Dushshala () is a princess of Hastinapura, and the only daughter of King
Dhritarashtra
Dhritarashtra ( sa, धृतराष्ट्र, ISO-15919: Dhr̥tarāṣṭra) was a Kuru king, and the father of the Kauravas in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. He was the King of the Kuru Kingdom, with its capital at Hastinapura. He was ...
and Queen
Gandhari in the
Hindu epic Mahākāvya (lit. great kāvya, court epic), also known as ''sargabandha'', is a genre of Indian epic poetry in Classical Sanskrit. The genre is characterised by ornate and elaborate descriptions of scenery, love, battles and so on — in short, eve ...
''
Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the s ...
''. She was born after the birth of her
Kaurava
''Kaurava'' is a Sanskrit term which refers to descendants of Kuru, a legendary king of India who is the ancestor of many of the characters of the epic ''Mahabharata''. Usually, the term is used for the 100 sons of King Dhritarashtra and his wi ...
brothers and her paternal half-sibling,
Yuyutsu
Yuyutsu () in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'' was a son of Dhritarashtra with Gandhari's maid (named Sughada in later retelling). He was the paternal half - sibling to Gandhari's children: Duryodhana and the rest of the 99 Kaurava brothers and ...
. She is married to
Jayadratha, the king of
Sindhu
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
. She has a son named Suratha, and a daughter named Roshni.
Legend
When Jayadratha tried to kidnap and molest
Draupadi and failed, some of the
Pandavas
The Pandavas (Sanskrit: पाण्डव, IAST: Pāṇḍava) refers to the five legendary brothers— Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva—who are the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. They are acknowledge ...
decided to slay him. But on Yudhishthira's plea to prevent Dushshala from becoming a widow, they left him alone, just shaving his head. Later, Jayadratha played a vital role in getting
Abhimanyu, the son of
Arjuna, killed in the
Kurukhsetra war to satiate his vengeance. But Arjuna, with the help of Krishna, decapitated him.
Later, during the
ashvamedha sacrifice, the horse of the Pandavas came to Sindhu, which was then ruled by Suratha, the son of Dushshala. Suratha with other archers confronted Arjuna, who slew Suratha and his army. Dushshala came to the battlefield, wailing with the infant son of Suratha, which shattered Arjuna with sorrow. Arjuna proclaimed the infant the king of Sindhu.
References
External links
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{{Mahabharata
Characters in Hindu mythology
Characters in the Mahabharata