Sanjaya

For other uses, see Sanjaya (disambiguation).

Sanjaya
The blind king Dhritarashtra listens as the visionary narrator Sanjaya relates the events of the battle between the Kaurava and the Pandava clans

Sanjaya (Sanskrit: संजय, meaning "victory") or Sanjaya Gavalgani is a character from the ancient Indian poetic epic Mahābhārata. In Mahabharata—an epic poem of war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas—the blind king Dhritarashtra is the father of the principals of the Kaurava side. Sanjaya, son of charioteer Gavalgana, is Dhritarashtra's advisor and also his charioteer.Sanjaya was a disciple of sage Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyasa and was immensely devoted to his master, King Dhritarashtra. Sanjaya—who has the gift of seeing events at a distance almost 80 KM of the length (divya-drishti) right in front of him, granted by the sage Vyasa—narrates to Dhritarshtra the action in the climactic battle of Kurukshetra, which includes the Bhagavad Gita. Before this great war broke out, Sanjaya had gone to Yudhishtira as the Ambassador of Kauravas to negotiate on behalf of them.

During the war, Sanjaya had the unpleasant duty of breaking the news of the death of Dhritarashtra's hundred sons at the hands of Bhima at different points of time in the battle, and offers the sorrowing king solace in his darkest hours. Despite Sanjaya's devotion to Dhritarashtra, he never hid any of the violence from him and is known to be brutally frank in his recital of the day's battle events and his own opinions, which usually would predict the utter destruction of the Kauravas at the hands of Arjuna and Krishna.

In the Bhagavad Gita, passages often start with the Sanskrit words "Sanjaya uvāca:" ("Sanjaya said:"). The entire Bhagavad Gita is Sanjay's recital to Dhritarashtra of the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna. Sanjaya was the first person apart from Arjuna to listen to the Gita as it was being instructed.