MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global
MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global
MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global
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Sacred Ganga, ample-bosomed, sweeps along in regal pride,<br />
Rolling down her limpid waters through high banks on either side,<br />
Childless dames and weeping widows thither in their anguish came,<br />
Due and holy rites to render to departed chiefs of fame,<br />
Casting forth their jewelled girdles, gems and scarfs belaced with gold,<br />
Gave oblations of the water unto warriors true and bold,<br />
Unto fathers, unto husbands, unto sons in battle slayed,<br />
Offerings of the sacred water sorrowing wives and mothers made.<br />
And so great the host of mourners wending to perform the rite,<br />
That their footsteps made a pathway in the sad and sacred site,<br />
And the shelving banks of Ganga, peopled by the sorrowing train,<br />
Wide-expanding, vast and sealike, formeda scene of woe and pain!<br />
But a wave of keener sorrow swept o'er Pritha's heaving breast,<br />
As unto her weeping children thus her secret she expressed:<br />
"He, my sons, the peerless bowman, mighty in his battle-car,<br />
Who by will of fate untimely was by Arjun slain in war,<br />
He whom as the son of Radha, chariot-driver ye have thought,<br />
But who shone with SURYA'S lustre as his countless foes he fought,<br />
He who faced your stoutest warriors and in battle never failed,<br />
Bravely led the Kuru forces and in danger never quailed,<br />
He who knew no peer in prowess, owned in war no haughtier name,<br />
Yielded life but not his honour and by death hath conquered fame,<br />
He in truth who never faltered, never left his vow undone,<br />
Offer unto him oblation, Karna was my eldest son!<br />
Karna was your honoured elder and the Sun inspired his birth,<br />
Karna in his rings and armour Sun -like trod the spacious earth!"<br />
Pritha spake; the Pandav brothers groaned in penitence and pain,<br />
And they wept in woe and anguish for the brother they had slain.<br />
Hissing forth his sigh of anguish like a crushed and wounded snake,<br />
Sad Yudhishthir to his mother thus his inward feelings spake: