Vidura (
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
: विदुर,
vidūra) was half-brother to
DhritarashtraIn the Mahābhārata Dhritarashtra was the son born to Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika. He was fathered by Vyasa. This blind king of Hastinapura was father to a hundred children by his wife Gandhari . These children came to be known as the Kauravas...
and
PanduIn the Mahābhārata epic, Pandu is the son of Vichitravirya and his second wife, Ambalika from Vyasa. He is more popularly known as the father of the Pandavas.-Birth:...
. He was a son of a maid-servant who served the queens of
HastinapuraHastinapur is a town and a nagar panchayat in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.-History:Hastinapura was the capital of the kingdom of the Kauravas, belonging to the Kuru dynasty of kings....
,
AmbikaAmbika was the daughter of King of Kashi and wife of Vichitravirya, King of Hastinapur.Along with her sisters Amba and Ambalika, she was taken by force by Bhishma from their Swayamvara...
and
AmbalikaAmbalika was the daughter of the King of Kashi, and the wife of Vichitravirya, King of Hastinapur.Along with her sisters Amba and Ambika, she was taken by force by Bhishma from their Swayamvara, the latter having challenged and defeated the assembled royalty...
. In some accounts, he was an incarnation of
YamaYama is the lord of death in Hinduism, first recorded in the Vedas. Yama belongs to an early stratum of Indo-Iranian theology. In Vedic tradition, Yama was considered to have been the first mortal who died and espied the way to the celestial abodes, and in virtue of precedence he became the ruler...
or Dharma Raja, who was cursed by the sage, Mandavya, for imposing punishment on him that exceed the sin.
Both queens were married to King
VichitraviryaVichitravirya in the Hindu epic Mahabharata is the younger son of queen Satyavatī and king Śaṅtanu. His elder brother, Chitrāngada, had initially succeeded their father to the throne of Hastinapura, but when he died childless, Vichitravirya succeeded him.Vichitravirya was still a child when he was...
of Hastinapur, who died childless. Vichitravirya's mother
SatyavatiSatyavati is the great-grandmother of the Pandava and Kaurava princes, principal characters of the Mahābhārata, one of the principal texts in Hindu mythology. She is nevertheless a commoner, daughter to a ferryman or fisherman...
was anxious to ensure that the royal line was carried on.
Vidura (
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
: विदुर,
vidūra) was half-brother to
DhritarashtraIn the Mahābhārata Dhritarashtra was the son born to Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika. He was fathered by Vyasa. This blind king of Hastinapura was father to a hundred children by his wife Gandhari . These children came to be known as the Kauravas...
and
PanduIn the Mahābhārata epic, Pandu is the son of Vichitravirya and his second wife, Ambalika from Vyasa. He is more popularly known as the father of the Pandavas.-Birth:...
. He was a son of a maid-servant who served the queens of
HastinapuraHastinapur is a town and a nagar panchayat in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.-History:Hastinapura was the capital of the kingdom of the Kauravas, belonging to the Kuru dynasty of kings....
,
AmbikaAmbika was the daughter of King of Kashi and wife of Vichitravirya, King of Hastinapur.Along with her sisters Amba and Ambalika, she was taken by force by Bhishma from their Swayamvara...
and
AmbalikaAmbalika was the daughter of the King of Kashi, and the wife of Vichitravirya, King of Hastinapur.Along with her sisters Amba and Ambika, she was taken by force by Bhishma from their Swayamvara, the latter having challenged and defeated the assembled royalty...
. In some accounts, he was an incarnation of
YamaYama is the lord of death in Hinduism, first recorded in the Vedas. Yama belongs to an early stratum of Indo-Iranian theology. In Vedic tradition, Yama was considered to have been the first mortal who died and espied the way to the celestial abodes, and in virtue of precedence he became the ruler...
or Dharma Raja, who was cursed by the sage, Mandavya, for imposing punishment on him that exceed the sin.
Both queens were married to King
VichitraviryaVichitravirya in the Hindu epic Mahabharata is the younger son of queen Satyavatī and king Śaṅtanu. His elder brother, Chitrāngada, had initially succeeded their father to the throne of Hastinapura, but when he died childless, Vichitravirya succeeded him.Vichitravirya was still a child when he was...
of Hastinapur, who died childless. Vichitravirya's mother
SatyavatiSatyavati is the great-grandmother of the Pandava and Kaurava princes, principal characters of the Mahābhārata, one of the principal texts in Hindu mythology. She is nevertheless a commoner, daughter to a ferryman or fisherman...
was anxious to ensure that the royal line was carried on. She called upon her other son
VyasaVyāsa is a central and revered figure in the majority of Hindu traditions. He is also known as Badarayana. He is also sometimes called Veda Vyasa , or Krishna Dvaipayana...
, to go to the beds of the two queens to father children. Vyasa was a sage and ascetic hermit, and came to the palace, unkempt as he was. He went to
AmbikaAmbika was the daughter of King of Kashi and wife of Vichitravirya, King of Hastinapur.Along with her sisters Amba and Ambalika, she was taken by force by Bhishma from their Swayamvara...
who closed her eyes when she saw him, and to
AmbalikaAmbalika was the daughter of the King of Kashi, and the wife of Vichitravirya, King of Hastinapur.Along with her sisters Amba and Ambika, she was taken by force by Bhishma from their Swayamvara, the latter having challenged and defeated the assembled royalty...
who became pale. Hence the children they bore were blind and weak.
When Satyavati asked Vyasa to go to Ambika's bed again, to ensure that there would be children, she placed her maid-servant instead in her bed. The dutiful maid-servant was not frightened. Hence her son was not born flawed like his half-brothers. Thus, Vidura was born who was raised as brother of
DhritarashtraIn the Mahābhārata Dhritarashtra was the son born to Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika. He was fathered by Vyasa. This blind king of Hastinapura was father to a hundred children by his wife Gandhari . These children came to be known as the Kauravas...
and
PanduIn the Mahābhārata epic, Pandu is the son of Vichitravirya and his second wife, Ambalika from Vyasa. He is more popularly known as the father of the Pandavas.-Birth:...
.
With his half-brothers he was raised and educated by
BhishmaBhishma is one of the strongest characters of the Mahabharata. He was the grandfather of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas. An unparalleled archer, he once vanquished the mighty Parasurama.-Birth:...
, whom they called father.
As neither of his parents were of royal blood (sage Vyasa was of divine but not royal lineage), Vidura was never considered for, or had any chance of obtaining the throne of the kingdom. He served his brothers as a chancellor.
After
KrishnaKrishna is a deity worshipped across many traditions in Hinduism in a variety of perspectives...
, he was the most trusted advisor to the Pandavas and had warned them repeatedly about
DuryodhanaIn the Hindu epic the Mahābhārata, Duryodhana is the eldest son of the blind king Dhritarashtra by Queen Gandhari, the eldest of the one hundred Kaurava brothers, and the chief antagonist of the Pandavas. He was an avatar of the demon Kali who had possessed the soul of Nala, forcing him to gamble...
's plots. In particular, he warned the Pandavas from Duryodhana's plan to burn them alive in a house of wax he had made for them. He was known for speaking the truth and for his intelligence.
Vidura is famous also for being a true devotee of Lord Krishna. When the latter visited Hastinapura as a peace missary of the Pandavas, he shunned
DuryodhanaIn the Hindu epic the Mahābhārata, Duryodhana is the eldest son of the blind king Dhritarashtra by Queen Gandhari, the eldest of the one hundred Kaurava brothers, and the chief antagonist of the Pandavas. He was an avatar of the demon Kali who had possessed the soul of Nala, forcing him to gamble...
's offer to stay in his stately guesthouse, instead choosing the humble dwellings of Vidura.
In protest against the
MahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the . The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
war, Vidura resigned from the post of minister.
After the great battle, he helped Yudhishtira when he became ruler. Later, he accompanied
DhritarashtraIn the Mahābhārata Dhritarashtra was the son born to Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika. He was fathered by Vyasa. This blind king of Hastinapura was father to a hundred children by his wife Gandhari . These children came to be known as the Kauravas...
, and his sisters-in-law
GandhariThe word Gāndhārī can mean more than one thing:* Gāndhārī is a character in the Indian epic, the Mahabharata.* The Gāndhārī language was a north-western prakrit spoken in Gāndhāra.*The Ghandari people, who lived in Gandhara...
, and Kunti, when they left on their last journey to the forest. He died before his companions, on the banks of the
GangaThe Ganges is one of the major rivers of the Indian subcontinent, flowing east through the Gangetic Plain of northern India into Bangladesh. The river rises in the western Himalayas in the Uttarakhand state of India, and drains into the Sunderbans delta in the Bay of Bengal...
.
Vidura is considered as the
Mahachohan in the
Theosophical world. Mahachohan is said to be the chief of a Social Hierarchy of the trans-Himalayan mystics.
"Vidur Neeti" or Vidur's opinion on the science of politics, narrated in the form of a conversation between Vidur and King Dritrashtra, is often tipped as the pre-cursor of the Chanakya Neeti.
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