yuyutsu had joined Pandavas and was the only Kaurava who survived the war. Sanjaya consoled Dhritarashtra by explaining morals and values he had gained by his knowledge. The result of the war shattered him. He was ruined. Pandavas return to the palace after the war to seek forgiveness from Dhritarashtra and Gandhari. Both were still stunned by the result of war. They eventually forgives them and greeted each other with love. But while greeting Bhima, Dhritarashtra remembers the death of his children and he tries to kill him.