third Arjuna. And of Madri's sons, the first-born of the twins was called Nakula, and the next Sahadeva. And those best of the Kurus, born at intervals of one year after one another, looked like an embodied period of five years. And king Pandu beholding his children of celestial beauty and endued with super-abundant energy, great strength and prowess, and largeness of soul, rejoiced exceedingly. And the children became great favourites of the Rishis, as also of their wives, dwelling on the mountain of hundred peaks.
"Sometime after Pandu again requested Kunti on behalf of Madri. Addressed, O king, by. her lord in private, Kunti replied, 'Having given her the formula of invocation only once, she hath, O king, managed to obtain two sons. Have I not been thus deceived by her? I fear, O king, that she will soon surpass me in the number of her children! This, indeed, is the way of all wicked women! Fool that I was I did not know that by invoking twin gods I could obtain at one birth twin children. I beseech thee, O king, do not command me any further! Let this be the boon granted to me!'
"Thus, O king, were born unto Pandu five sons begotten by the celestials; endued with great strength and who all lived to achieve great fame and expand the Kuru race. Each bearing every auspicious mark on his person, handsome like Soma, proud as the lion, well-skilled in the use of the bow, and of leonine tread, breast, heart, eyes, neck, and prowess those foremost of men, resembling the celestials themselves in might, began to grow up. And beholding them and their virtues expanding with years, the great Rishis dwelling on that sacred mountain capt with snow were filled with wonder. And the five Pandavas and the hundred sons of Dhrita-rashtra—expanders of the Kuru race—grew up rapidly like an assemblage of lotuses in a lake."
Thus ends the hundred and twenty-fourth Section in the Sambhava of the Adi Parva.
