Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.2223

c7.2223

2) The origin of Kauravas. (Duryodhana and his brothers). Dhṛtarāṣṭra married Gāndhārī the daughter of Subala the King of Gāndhāra. Once Vyāsa reached the palace weary with hunger and thirst. Gāndhārī gave Vyāsa food and drink. Vyāsa was pleased with her and told her that she might ask for any boon. She said that she wanted to get hundred sons from Dhṛtarāṣṭra. Vyāsa granted the boon. Gāndhārī became pregnant. Even after two years she did not deliver. She heard that Kuntī, the wife of Pāṇḍu had given birth to a child. Gāndhārī became sad. She crushed her womb and gave birth to a lump of flesh. Understanding this, Vyāsa came there and cutting the lump into hundred and one pieces kept them in ghee-pots. Advising Gāndhārī to keep the pots in secret, Vyāsa went to the Himālayas. The pots were broken at the proper time and hundred sons and a daughter came out. Besides them Dhṛtarāṣṭra had another son named Yuyutsu by a Vaiśya woman.