Who was the father of Duryodhana?

The father of Duryodhana was Dhritarashtra.

Dhritarashtra was the blind king of the Kuru kingdom and Duryodhana’s father. He married Gandhari, and the Mahabharata describes their extraordinary family as one hundred sons and a daughter, Dushala. Duryodhana, the eldest of those sons, became the leading Kaurava prince and the principal rival of his cousins, the Pandavas.

Dhritarashtra’s own birth reflects the Kuru dynasty’s succession crisis. After King Vichitravirya died without children, Vyasa fathered heirs through the practice of niyoga with Vichitravirya’s widows. Dhritarashtra was born to Ambika, but blindness prevented him from inheriting the throne at first; his younger half-brother Pandu became king instead. When Pandu withdrew to the forest, Dhritarashtra assumed the kingship.

The king’s relationship with Duryodhana is central to the epic’s tragedy. Dhritarashtra often recognized that his son’s jealousy and schemes were dangerous, but paternal attachment repeatedly weakened his judgment. He failed to stop the dice-game humiliation of Draupadi and the exile of the Pandavas. Vichitravirya and Vyasa are connected to Dhritarashtra’s parentage, but neither is Duryodhana’s father.