Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/201

Rh like Shachi with the great Indra, or Sri with Krishna himself. And then, O best of monarchs, the son of Kunti, Arjuna, with Vasudeva, gratified Agni—the carrier of the sacrificial butter, in the forest of Khandava (by burning the medicinal plants in that wood to cure Agni of his indigestion.) And to Arjuna, assisted as he was by Keshava, the task did not at all appear as heavy, even as nothing is heavy to Vishnu with the help of means in the matter of destroying his enemies. And Agni gave unto the son of Pritha the excellent bow Gandiva, and a quiver inexhaustible and a war-chariot marked by the sign of the monkey. And it was on this occasion that Arjuna relieved the great Asura (Maya) from fear (of being consumed in the fire.) And Maya, in gratitude, built (for the Pandavas) a celestial court decked with every sort of jewels and precious stones. And the wicked Duryodhana, beholding that building, was tempted with the desire of possessing it; and deceiving Yudhish-thira by means of the dice played through the hands of the son of Suvala (Duryodhana's maternal uncle and chief adviser,) sent the Pandavas into the woods for twelve years and one additional year to be passed in concealment thus making the period full thirteen.

"And on the fourteenth year, O monarch, when the Pandavas returned and claimed their own property, they did not obtain it. And thereupon war was declared. And the Pandavas exterminating the whole race of Kshetrias and slaying king Duryodhana obtained back their ruined kingdom.

"This is the history of the Pandavas who never acted under the influence of evil passions; and this the account, O first of victorious monarchs, of the disunion that ended in the loss of their kingdom by the Kurus and the victory of the Pandavas."

And so ends the sixty-first Section in the Adivansavatarana of the Adi Parva.