and Siddhas. And viewing that lake, those foremost
of men, the sons of Pandu traversed that place, renouncing
all grief even as immaculate Brahmana rishis (do)
on attaining a habitation in the Nandana gardens.
Then all those warriors having in due course happily
lived at Badari for one month, proceeded towards the
realm of Suvahu, king of the Kiratas, by following
the same track by which they had come. And crossing
the difficult Himalayan regions, and the countries
of China, Tukhara, Darada and all the climes of Kulinda,
rich in heaps of jewels, those warlike men reached
the capital of Suvahu. And hearing that those
sons and grandsons of kings had all reached his kingdom,
Suvahu, elated with joy, advanced (to meet them).
Then the best of the Kurus welcomed him also.
And meeting king Suvahu, and being joined by all their
charioteers with Visoka at their head and by their
attendants, Indrasena and others, and also by the
superintendents and servants of the kitchen, they stayed
there comfortably for one night. Then taking all
the chariots and chariot-men and dismissing Ghatotkacha
together with his followers, they next repaired to
the monarch of mountains in the vicinity of the Yamuna.
In the midst of the mountain abounding in waterfalls
and having grey and orange-coloured slopes and summits
covered with a sheet of snow, those warlike men having
then found the great forest of Visakhayupa like unto
the forest of Chitraratha and inhabited by wild boars
and various kinds of deer and birds, made it their
home. Addicted to hunting as their chief occupation,
the sons of Pritha peacefully dwelt in that forest
for one year. There in a cavern of the mountain,
Vrikodara, with a heart afflicted with distraction
and grief, came across a snake of huge strength distressed
with hunger and looking fierce like death itself.
At this crisis Yudhishthira, the best of pious men,
became the protector of Vrikodara and he, of infinite
puissance, extricated Bhima whose whole body had been
fast gripped by the snake with its folds. And
the twelfth year of their sojourn in forests having
arrived, those scions of the race of Kuru, blazing
in effulgence, and engaged in asceticism, always devoted
principally to the practice of archery, repaired cheerfully
from that Chitraratha-like forest to the borders of
the desert, and desirous of dwelling by the Saraswati
they went there, and from the banks of that river
they reached the lake of Dwaitabana. Then seeing
them enter Dwaitabana, the dwellers of that place
engaged in asceticism, religious ordinances, and self-restraining
exercises and in deep and devout meditation and subsisting
on things ground with stone (for want of teeth) having
procured grass-mats and water-vessels, advanced to
meet them. The holy fig, the rudaraksha, the
rohitaka, the cane and the jujube, the catechu, the
sirisha, the bel and the inguda and the karira and
pilu and sami trees grew on the banks of the Saraswati.
Wandering about with contentment in (the vicinity
of) the Saraswati which was, as it were, the home
of the celestials, and the favourite (resort) of Yakshas
and Gandharvas and Maharshis, those sons of kings
lived there in happiness.”