Vaishampayana Narrates the Origins of the Kauravas and Pandavas
Vaishampayana begins the detailed tale: Gandhari, granted a boon for a hundred sons, endures a two-year pregnancy before delivering a mass of flesh. The sage Vyasa intervenes, dividing the flesh into parts that become the Kauravas, with the first-born Duryodhana arriving amid terrible omens that the blind king chooses to ignore.
Vaishampayana accepted Janamejaya’s command and began.
It started with a visit from the sage Dvaipayana — Vyasa himself. He arrived at the palace hungry and tired. Gandhari, Dhritarashtra’s wife, attended to him and satisfied him. In return, Vyasa gave her a boon: she would have one hundred sons, each the equal of her husband.
In time, she conceived. But the pregnancy did not follow a normal course. Gandhari carried the embryo for two full years without giving birth. She was overcome with grief and anxiety. Then she heard news that shattered her remaining patience: Kunti, the wife of her brother-in-law Pandu, had given birth to a son as radiant as the morning sun. Yudhishthira was born.
Feeling the unnatural hardness of her own stomach, Gandhari acted. Unknown to Dhritarashtra, in a moment of despair, she struck her own belly violently. The pain made her faint. What emerged was not a child. It was a hard mass of flesh, like an iron ball — the result of two years of gestation. She prepared to throw it away.
Vyasa, learning of this, came to her quickly. The supreme rishi saw the mass of flesh and asked, “What have you done?”
Gandhari told him the truth. “When I heard that Kunti had given birth to her first son, as radiant as the sun, I struck my belly in grief. Earlier, you granted me the boon that I would have a hundred sons. But instead of those 100 sons, this mass of flesh has been born to me.”
Vyasa’s reply was firm. “O Subala’s daughter! It will be as I have said and not otherwise. I have never uttered a falsehood in jest. Why should I do it when I am in earnest?” His words were a vow. The boon would manifest.
He gave her instructions. “Quickly bring a hundred pots and fill them up with ghee. Let cool water be sprinkled on this mass of flesh.”
They did as he said. As the water was sprinkled, the single mass divided itself into one hundred parts, each no larger than a thumb. As they watched, it divided once more, becoming one hundred and one separate pieces. These embryonic parts were placed into the pots filled with ghee, which were then concealed in a secret spot and carefully guarded. Vyasa told Gandhari how long to wait before breaking the pots open. Then he left for the Himalayas to continue his austerities.
In due course, the first pot was opened. From it came Duryodhana. But a chronological fact was noted: though Duryodhana was the first of Gandhari’s sons to emerge, Yudhishthira had been born first. Therefore, by right of age, Yudhishthira was the eldest prince of the lineage.
When Duryodhana was born, Dhritarashtra summoned the Brahmanas, Bhishma, and his brother Vidura. His question was political and fraught. “Prince Yudhishthira is the eldest prince for the extension of our lineage. He will obtain the kingdom through his own qualities and I have nothing to say on this. But will this one become the king after him? Tell me truthfully what must certainly happen.”
As he finished speaking, the answer came — not from the counselors, but from the world itself. Carrion eaters, terrible carnivores, and howling jackals began to scream from all directions.
Vidura and all the Brahmanas interpreted the omens. “It is clear that this son of yours will bring about the destruction of this lineage. There is peace in abandoning him and great disaster in nurturing him.” Vidura laid out the brutal calculus of dharma: “It is said that abandon one for the sake of the lineage. Abandon a lineage for the sake of a village. Abandon a village for the sake of a country. Abandon the earth for the sake of the soul.”
Their counsel was unanimous: sacrifice this one son to save the ninety-nine others and the kingdom.
Dhritarashtra heard them. And because of his affection for his first-born son, he did nothing.
The pots were opened, one after another. Within a month, one hundred sons were born to Dhritarashtra from those vessels of ghee. And there was also one daughter, Duhshala, making one hundred and one children from the divided flesh.
Vaishampayana then addressed the other son, the one born of the Vaishya maid. While Gandhari was afflicted with her expanding, prolonged pregnancy, the mighty-armed Dhritarashtra had a Vaishya woman in attendance. Within a year, she bore him a son. He was named Yuyutsu, of mixed lineage, and would become famous and wise.
Thus, Dhritarashtra had one hundred brave, wise maharatha sons, one daughter, and Yuyutsu. The two branches of the family were now complete: the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra, and the five sons of Pandu, born from the gods.