After Vichitravirya's death his mother Satyavati sent for her first born, Rishi Ved Vyasa. On his mother's wishes, he visited both the wives of Vichitravirya to grant them a son. When Vyasa visited Ambika, she saw his very dreadful and forbidding appearance with burning eyes. In her frightened state, she closed her eyes and dared not to open it. Hence her son, Dhritarashtra was born blind.
Battle of Kurukshetra
During the great battle of Kurukshetra between the Kauravas (the sons of Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas), Dhritarashtra was givan the option by the gods to have his eyesight restored, but he refused and instead asked for Sanjaya, his charioteer, to be given divine eyesight (which not only included television powers but also insight into the minds of people he saw).
The very first stanza of the Bhagavad Gita is a question from Dhritarashtra to Sanjaya asking him for a narration of the events of the great battle of Kurukshetra.
The two brothers in turn renounced the throne, and the Great War recorded in the Mahabharata was fought between their sons, one party being called Kauravas, from an ancestor, Kuru, and the other Pandavas, from their father Pandu.
Dhritarashtra and his wife were burned in a forest fire.
Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. The textual material made available at this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License.