Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/176

142 verse, thy father ruled over these subjects for sixty years. And he then died making all his subjects deeply sorry. And, after him, O first of men, thou hast acquired this hereditary sovereignty of the Kurus, for the last thousand years. Thou hast been installed while a child and art protecting every creature.'

"And Janamejaya said, 'There hath not been born in our race a king who hath not sought the good of his subjects or been loved by them. Behold especially the conduct of my grand-fathers ever engaged in grand achievementes [sic]. How did my father, blessed with so many virtues, receive his death? Describe everything to me as it fell out. I am desirous of hearing it from ye!

Sauti continued, "And thus directed by the monarch, those councillors, ever solicitous of the good of the king, told him everything exactly as it fell out.

"And the councillors said, 'O king, that father of thine, the protector of the whole Earth, the foremost of all obedient to the injunctions of the shastras, became addicted to the sports of the field, even as Pandu of mighty arm and the first of all bearers of the bow in battle. And he made over to us all the affairs of state, from the most trivial to the most inportant [sic]. And one day, going into the forest, he pierced a deer with an arrow. And having pierced it he followed it quickly on foot into the deep woods, armed with sword and quiver. But thy father could not come upon the lost deer. Sixty years of age and decrepit, he was soon fatigued and became hungry. And he then saw in the deep woods an excellent Rishi. And the Rishi was then observing the vow of silence. And the king asked him, but though asked he made no reply. And the king, tired with exertion and hunger, suddenly became angry with that Rishi, sitting motionless like a piece of wood in observance of his vow of silence. And the king knew not that he was a Muni observing the vow of silence. And being under the control of anger thy father insulted him. And, O excellent one of the Bharata race, the king, thy father, taking up from the ground with the end of his bow a dead snake, placed it on the shoulders of that Muni of pure soul. But the