Arjuna, now wearing braids and in the midst of women,
my heart is stricken with woe. That high-souled
hero who is master of all the celestial weapons, and
who is the repository of all the sciences, now weareth
ear-rings (like one of the fair sex). That youth
whom kings of incomparable prowess could not overpower
in fight, even as the waters of the mighty ocean cannot
overleap the continents, is now the dancing-master
of king Virata’s daughters and waits upon them
in disguise. O Bhima, that Arjuna the clatter
of whose car-wheels caused the entire earth with her
mountains and forests, her mobile and immobile things
to tremble, and whose birth dispelled all the sorrows
of Kunti, that exalted hero, that younger brother
of thine, O Bhimasena, now maketh me weep for him.
Beholding him coming towards me, decked in golden
ear-rings and other ornaments, and wearing on the wrists
bracelets of conchs, my heart is afflicted with despondency.
And Dhananjaya who hath not a bowman equal unto him
on earth in prowess, now passeth his days in singing,
surrounded by women. Beholding that son of Pritha
who in virtue, heroism and truth, was the most admired
in the world, now living in the guise of a woman,
my heart is afflicted with sorrow. When I behold,
the godlike Partha in the music-hall like an elephant
with rent temples surrounded by she-elephants in the
midst of females, waiting before Virata the king of
the Matsyas, then I lose all sense of directions.
Surely, my mother-in-law doth not know Dhananjaya to
be afflicted with such extreme distress. Nor
doth she know that descendant of the Kuru race, Ajatasatru,
addicted to disastrous dice, to be sunk in misery.
O Bharata, beholding the youngest of you all, Sahadeva,
superintending the kine, in the guise of a cowherd,
I grow pale. Always thinking of Sahadeva’s
plight, I cannot, O Bhimasena, obtain sleep,—what
to speak you of the rest? I do not know, O mighty-armed
one, what sin Sahadeva may have committed for which
that hero of unbaffled prowess suffereth such misery.
O foremost of the Bharatas, beholding that beloved
brother of thine, that bull among men, employed by
Matsya in looking after his kine, I am filled with
woe. Seeing that hero of proud disposition gratifying
Virata, by living at the head of his cowherds, attired
in robes dyed in red. I am attacked with fever.
My mother-in-law always applauds the heroic Sahadeva
as one possessed of nobility, excellent behaviour,
and rectitude of conduct. Ardently attached to
her sons, the weeping Kunti stood, embracing Sahadeva
while he was about to set out (with us) for the great
forest. And she addressed me saying, “Sahadeva
is bashful and sweet-speeched, and virtuous.
He is also my favourite child. Therefore, O Yajnaseni,
tend him in the forest day and night. Delicate
and brave, devoted to the king, and always worshipping
his elder brother, do thou, O Panchali, feed him thyself.’
O Pandava, beholding that foremost of warriors, Sahadeva,
engaged in tending kine, and sleeping at night on