Gandhari: A Mother Blinded By Love

Stories of many great women, their achievements and their sufferings, are recounted in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Sita, Kunti and Draupadi are among the better known. These women went through many painful ordeals, but they had one hope to sustain them--they had noble children.

The case of Gandhari, the mother of the Kauravas is different. She was a good woman who gave birth to wicked sons. All around her there was treachery. Her husband was weak and ambitious; her brother, Shakuni, was an arch-villain; and her sons were full of violence. Among them, she alone stood for virtue and truth--a single lotus in a marshy swamp.