MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global

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