Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Volume 1).pdf/149

Rh "And on the fourteenth year, O monarch, when the Pandavas returned and claimed their property, they did not obtain it. And thereupon war was declared, and the Pandavas, after extermination the whole race of Kshatriyas and slaying king Duryyodhana, obtained back their devastated 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 !"

So ends the sixty-first section in the Adivansavatarana Parva of the Adi Parva.

Janamejaya said, -"O excellent of Brahmanas, thou hast, indeed, told me, in brief, the history, called Mahabharata, of the great acts of the Kurus. But, O thou of ascetic wealth, recite now that wonderful narra. tion fully. I feel a great curiosity to hear it. It behoveth thee to recite it, therefore, in full. I am not satisfied with hearing in a nutshell the great history. That could never have been a trifling cause for which the virtuous ones could slay those whom they should not have slain, and for which they are yet applauded by men. Why also did those tigers among men, innocent and capable of avenging themselves upon their enemies, calmly suffer the presecution of the wicked Kurus? Why also, O best of Brahmanas, did Bhima of mighty arms and of the strength of ten thousand elephants, control his anger, though wronged ? Why also did the chaste Krishna, the daughter of Drupada, wronged by those wretches and able to burn them, not burn the sons of Dhritarashtra with her wrathful eyes? Why also did the two other sons of Pritha (Bhima and Arjuna) and the two sons of Madri (Nakula and Sahadeva). themselves injured by the wretched Kurus, follow Yudhishthira who was greatly addicted to the evil habit of gambling? Why also did Yudhishthira, that foremost of all virtuous men, the son of Dharma himself, fully acquainted with all duties, suffer that excess of affliction? Why also did the Pandava Dhananjaya, having Krishna for his charioteer, who by his arrows sent to the other world that dauntless host of fighting men, (suffer such persecution)? O thou of ascetic wealth, tell me all these as every thing happened, and every thing that those mighty charioteers achieved I"

Vaisampayana said, -"O monarcb, appoint thou a time for hearing it. This history told by Krishna Dwaipayana is very extensive. This is but