Dhritarashtra - Definition and Overview

In Mahabharata Dhritarashtra was the son bore by Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika from Vyasa. This blind king of Hastinapura bore 100 children to his wife Gandhari, who came to be knows as Kauravas. Duryodhana and Dushasana were the first two sons.

Birth

After Vichitravirya's death his mother Satyavati sent for her first born, Rishi Ved Vyasa. On his mother's wishes, he visited both the wives of Vichitravirya to grant them a son. When Vyasa visited Ambika, she saw his very dreadful and forbidding appearance with burning eyes. In her frightened state, she closed her eyes and dared not to open it. Hence her son, Dhritarashtra was born blind.

Battle of Kurukshetra

During the great battle of Kurukshetra between the Kauravas (the sons of Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas), Dhritarashtra was givan the option by the gods to have his eyesight restored, but he refused and instead asked for Sanjaya, his charioteer, to be given divine eyesight (which not only included television powers but also insight into the minds of people he saw).

The very first stanza of the Bhagavad Gita is a question from Dhritarashtra to Sanjaya asking him for a narration of the events of the great battle of Kurukshetra.