By Jit Majumdar
- holding/ maintaining a nation or state
- ruler; monarch; emperor; head of state; powerful; sovereign
- the grand-nephew of Bhīşma, the father of Duryodhana, Duhśāşana, Duhśalā and 98 other sons known as the Kauravas, the husband of Gāndhārī, and the elder half-brother of Pāndu and Vidura, and the eldest heir to the throne of the Kuru dynasty after the early and childless death of Satyavatī’s son Vicitravīrya; who was sired by the ŗşi Kŗşņa-Dvaipāyana Vyāsa in the womb of Ambikā the elder queen of Vicitravīrya, to give a successor to the Kuru throne, but was born blind, thus causing his younger half-brother Pāndu, the son of Ambālikā, to be favoured over him as successor to the throne, and whose contested claim to the rights to the throne was inherited by his sons, particularly his eldest son Duryodhana, thus laying the foundations of the lifelong rivalry and animosity between the Kaurava and Pāndava brothers (M. Bh.); a son of the daitya king Bali (Hv. Pur.); a king of Kāśi (M. Bh.); a son of Janameñjaya, the great grandson of Arjuna. (fem: dhŗtarāşţrī):
- a daughter of Kaśyapa and Tāmrā and the mother of the bird-clans of Krauñcī, Bhāsī, Śyeņī and Śukī (V. Rām.).