Bhagavad Gita · Mahabharata Codex

Gandhari

गान्धारी · gāndhārī

Queen of the Kurus; wife of Dhritarashtra; mother of the hundred Kauravas

She chose never to see, and she saw her son more clearly than anyone.

Gandhari was a princess of Gandhara. When she learned that her husband was blind she bound her own eyes with cloth and never took it off. She is the conscience of the Kaurava court: she tells Duryodhana to his face that he is wrong, and when he asks her blessing for victory she will say only, 'Where there is dharma, there is victory.' She is not named in the Gita, but its first verse is about her sons.