MAHABHARATA CONDENSED INTO ENGLISH ... - Mandhata Global

it consists merely of concluding personal narratives of the heroes who have figured in the
poem.
Dhrita-rashtra retires into a forest with his queen Gandhari, and Pritha, the mother of the
Pandav brothers, accompanies them. In the solitude of the forest the old Dhrita-rashtra
sees as in a vision the spirits of all the slain warriors, his sons and grandsons and kins
men, clad and armed as they were in battle. The spirits disappear in the morning at the
bidding of Vyasa, who had called them up. At last Dhrita-rashtra and Gandhari and Pritha
are burnt to death in a forest conflagration, death by fire being considered holy.
Krishna at Dwarka meets with strange and tragic adventures. The Vrishnis and the
Andbakas become irreligious and addicted to drinking, and fall a prey to internal
dissensions. Valadeva and Krishna die shortly after, and the city of the Yadavas is
swallowed up by the ocean.
Then follow the two concluding Books of the Epic, the Great Journey and the Ascent to
Heaven, so beautifully rendered into English by Sir Edwin Arnold. On hearing of the
death of their friend Krishna, the Pandav brothers place Prakshit, the grandson of Arjun,
on the throne, and retire to the Himalayas. Draupadi drops down dead on the way, then
Sahadeva, then Nakula, then Arjun, and then Bhima. Yudhishthir alone proceeds to
heaven in person in a celestial car.
There Yudhishthir undergoes some trial, bathes in the celestial Ganges, and rises with a
celestial body. He then meets Krishna, now in his heavenly form, blazing in splendour
and glory. He meets his brothers whom he had lost on earth, but who are now Immortals
in the sky, clad in heavenly forms. INDRA himself appears before Yudhishthir, and
introduces him to others who were dear to him on earth, and are dear to him in heaven.
Thus speaks INDRA to Yudhishthir:
"This is She the fair Immortal! Her no human mother bore,
Sprung from altar as Draupadi human shape for thee she wore,
By the Wielder of the Trident she was waked to form and life,
Bom in royal Drupad's mansion, righteous man, to be thy wife,
These are bright aérial beings, went for thee to lower earth,
Borne by Drupad's stainless daughter as thy children took their birth!
This is monarch Dhrita-rashtra who doth o'er Gandharvas reign,
This is peerless archer Karna, erst on earth by Arjun slain,
Like the Sun in ruddy splendour, for the Sun inspired his birth,
As the son of chariot-driver he was known upon the earth!
Mdst the Sadhyas and the Maruts, 'midst Immortals pure and bright,
Seek thy friends the faithful Vrishnis matchless in their warlike might.