“Endued with great strength, the child also acquired the knowledge of counteracting the weapons hurled at him by others, and great lightness of hand and fleetness of motion forward and backward and transverse and wheeling.  Abhimanyu became like unto his father in knowledge of the scriptures and rites of religion.  And Dhananjaya, beholding his son, became filled with joy.  Like Maghavat beholding Arjuna, the latter beheld his son Abhimanyu and became exceedingly happy.  Abhimanyu possessed the power of slaying every foe and bore on his person every auspicious mark.  He was invisible in battle and broad-shouldered as the bull.  Possessing a broad face as (the hood of) the snake, he was proud like the lion.  Wielding a large bow, his prowess was like that of an elephant in rut.  Possessed of a face handsome as the full-moon, and of a voice deep as the sound of the drum or the clouds, he was equal unto Krishna in bravery and energy, in beauty and in features.  The auspicious Panchali also, from her five husbands, obtained five sons all of whom were heroes of the foremost rank and immovable in battle like the hills.  Prativindhya by Yudhishthira, Sutasoma by Vrikodara, Srutakarman by Arjuna, Satanika by Nakula, and Srutasena by Sahadeva,—­these were the five heroes and great warriors that Panchali brought forth, like Aditi bringing forth the Adityas.  And the Brahmanas, from their foreknowledge, said unto Yudhishthira that as the son of his would be capable of bearing like the Vindhya mountains the weapons of the foe, he should be called Prativindhya.  And because the child that Draupadi bore to Bhimasena was born after Bhima had performed a thousand Soma sacrifices, he came to be called Sutasoma.  And because Arjuna’s son was born upon his return from exile during which he had achieved many celebrated feats, that child came to be called Srutakarman.  While Nakula named his son Satanika after a royal sage of that name, in the illustrious race of Kuru.  Again the son that Draupadi bore to Sahadeva was born under the constellation called Vahni-daivata (Krittika), therefore was he called after the generalissimo of the celestial host, Srutasena (Kartikeya).  The sons of Draupadi were born, each at the interval of one year, and all of them became renowned and much attached to one another.  And, O monarch, all their rites of infancy and childhood, such as Chudakarana and Upanayana (first shave of the head and investiture with the sacred threads) were performed by Dhaumya according to the ordinance.  All of them, of excellent behaviour and vows, after having studied the Vedas, acquired from Arjuna a knowledge of all the weapons, celestial and human.  And, O tiger among kings, the Pandavas, having obtained sons all of whom were equal unto the children of the celestials and endued with broad chests, and all of whom became great warriors, were filled with joy.’”

SECTION CCXXIV

(Khandava-daha Parva)