Who was the mother of the Kauravas?

The mother of the Kauravas was Gandhari.

Gandhari was a princess of Gandhara who married Dhritarashtra, the blind prince and later king of the Kuru kingdom. In a famous symbolic act, she covered her own eyes with a cloth for the rest of her life, choosing to share her husband’s blindness. Together, they became the parents of the hundred sons collectively called the Kauravas, including Duryodhana and Dushasana.

The Mahabharata gives the Kauravas’ birth a miraculous form. Gandhari remained pregnant for two years before producing a hard mass of flesh rather than a child. Sage Vyasa divided it into one hundred portions, placing them in jars of clarified butter. The portions eventually became one hundred sons; an additional portion produced their sister Dushala.

Gandhari is more than a genealogical figure. She repeatedly criticizes Duryodhana’s conduct, yet her inability to restrain him contributes to the disaster of the Kurukshetra War. After all her sons die, her grief leads her to curse Krishna. Kunti, Madri and Draupadi are important women in the epic, but none is the mother of the Kauravas.