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