Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.66

c7.66

GĀNDHĀRĪ. Wife of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.
1) Birth. There was a King called Subala in the family of Turvasu, brother of Yadu. (For genealogy see under Subala). Subala became the King of the land of Gāndhāra. This land extended from the river Sindhu to Kābul. Gāndhārī was the daughter of Subala. (Chapter 111, Ādi Parva).
2) Marriage. Gāndhārī became a devotee of Śiva even from her childhood. Śiva became pleased with her and blessed her saying that she would bear a hundred sons. Bhīṣma came to know of this and he planned to get her married to Dhṛtarāṣṭra. One day he sent a messenger to Subala making a proposal. Subala knew that Dhṛtarāṣṭra was born blind but considering his lineage and the powerful alliance it would make, consented to the proposal of Bhīṣma. Śakuni, brother of Gāndhārī, then by the order of his father took Gāndhārī to Hastināpura and Dhṛtarāṣṭra accepted her as his wife. Gāndhārī obeying her father's instructions without a demur accepted her blind husband with such devotion that she made herself blind by tightly covering her eyes with a silk shawl. (Chapter 110, Ādi Parva).
3) Birth of Sons. Once Vyāsa came to her exhausted with hunger and thirst. Gāndhārī appeased his hunger and thirst with tasty things to eat and drink. Vyāsa was immensely pleased and he also blessed her and said she would get a hundred sons. Very soon she became pregnant. But even after two years she did not deliver, while Kuntī, wife of Pāṇḍu, gave birth to a son. Grief-stricken, she hit hardly on her womb secretly and then a great mass of flesh came out. Then Vyāsa appeared before her and advised her to cut the lump of flesh into a hundred pieces and deposit one each in a jar of ghee. Vyāsa himself cut it into pieces. Gāndhārī expressed a desire to have a girl also. Vyāsa cut it into hundred and one pieces and put them in hundred and one jars of ghee. In due time the jars broke and a hundred sons and a daughter came out of the jars. The daughter was named Duḥśalā. For their name see ‘Kauravas’. Dhṛtarāṣṭra got another son named Yuyutsu. (Chapters 115 and 116, Ādi Parva).