MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global

meets, then take up a good many pages. All this forms no part of the real Epic, and we
pass it by.
Yudhishthir has in the meantime been crowned king of the Kurus at Hastinapura, and a
posthumous child of Abhimanyu is named Parikshit, and is destined to succeed to the
throne of the Kurus. But Yudhishthir's mind is still troubled with the thoughts of the
carnage of the war, of which he considers himself guilty, and the great saint Vyasa
advises the performance of the aswa medha, or the Sacrifice of the Horse, for the
expiation of the sin.
The Sacrifice of the Horse was an ancient Hindu custom practised by kings exercising
suzerain powers over surrounding kings. A horse was let free, and was allowed to wander
from place to place, accompanied by the king's guard. If any neighbouring king ventured
to detain the animal, it was a signal for war. If no king ventured to restrain the wanderer,
it was considered a tacit mark of submission to the owner of the animal. And when the
horse returned from its peregrinations, it was sacrificed with great poinp and splendour at
a feast to which all neighbouring kings were invited.
Yudhishthir allowed the sacrificial horse to wander at will, and Arjun accompanied it.
Wherever the horse was stopped, Arjun fought and conquered, and thus proclaimed the
supremacy of Yudhishthir over all neighbouring potentates. After various wars and
adventures in various regions, Arjun at last returned victorious with the steed to
Hastinapura, and the sacrifice commenced. The description of the sacrifice is somewhat
artificial, and concerns itself with rites and ceremonious details and gifts to Brahmans,
and altogether bears unmistakable evidence of the interpolating hand of later priestly
writers. Nevertheless we cannot exclude from this translation of the leading incidents of
the Epic the last great and crowning act of Yudhishthir, now anointed monarch of Kuru
land.
The portion translated in this Book forms Sections lxxxv. And parts of Sections lxxxviii.
and lxxxix. of Book xiv. of the original text.
I
THE GATHERING
Victor of a hundred battles, Arjun bent his homeward way,
Following still the sacred charger free to wander as it may,
Strolling minstrels to Yudhishthir spake of the returning steed,
Spake of Arjun wending homeward with the victor's crown of meed,
And they sang of Arjun's triumph's in Gandhara's distant vale,
On the banks of Brahmaputra and in Sindhu's rocky dale.