Birth of Vidhura's

King Shantanu had a son called Dev Vridha whose mother was ganga, the sacred river of India.  Shantanu saw Satyavati, a fisher woman and fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. But her father refused to give her in marriage to Shantanu unless he promised to make his daughter's sons to rule the country. Shantanu did not agree to this and when Dev Vridha ame to know of this He took a vow of religuishing his right to the throne and would never marry and hence would not have any children to claim the throne. When he declared this there were flowers bestowed from th gods on him and a voice from above chanted BHEESHMA. ( Bheeshma means on who does great feats.) Then onwards he was called Bheeshma.

 When  King Shanthanu's  elder son Bheeshma refused to marry on a vow and  the other two sons died without having any children. Satyavati was worried as there was no heir to rule the Kingdom and since Bheeshma refused to marry , their mother Satyavathi called her elder son sage  Vyasa,  by an earlier marriage or courtship,  to come and have the two daughter-in laws, Ambika and Ambalika  and make them mothers. The two sisters  widowed by the death of their husbands and without children have to have children who would rule the country.

 Sage Vyasa was in no mood to oblige his mother and said that he was doing a penance and the time is not good to have the girls and  bless them with children. But his mother Satyavathi insisted and forced him and the sage agreed for this act. The sage Vyasa was not a handsome one but an ugly and fearsome looking person.

Satyavati had two daughter-in-laws called Ambika and Ambalika who were sisters. First Ambika was asked to go to the sage.  When Ambika saw Vyasa she closed her eyes by the terrible sight of him. After their courtship Vyasas informed his mother Satyavati that the child would be born without sight as the Girl had closed her eyes. So Satyavati asked her second daughter-in-law Ambalika to go to the Sage. When Ambalika saw him, she was frightened and her whole body became white. Again the sage told his mother that the child woud be born weak and discoloured.

Sage Vyasa told his mother that there is a problem as both the children would be born with deformities  as the girls behaved  improperly. So Satyavathi again asked  Ambika and Ambalika to go to the sage. The girls were not prepared to go to him and sent their servant maid to him. This girl was willing and highly excited by the sight of such a great man and willingly enjoyed his company.

All the three girls gave birth. Alas the children, all boys born to Ambika and Ambalika had physical deformities. Ambik's son was blind, as she closed her eyes when she went to Vyasa and Ambalika's son had  leucoderma  (the body had white patches ) as his mother's body became white when she met Vyasa. Ambika's son was named Dirudhrashtra and Ambalika's son was called  Pandu (The name of the disease where a person's body is white).

Only the son born to the servant was normal and called Vidhura. All the children were educated in all armaments and literature but Vidhura was exceptionally intelligent and was thorough is his studies and was known for his knowledge and justice and hence became the prime minister of the Kingdom. Even though he advised all and especially Duryodhana and His father  Dirudhrashtra, they never listened to him and same with Pandavas when the refused to listen to  his advice on playing chess with Sakuni.