Dhritarashtra
Dhritarashtra ( Sanskrit : धृतराष्ट्र, dhṛtarāṣṭra ) is in the great epic Mahabharata the blind king of Hastinapur . His behavior, which fluctuates between selfish interests and the royal Dharma , makes him a tragic figure and ultimately leads to the death of all of his sons, the Kauravas , in the battle of Kurukshetra .
birth
At the request of the Queen Mother Satyavati, Dhritarashtra is conceived by the sage Vyasa together with Ambika , the wife of the late King Vichitravirya . Since he died without a successor, the royal line of the Kurus should be preserved. The epic tells that Ambika was so afraid of the unkempt hermit Vyasa that she closed her eyes at the sight of him. For this reason the son Dhritashtra is said to have been born blind and although the firstborn, he does not become king of Hastinapur . He must leave this title to his brother Pandu .
Reign of Pandu
During the reign of Pandu, Dhritarashtra often complained to his wife Gandhari about the injustice of the fate of having to live blind as a firstborn and thus without a prospect of the crown. He is only allowed to wear the crown when the king is absent on campaigns or hunts. It is becoming more and more difficult for him to give them back to his brother. Gandhari, who wears a bandage around her eyes out of love for her husband, admonishes him again and again to act according to his Dharma and not to be guided by foolish desires.
Dhritarashtra reign
In penance for incorrect behavior during a hunt in which he mistakenly killed a wise hermit, Pandu goes with his two wives into the forest and gives his brother the royal dignity. After Pandu's death, Dhritarashtra becomes king of Hastinapur for good. He grants Kunti , his brother's first wife and their sons, the Pandavas, an apartment in the royal palace. He can also bring himself to have the sons of Kunti and his own children raised by a wise man. But the different character traits and abilities of the unequal cousins are already evident in childhood. His first son, Duryodhana in particular, developed a great hatred of Kunti's sons and was unwilling to share the property with them. Dhritarashtra has a total of 100 sons.
succession
According to the law, the sons of Kunti have the older rights to the throne. However, Dhritarashtra's eldest son Duryodhana is not ready to give up part of his power and the father would like to see his own son as his successor. Through the mediation of Bhishma , an agreement is reached that the Pandavas receive part of the kingdom, but the center remains in the hands of the Kauravas . In the further course of the epic his sons try to thwart this agreement and Dhritarashtra does not oppose this plan decisively enough. So the decisive battle of Kurukshetra comes about , in the course of which all of Dhritarashtra's sons die.
Dhritarashtra and the Bhagavadgita
At the beginning of the battle a bard tells the blind king about the procession of the two armies and gives him the wording of the conversation between the princely charioteer Krishna and the Pandu prince Arjuna before the start of the battle. This conversation between the two princes is the content of the Bhagavadgita , which is still one of the most widely read and most discussed works in Hindu literature.
literature
- Biren Roy (Ed.): Mahabharata. India's great epic . 10th edition. Diederichs, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3424005762
