DHRITARASTHRA AND DURYODHANA

In looking at Dhritarashtra, the blind incompetent king, father of Duryodhana, there are many angles of vision. His character is sometimes seen as simply weak from being overly affectionate to his eldest son Duryodhana and sometimes that he is just as conniving as Duryodhana, secretly desiring within himself that his son become the greatest king in the world and not Yudhisthira.

But I am also wondering if maybe Dhritarashtra was not also "afraid" of Duryodhana. It is well know that those with blind ambition have killed their own family members to gain power. If Dhritarashtra were to try to restrain Duryodhana with strong authority then he also along with the Pandavas would become an obstacle to the crazed Duryodhana.

Duryodhana was capable of any horrendous behavior as we see with the attempted disrobing of Draupadi, the house of wax, the poisoning of Bhima, and at one point just before the war he even attempted to attack and capture Krishna who was on a messenger's mission of peace to Hastinpura on behalf the Pandavas.

Evidently Duryodhana and the other 99 sons left no offspring. Which is amazing to me. They were grown men. The only offspring of the Kauravas that remained after the battle was one daughter.. Duhsala and Yuyutsu the son of Dhritarashtra born from a sudrani. Dhritarashtra had 101 sons and one daughter. She married King Jayadratha who was slain by Arjuna in the war. His son acting as king having inherited his father's kingdom died out of fright when Arjuna was seen coming with the challenge horse and an army in preparation for the great sacrifice of Maharaja Yudhisthira after the war. Thinking it was an attack... most likely he had an heart attack.

The grandson of Jayadratha and Duhsala (great grandson of Dhritarasthra), Yuyutsu and Duhsala herself provided the only remaining members of the Kauravas... Evidently Dhritarashtra showed no interest in these descendants as he preferred to remain in Hastinapura under the care of Yudhisthira whom he had tried to destroy.

Inheritance by birth right was a very significant part of Vedic culture in preceding ages. Due to Dhritarashtra being born blind that birth right was forfeited his sons. Duryadhona's idea was that "might makes right" and that was the deciding factor for who should be king. Never mind the disqualification due to not meeting the standards of the culture for birth right to ascension.

It is interesting to note that he was right. Birth right is not the ultimate deciding factor. He was right and he was wrong at the same time. The ultimate deciding factor especially in the Kali yuga is by qualification. He was right about qualification trumping birth right, but he was wrong about what those qualifications were.

Yudhisthira had the actual qualifications....which came automatically as a by product of his devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna.