Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/155

Rh Jaratkaru will ask for a wife, come immediately and inform me of it. The weal of our race depends upon it,

And so ends the thirty-ninth Section in the Astika of the Adi Parva.

 

( Astika Parva continued. )

Saunaka said, "O son of Suta, I desire to know the reason why the illustrious Rishi whom thou hast named Jaratkaru came to be so called on earth. It behoveth thee to tell us the etymology of the name Jaratkaru."

Sauti said, "Jara is said to mean waste, and Karu implies huge. This Rishi's body had been huge, and he gradually reduced it by severe ascetic penances. For the same reason, O Brahmana, the sister of Vasuki was called Jaratkaru."

The virtuous Saunaka, when he heard this, smiled, and addressing Ugrasrava said, "It is even so."

Saunaka then said, "I have heard all that thou hast before recited. I desire to know how Astika was born."

And Suta, on hearing these words, began to say according to what was written in the Shastras.

Sauti said, "And Vasuki desirous of bestowing his sister upon the Rishi Jaratkaru gave the snakes (necessary) orders. But days went on, yet that wise Muni of rigid vows, deeply engaged in ascetic devotions, sought not for a wife. And that high-souled Rishi, engaged in study and deeply devoted to asceticism, his vital seed under full control, fearlessly wandered over the while earth and felt not a wish even for a wife.

"Afterwards, once upon a certain time, there was a king, O Brahmana, of the name of Parikshita, born of the race of the Kauravas. And, like his great-grand-father Pandu of old, he was of mighty arm, the first of all bearers of bows in war and given up to hunting. And the monarch wandered about piercing deer, wild boars, wolves, and buffaloes, and 