Gandhari: The Tragic Queen of the Mahabharata

Gandhari plays a prominent role in the Hindu epic the Mahabharata.

She was a princess of Gandhara and the wife of Dhritrashtra, the blind king of Hastinapura, and the mother of a hundred sons, the Kauravas, and a daughter. She is depicted with a blindfold, which she wore in order to live like her blind husband.

Gandhari was born in the place known as Gandhahar. Gandhari was a princess of Gándhára, hence her name came to be known as Gandhari.

Gandhari, who gave birth to a hundred sons, deeply loved her children. When she lost all her sons in the battle of Kurukshetra, spearheaded by Shri krishan, she cursed him.

At the end of the Mahabharata war, Gandhari loses all of her sons except Duryodana (The Gadayudda between him and Bheema was yet to occur). Krishna comes to visit Gandhari.She knows all her sons have been killed by Bheema in the war. She could also hear the cries of all the slain soldier's wives lamenting in grief and Gandhari was helpless and could find no way to console any of them. Gandhari blames Krishna to be the cause for this total destruction of the Kuru race. Gandhari believes that Krishna, though he had the power to prevent the war, did not do enough to prevent it. So, if Krishna had really willed, this bloodshed could have been avoided. In a fit of rage, Gandhari curses Krishna and says that the Yadav clan would also be destroyed through an internal strife in the same way as the Pandava and Kauravas were destroyed after fighting with each other. All the wives of the Yadava clan will lament over their dead husbands, the same way as the widows of the Kuru race lament over their dead husbands now. She also curses that Krishna will be a mute witness of this entire carnage. She also says Krishna would watch his entire clan perish and would himself die a cheap death like an animal.