Dhritarashtra: Weakness and Attachment personified

Despite being born blind, Dhritarashtra was trained along with Pandu but wasn’t able to use weapons necessary for a king. Therefore, when the time came to appoint a heir to Hastinapur, Bheeshma turned to the wisdom of Vidur the third brother, who recommended that Pandu be anointed to the post. It was no surprise to anyone as such and was willingly accepted even by Dhritarashtra. He had the physical strength of a hundred thousand elephants but even he realised that it won’t be appropriate for Hastinapur if he were to usurp the throne. As it turned out later, after a few years, he became the king by proxy when Pandu retired to the forest. Even then, he realised that he wasn’t the real king as such. Issues related to mental cobwebs about being blind and hence not being given the throne, weren’t big problems for him till then.

His biggest problems arose a few years later in the form of his increasing attachment to his eldest son Duryodhana. That blind attachment spread more darkness in his life and that of Hastinapur than the actual blindness. That turned out to be his biggest weakness. His weak personality when faced with that attachment made frequent capital of his blindness, and apparent helplessness.

If the story of the birth of Dhritarashtra was fantastic, then that of the birth of his children is even more so. The timing of that also set the tone for Duryodhana’s arguments for being the rightful heir to the throne.

It turned out that Gandhari was pregnant and the son she would give birth to was expected to be the eldest in the next generation. That provided some hope to Dhritarashtra that, perhaps, his son would be the next king legitimately, especially because Pandu had retired to the forests and had no children till then. But Gandhari’s pregnancy lasted a long time, by some versions, almost two years. She got weary and tired of it, and, in the meantime, Kunti got pregnant and delivered Yudhishthira. Gandhari, out of frustration, hit her womb in a fit of anger, and a lump of flesh came out of it. Ved Vyasa was instantly approached for his counsel. He split that lump into one hundred and one smaller pieces and stored them in separate vessels for some sort of gestation. After a year, from the first vessel was born Duryodhana, and over due course of time, the remaining ninety nine sons and one daughter Dushala were born.

Now it so happened that when Duryodhana was born, there were major bad omens and signals of an inauspicious event having happened. Ved Vyasa and other learned scholars interpreted that to mean that this particular son would cause the destruction of the entire Kuru clan. They advised Dhritarashtra to get rid of that son and focus on the remaining offspring for the good of the kingdom. It was not as if he had a small number of those, so might as well give the bad omen up. But he neglected that advice and insisted that he and Gandhari keep the son and raise him with due care. This was the start of his excessive and what turned out to be blind attachment to this son.

Even with the birth of Yudhishthira, Dhritarashtra may not have felt that Duryodhana had any threat to succession as Yudhishthira then lived in a hermitage and didn’t quite train to be a king. Hence Duryodhana was raised as a pampered child with an unparalleled sense of entitlement. And Dhritarashtra and his attachment kept increasing despite the tantrums of his son.

The turn of events after the death of Pandu led to a situation leading to the return of Kunti and her sons. While on the face of it, Dhritarashtra welcomed them, his mindset was exposed for the first time when the time to appoint the heir to the throne came. Bheeshma, Vidur and Drona provided their counsel and came to the conclusion that Yudhishthira was the right heir, both from the point of view of being the eldest son of Pandu (on whose behalf Dhritarashtra was supposed to be managing the kingdom) as well as from the point of view of a suitable virtuous and wise character. Dhritarashtra couldn’t disagree with them but kept oscilating till Vidur forced the issue. When pressed, Dhritarashtra declared Yudhishthira as the heir only to regret it when Duryodhana reprimanded him, a sequence that repeated itself all his life.

This suppression came to the fore again when Duryodhana came up with his plan to send the Pandavas to Varnavrat. Dhritarashtra very well knew that something was amiss without knowing the details when Duryodhana indicated that he was planning to send them there for ever. Dhritarashtra went to the extent of encouraging the Pandavas to have a nice time at the fair and fun times at Varnavrat. When the news of the fire at Varnavrat came up with the proof of the burnt bodies of a woman and her five sons found, Dhritarashtra expressed sorrow on the face of it. But neither did he order any royal investigation into how a fire in which a queen and five young princes perished happened, nor did he question Duryodhana privately on what happened at Varnavrat. It was almost as if he was happy to brush it under the carpet and live with the benefits that such a development offered, while still calling it an unfortunate mishap in public.

To that extent, while he was not driven with the evil desire to end the Pandavas like Duryodhana, his tacit approval and, literally, turning a blind eye to whatever happened, were due to his innate desire to see his son ascend to the throne of Hastinapur. In a short while after the Varnavrat tragedy, Dhritarashtra also anointed Duryodhana as the heir to the throne, saying that with the Pandavas no more and he getting old, it was important for the kingdom of Hastinapur. Well, it was a needless urgency on the wrong things, especially after he had kept oscillating while appointing Yudhishthira. In the process, he didn’t realise the complete disregard he ended up giving to his duties as a king. They were overtaken by his extreme attachment to being a father of, unfortunately, a wicked and scheming son.

While it looked like things were all set, little did he know that the Pandavas were alive. It was only later that the news came out and that too in a manner that almost brought his true wily colours out in the open.

The event was the swayamvar of Panchali, for which princes of all leading kingdoms, including Duryodhana were invited. A messenger returned with the news that Draupadi had been won by the Kurus leading to Dhritarashtra celebrating that Duryodhana had won her. But after a few moments, the messenger clarified that he had been won by Arjuna from the Kuru dynasty. This was a double whammy. Not only did it break the news that Arjuna and presumably all the sons of Kunti were alive, but it also conveyed that he had beaten Duryodhana to bag Draupadi as the daughter-in-law of Hastinapur. Dhritarashtra turned pale and, for a moment, almost turned sad. But on realising that everyone was watching, and in response to Bheeshma and Drona’s elated reaction, he pretended to celebrate. The Pandavas are alive, he declared in public and avoided complete embarrassment.

But his inner feelings couldn’t be hidden when it came to thinking of doing what next. The wily father that he was sent a half hearted message to the Pandavas. Neither did he wholeheartedly invite them to Hastinapur nor did he openly indicate that their sudden appearance was unwelcome. If left to himself, he might not have done much beyond these basic greetings.

But it was Bheeshma, Drona and Vidur whose counsel intervened again. Bheeshma told him what was the right thing to do. He said that the Pandavas were equal stakeholders in Hastinapur and should be welcomed with open arms and hearts. Vidur, on the other hand, with his wisdom, knew what triggers would work with Dhritarashtra. He told him that the Varnavrat episode was being seen with suspicion by the people of Hastinapur and to maintain his hold over it, he had no choice but to show that there was no conspiracy behind it. The best way to do that was to share the kingdom with the Pandavas.

Dhritarashtra’s problem had never been to know what was the right thing to do. His problem had always been of actually doing it. And what stopped him every time from doing it was his attachment to his son, wrapped in a weak personality, aggravated by his physical blindness. So while on paper, he agreed that Bheeshma and Vidur were right, and declared his commitment with vehemence, when confronted by the wicked, aggressive and manipulative ways of Duryodhana, all of that came to nought. He was like the proverbial dog that barked but did not bite. And the same thing happened when it came to sharing the kingdom.

Dhritarashtra did welcome the Pandavas and Draupadi to Hastinapur. He did split the kingdom into two. On paper, he coronated Yudhishthira as the king of one half. The problem was what that other half was. It was a province called Khandav Prastha which was a sparsely populated, barren region in the forests. Dhritarashtra half heartedly offered that to the Pandavas, while everyone watched the complete unfairness of it.

It was again the weak king driven by his blind attachment to his son who had done it. It was probably his way of ensuring that once and for all, the Pandavas get their share and leave the real kingdom for his son to rule in peace. Little did he know that when virtue touches stone, even that turns to gold, especially with the Lord on the side of the virtuous. And for the vicious, there is no end to which they can’t fall.

***