of husbands, sons and relatives and dear ones and smeared all over with blood, with hair dishevelled and all in their feminine seasons enter Hastinapore having offered oblations of water (unto the manes of those they will have lost).  And O Bharata, the learned Dhaumya with passions under full control, holding the kusa grass in his hand and pointing the same towards the south-west, walketh before, singing the mantras of the Sama Veda that relate to Yama.  And, O monarch, that learned Brahamana goeth, also signifying, ’When the Bharatas shall be slain in battle, the priests of the Kurus will thus sing the Soma mantras (for the benefit of the deceased).’  And the citizens, afflicted with great grief, are repeatedly crying out, ’Alas, alas, behold our masters are going away!  O fie on the Kuru elders that have acted like foolish children in thus banishing heirs of Pandu from covetousness alone.  Alas, separated from the son of Pandu we all shall become masterless.  What love can we bear to the wicked and avaricious Kurus?  Thus O king, have the sons of Kunti, endued with great energy of mind, gone away,—­indicating, by manner and signs, the resolutions that are in their hearts.  And as those foremost of men had gone away from Hastinapore, flashes of lightning appeared in the sky though without clouds and the earth itself began to tremble.  And Rahu came to devour the Sun, although it was not the day of conjunction And meteors began to fall, keeping the city to their right.  And jackals and vultures and ravens and other carnivorous beasts and birds began to shriek and cry aloud from the temples of the gods and the tops of sacred trees and walls and house-tops.  And these extraordinary calamitous portents, O king, were seen and heard, indicating the destruction of the Bharatas as the consequence of thy evil counsels.”

Vaisampayana continued,—­“And, O monarch, while king Dhritarashtra and the wise Vidura were thus talking with each other, there appeared in that assembly of the Kauravas and before the eyes of all, the best of the celestial Rishis.  And appealing before them all, he uttered these terrible words, On the fourteenth year hence, the Kauravas, in consequence of Duryodhana’s fault, will all be destroyed by the might of Bhima and Arjuna’.  And having said this, that best of celestial Rishis, adorned with surpassing Vedic grace, passing through the skies, disappeared from the scene.  Then Duryodhana and Karna and Sakuni, the son of Suvala regarding Drona as their sole refuge, offered the kingdom to him.  Drona then, addressing the envious and wrathful Duryodhana and Dussasana and Karna and all the Bharata, said, ’The Brahamanas have said that the Pandavas being of celestial origin are incapable of being slain.  The sons of Dhritarashtra, however, having, with all the kings, heartily and with reverence sought my protection, I shall look after them to the best of my power.  Destiny is supreme, I cannot abandon them.  The sons of Pandu, defeated at dice, are going into exile