Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Volume 1).pdf/421

Rh result from that fall, he kindled' a huge fire in the forest and entered it with alacrity. But that fire, though burning brightly. consumed him not. O slayer of foes, that blazing fire seemed to him cool. Then the great Muni under the influence of griet, beholding the sea, tied a stony weight to his neck and threw himself into its waters. But the waves soon cast him ashore. At last when that Brahmana of rigid vows succeeded not in killing himself by any means, he returned, in distress of heart, to his asylum."

Thus ends the hundred and seventy-eighth section in the Chaitra. ratha Parva of the Adi Parva.

"The Gandharva continued.--"Beholding his asylum bereft of his children, the Muni afflicted with great grief left it again. And in course of his wandering he saw. O Partha, a river swollen with the waters of the rainy season, sweeping away numberless trees and plants that grew on its margin. Beholding this, thou of Kuru's race, the distressed Muni thinking that he would certainly be drowned if he fell into the waters of that river, he tied himself strongly with several cords and flung himself, under the influence of grief, into the current of that mighty stream. But, slayer of foes, that stream soon cut those cords and cast the Rishi ashore. And the Rishi rose from the bank, freed from the cords with which he had tied himself. And because his cords were thus broken off by the violence of the current, the Rishi called the stream by the name of Vipasa (the cord-breaker). For his grief the Muni could not, from that time, stay in one place : be began to wander over mountains and along rivers and lakes. And beholding once again a river named Haimavati (flowing from Himavata ) of terrible aspect and full of fierce crocodiles and other (aquatic) monsters, the Rishi threw himself into it, but the river mistaking the Brahmana for a mass of (unquenchable) fire, imme. diately flew in a hundred different directions, and hath been known ever since by the name of the Satadra (the river of a hundred courses). Seeing himself on the dry land even there he exclaimed.-O. I cannot die by my own hands 1-Saying this, the Rishi once more bent his steps towards his asylum. Crossing numberless mountains and countries.