Who speaks · धृतराष्ट्र
Dhritarashtra
The king who asks. He speaks one verse, the first, and never again. The rest of the Gita is the answer to it.
What does Dhritarashtra say in the Bhagavad Gita?
He speaks one verse. The Gita opens with it and he is not heard from again. He asks Sanjaya what his sons and the sons of Pandu did, gathered on the field of dharma, eager to fight (1.1). Everything that follows is the answer, given to a man who asked about troop movements and was handed a conversation about the self. His question draws a line in its own words: mine, and the sons of Pandu. The text never records what he made of the answer.
Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust · counted from the text
In the text
Verses spoken, chapter by chapter. Counted from the speaker recorded with each verse, not inferred from where a speaker-announcement falls.
The verse is worth reading slowly, because it is all there is. He asks about a place and gives it two names: the field of dharma, the field of the Kurus. धर्मक्षेत्रे is the opening word of the Bhagavad Gita, and everything the text later says about duty stands underneath it. Then he asks about people, and in asking he divides them — मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव, mine and the sons of Pandu. He does not say my nephews. He does not say the Kuru family. One side is his; the other has a father’s name.
The Gita never comments on that division, and it does not need to, because the same men are described again a few verses later in a completely different word. Dhritarashtra calls them yuyutsavaḥ, eager to fight. Arjuna, looking at exactly those men from the chariot, calls them svajana — his own people — and cannot lift his bow (1.28). Two men use the same field and the same eagerness and see opposite things. That contrast is in the text, and the text does not point at it. It is also the only thing the Gita offers about what is going on inside Dhritarashtra: the shape of one sentence.
A page about him has to be short, and it is better to say so than to fill it. He appears once. Sanjaya addresses him throughout, calls him king, tells him what was said and later what it did to the teller — but Dhritarashtra does not reply, does not interrupt, and is never reported as having reacted. The Mahabharata has a great deal to say about him and it is not in this book. Inside this text there is one question from him, and the useful thing to do with it is to read it closely rather than pad it out with a life the Gita does not tell.
Where something changes
The verses that turn.
Bhagavad Gita 1.1Dhritarashtra
धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेता युयुत्सवः ।
मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत सञ्जय ॥Tell me, Sanjaya: gathered on the field of dharma, the field of the Kurus, eager to fight, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do?
His only verse, and the only words of his the Gita records. He asks what happened on the field, names it the field of dharma, and divides the men on it into his own and another man’s.
Bhagavad Gita 1.2Sanjaya
दृष्ट्वा तु पाण्डवानीकं व्यूढं दुर्योधनस्तदा ।
आचार्यमुपसङ्गम्य राजा वचनमब्रवीत् ॥Seeing the army of the Pandavas drawn up in formation, King Duryodhana then went up to his teacher and spoke these words.
Sanjaya starts answering. The king asked what they did; the reply begins with Duryodhana walking across to his teacher, and never returns to the king for a word of his.
Bhagavad Gita 11.9Sanjaya
एवमुक्त्वा ततो राजन्महायोगेश्वरो हरिः ।
दर्शयामास पार्थाय परमं रूपमैश्वरम् ॥Having spoken in this way, O king, Hari, the great master of yoga, then showed to Partha that supreme form in which he rules over everything.
He is still the person being addressed. Sanjaya turns to him as the vision begins, which is the text’s reminder that all of this is being told to someone who cannot see it.
Bhagavad Gita 18.76–18.77Sanjaya
राजन्संस्मृत्य संस्मृत्य संवादमिममद्भुतम् ।
केशवार्जुनयोः पुण्यं हृष्यामि च मुहुर्मुहुः ॥तच्च संस्मृत्य संस्मृत्य रूपमत्यद्भुतं हरेः ।
विस्मयो मे महान् राजन्हृष्यामि च पुनः पुनः ॥O King, recalling again and again this wondrous and holy dialogue of Keshava and Arjuna, I rejoice over and over. And recalling again and again that most wondrous form of Hari, my amazement is great, O King, and I rejoice again and again.
Sanjaya tells him what the hearing has done to the hearer: remembering the dialogue and that form, he rejoices again and again. The king is offered the effect along with the report.
Bhagavad Gita 18.78Sanjaya
यत्र योगेश्वरः कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धरः ।
तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम ॥Where there is Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, and where there is Partha, the wielder of the bow, there are prosperity, victory, well-being and steadfast right conduct — such is my conviction.
The last verse of the Gita is Sanjaya’s verdict, and it is delivered to Dhritarashtra: where Krishna and Arjuna are, there victory is. It answers 1.1, and not in the king’s favour.
Read them in place
Every verse Dhritarashtra speaks is marked in the full text, chapter by chapter, with the speaker named above it. Begin at 1.1.
Common questions
About Dhritarashtra in the Gita.
How many verses does Dhritarashtra speak in the Bhagavad Gita?
One. He speaks verse 1.1 and nothing after it. Sanjaya goes on addressing him as king through the rest of the text, but the Gita never gives him another line and never records a reaction from him. The whole of the remaining text is the answer to his single question.
What is the first verse of the Bhagavad Gita?
It is Dhritarashtra asking Sanjaya what happened. He describes the place as the field of dharma, the field of the Kurus, says the men there were gathered and eager to fight, and asks what his sons and the sons of Pandu did. The Gita begins with a question about events and answers it with a conversation about how to live.
Why does the Gita begin with the word dharmakshetra?
The text does not explain it, and the Trust will not invent a reason. What can be observed is that धर्मक्षेत्रे is the opening word, that the same place is immediately given a second name, and that dharma is the subject Arjuna says he is confused about a few verses later (2.7). Readers have long found that placement significant; the Gita itself does not comment.
Does Dhritarashtra reply to Sanjaya at the end?
Not in the Bhagavad Gita. Sanjaya finishes by telling him that he rejoices again and again in remembering the dialogue (18.76–18.77) and that victory lies where Krishna and Arjuna are (18.78). The text ends there. Whether the king answered, and what he felt, is outside what these verses record.