Pandu was cursed by the deer that he killed while it was copulating. He decided to spend the rest of his days in the forest, away from the comforts of his palace and accordingly, sent the royal jewel back to Hastinapura. When Dhritarashtra received Pandu's jewel, he was in tears.
`Bharata,'' he said to Bhishma, ``Pandu will never come back.''
``Who knows the future?,'' asked Bhishma, ``take the jewel and rule the kingdom wisely.''
``A blind man as king?,'' asked Dhritarashtra bitterly.
``A blind man whose wisdom is his only eye,'' replied Bhishma, ``Don't wallow in pity - a young princess even now is making her way to Hastinapura to be your queen.''
Dhritarashtra was awestruck. ``Who is this woman who would marry a blind man?,'' he asked.

Bhishma told him that it was the princess of the land of Gandhara. He told the young king of how her brother Sakuni was bringing marriage gifts and how the young princess had blindfolded herself so that she might never see what her husband couldn't.

Dhritarashtra and Gandhari ruled happily from Hastinapura. The king lost himself in the queen's love, as a river gets lost in the sea. Gandhari became pregnant, to the joy of everyone.

A full year passed and yet the queen did not deliver. The worried Bhishma sent for the poet Vyasa who calmed him down saying that Gandhari would deliver a hundred sons, only that she would deliver them after two years.

Another full year passed and Gandhari delivered a hard ball of flesh that Vyasa cleaned in cool water and divided into a hundred pieces. He put each piece in a bronze jar full of butter and sealed the jar. Vyasa thus filled one hundred bronze jars but there was still a single piece of flesh left. Bhishma brought another jar and Vyasa dropped the final piece into the last jar. ``These are your hundred sons and one daughter,'' he told Gandhari, ``open the jars after two years and the children will be born then.''

Bhishma protected the jars for two years. After two full years, Gandhari went about opening the jars one each day. The first to be born was her son

The first born is called Duryodhana. Sinister omens of violence greet his arrival into the world: jackals howl, strong winds blow, fires rage through the city. Dhritarashtra worries about what all this means. Vidura tells him that his first son brings hate and destruction into the world. He will one day destroy their race. Vidura urges the king to get rid of the child, but Dhritarashtra ignores his advice. Duryodhana and the other ninety-nine Kurus followed one after the other.

Dhritarashtra is a weak ruler. He allows physical blindness to become a refusal to face reality and unwillingness to confront hard decisions, being easily led by Duryodhana in later years. He continually blames fate, excusing his own inaction: "Irrevocable were all the things that have happened. Who could have stopped them? What then can I do? Destiny is surely all-powerful" But one of Dhritarashtra's advisors tells him: "O king, surely a man who meets with calamity as a result of his own acts should not blame the gods, destiny, or others. Each of us receives the just results of our actions."