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Druhyu — Third Son of Yayati, Ancestor of the Gandhara Kingdom and the Druhyu Peoples
Druhyu · Druhyu · Sharmishtha-suta · Yayati-tritiya-putra · Gandhara-purvajanaka · Shakuni-vamshaja
Druhyu is the first son of Yayati and his second wife Sharmishtha (daughter of the Daitya king Vrishaparvan); the eldest of Sharmishtha's three sons; and the founding ancestor of the Gandhara kingdom — the north-western frontier region whose capital was Taxila — and through Gandhara of the Kambhoja, Yavana, and other north-western peoples. His most significant genealogical connection to the Mahabharata narrative is that he is the ancestor of Shakuni — the prince of Gandhara, brother of Gandhari, uncle of the Kauravas, and the primary architect of the game of dice that triggered the Mahabharata war. His personal canonical record is confined entirely to his refusal to exchange youth with his father and to his territorial assignment in the northern and north-western regions. His son was Babhru, and through Babhru, Setu, Aradwat, and eventually Gandhara — from whom the kingdom took its name — the line descended to Shakuni's generation ninety-five kings later.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Yayati; Mother: Sharmishtha
- Full brothers: Anu and Puru (both by Sharmishtha)
- Half-brothers: Yadu and Turvasu (both by Devayani)
- Territorial grant: western regions of the Yamuna per the Yadav History source; the north — the northern and north-western territories per the EverybodyWiki source; smaller province per the Vishnu Purana as a result of refusing the youth exchange
- Sons: Babhru (also recorded as Angara in some accounts; killed by King Mandhatri of the Solar Dynasty) — from Babhru descended Setu, then Aradwat, and eventually Gandhara — the king who founded the Gandhara kingdom; from Gandhara's line the dynasty reached Shakuni ninety-five generations later
- Notable descendants: Gandhara (founder of the Gandhara kingdom; contemporary of the Suryavanshi king Muchukunda); Shakuni (ninety-five generations after Gandhara; prince of Gandhara; brother of Gandhari; uncle of the hundred Kauravas; whose dice-game against Yudhishthira triggered the Mahabharata war); Gandhari (Shakuni's sister; wife of the blind Kuru king Dhritarashtra; mother of the hundred Kauravas — but Gandhari descends from Subala of Gandhara, whose precise connection to the Druhyu-Gandhara line is confirmed by the tradition though the exact number of intervening generations varies across texts)
- Descendants' peoples: identified by the tradition as the Gandharas, Kambhojas, Yavanas (the Indo-Greeks), Bahlikas (Bactrians), and other north-western peoples — the Drahuyas who spread into the regions beyond the Sapta-Sindhu (Seven Rivers) of the Vedic heartland
✦ The Refusal and the Curse
When Yayati asked Druhyu to exchange youth for old age, Druhyu refused — the Grokipedia source records that he, like his brothers Yadu and Turvasu, declined to bear his father's decrepitude. He was cursed that his descendants would be Bhojas — a tribal group outside the Chandravamsha royal mainstream — and that his line would be associated with frontier peoples. He received a smaller province in the northern territories. His line established the Gandhara kingdom — which, though geographically remote from the Gangetic heartland, would through Gandhari and Shakuni become the most consequentially disruptive external force in the entire Mahabharata narrative.
✦ References
- Mahabharata (Adi Parva, Chapter 85) — Druhyu's refusal; the curse; his descendants identified as Bhojas
- Bhagavata Purana (Canto 9) — the genealogy of Druhyu's line through Babhru and Gandhara
- Vishnu Purana (Book 4) — Druhyu's line traced through Babhru, Setu, Aradwat, to Gandhara
- Harivamsa — the fuller Druhyu genealogy; Angara killed by Mandhatri
- Wikipedia — Turvasu Druhyu and Anu dynasties; EverybodyWiki — Turvasu Druhyu and Anu Dynasties; Grokipedia — Yayati; JKYog — Yadu Dynasty: modern summaries drawing from the above primary sources