Word

Gandhari

Sanskrit

गान्धारी

IAST

gāndhārī

In General

Wife of Dhrtarastra and mother of the hundred Kauravas. She was daughter of Subala, King of Gandhara. Subala was a descendent of Turvasu, the brother of Yadu.

Gandhari was a noble lady in every respect; Her sons and brother being evil nature never let down her personality in the great epic. She never quarreled with anybody and was respected everywhere. During the war she blessed her sons with the words, ”let the victory lie with the side of the righteous in this war”. Even after the war she treated Pandavas as her own sons. In her desperate mood after losing all the children in war she cursed Sri Krishna and it so happened that the Yadava clan in Dwaraka perished in 36 years.

Another Gandhari from Purana is wife of Ajamidha, one of the great Kings of the Puru dynasty.

Purana

Bishma proposed Drithrastra, the blind prince of Kuru kingdom to Gandhari and her father accepted the proposal and gave her in marriage to Dhritharastra. After the marriage Gandhari made herself blind by tightly covering her eyes with cloth as she thought it would be wrong to accept happiness in the world that her husband do not have.

She was a devotee of Siva right from very young age and Siva blessed her to become a mother of hundred sons. In another occasion Vyasa also blessed her with hundred sons. Gandhari become pregnant before Kunti, the wife of Pandu. But Kunti delivered her child in due course and Gandhari was to wait for two years. When she delivered the child, it was only a lump of flesh. Vyasa advised to cut the flesh into a hundred piece and keep them in hundred jars filled with ghee. When the flesh was cut into a hundred pieces a small piece remained and that was put in another jar. After a period of time hundred boys came out of the jar and one girl came out of the additional jar.

The brutal killing of 100 sons shattered Gandhari very much. When Pandavas, approached Gandhari, tears was rolling down her cheeks. When Dharmaputra bent to touch her feet the latter saw through the veil on her face the foot-nails of Dharmaputra. A few drops of tears fell on the foot-nails of Dharmaputra making them turn blue instantly.

Gandhari was having the apprehension that Krishna wished War as it will end the rule of treacherous rulers. Krishna was treading the path of Dharma and she herself blessed her son Duryodhana with the word, let dharma prevail; but she could not control herself when all her sons were lost, women’s being widowed and taking two sides Kuru race being annihilated. The cruel words came out of her mouth, "If I have gained any powers by my loyal and devout service to my husband, Oh ! Krishna, I curse you on the strength of that power. Since you forsook relations like the Kauravas and the Pandavas who quarreled with each other, you also will have to witness the killing of relations. Thirty six years from today your relations, ministers and sons will be killed, and you too will be killed by a hunter in the forest. Your women-folk also will cry as we women cry now."

After the great Kuruksetra battle heart-broken Dhrtarastra and Gandhari accompanied by Kunti, Vidura and Sanjaya went to the forests to spend the rest of their life there. Many people and the Pandavas accompanied them up to the river Ganga and there near the asrama of Satayipa Dhrtarastra made a hut and lived with Gandhari and Kunti. The Pandavas felt the separation of their relatives unbearable and lived in grief. After six years one day Dharmaputra saw his mother, Kunti, in a dream. He told his brothers about this and they all felt a desire to go to the forest and see their mother. The next day they reached the shores of Ganga. Vyasa also joined them. Gandhari and Kunti expressed a desire to Vyasa that they would like to see the dead sons and relatives once again. Vyasa then asked them to go and take a dip in the river. When they rose up after a dip they saw standing on the shores of the river the great warriors Karna and Duryodhana and others. By the yogic power of Vyasa even the blind Dhrtarastra could get the vision. Very soon the vision faded and the Pandavas returned to Hastinapura. Few days after, fire broke out in the forest where Dhrtarastra was staying. Dhrtarastra, Kunti and Gandhari were burnt to death in that fire.