Background to the setting of the first verse of the Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita is a story set within one of the largest epics ever written, the 18 chapter Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita falls within the 6^th chapter of the Mahabharata. In summary, the Mahabharata is an epic about the political struggles between the Kaurava and Pandava clans related to each other by two brothers. The Bhagavad Gita’s first verse sets the stage of a great war between the Kaurava and Pandava clans. Dhritarashtra is the first person mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita and the living nexus for all the political strife that leads up to the great battle setting at the start of the Bhagavad Gita. The Kaurava and Pandava clans lived in the same kingdom, which was ruled by Pandu, the king of the Pandavas and Dhritarashtra’s brother. Dhritarashtra was a part of the Kaurava royalty and blind. Dhritarashtra’s blindness initially would have disqualified him from ever serving as a king, but due to Pandu’s premature death and no other qualified successors, Dhritarashtra was made king until Yudhishthira, Pandu’s oldest son, could assume the kingship. Until then, Dhritarashtra ruled over the Kaurava and Pandava clans. This is when all the hostility started between the clans that lead up to the opening chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Samjaya is the second person mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita who is the narrator of the battlefield events for Dhritarashtra.