tioned above, the venerable Vyasa, seeing all the subjects sunk in grief, said one day to his mother Satyavati 'Mother, our days of happiness have gone by and days of calamity have succeeded. Sin beginneth to increase day by day. The world hath got old. The empire of the Kauravas will no longer endure, because of wrong and oppression. Go thou then into the forest, and devote thyself to contemplation through the Yoga! Henceforth society will be filled with illusion and wrong. Good works will cease. Do not witness the annihilation of thy race, in this old age!
"And acquiescing in the words of Vyasa, Satyavati entered the inner apartments, and addressed her daughter-in-law, saying, 'O Ambika! I hear that in consequence of the deeds of your grand-sons, this Bharata dynasty and their subjects will perish! If thou permit, I would go to the forest with Kausalya, so grieved at the loss of her son.' O king, saying this, the queen, taking the permission of Bhisma also, went to the forest. And arriving there with her two daughters-in-law, she became engaged in profound contemplation, and in good time leaving her body ascended to heaven."
Vaisampayana continued, "Then the sons of king Pandu, having gone through all the purifying rites prescribed in the Vedas, began to grow up in princely style in the home of their father. Whenever they were engaged in play with the sons of Dhrita-rashtra, their superiority of-strength was marked. Alike in speed and in securing objects aimed at, alike in consuming articles of food and in throwing up dust, Bhim-sena beat all the sons of Dhrita-rashtra. That son of the wind-god pulled them by the hair and made them fight with one another, laughing all the while. They could not have defeated him had their number been one hundred and one. The second Pandava used to take hold of them by the hair, and throwing them on the ground, to rub their faces over the earth. By this, some had their knees broken, some their legs, some their heads. That strong youth sometimes holding ten of them drowned them in water; and did not release them till they were well nigh dead. When the sons of Dhrita-rashtra got up to the boughs of a tree for plucking fruits, Bhima used to shake
