that appropriate the wealth confidingly deposited with
them by others, or them that are betrayers of trusts,
or them that speak ill of wives enjoyed by them before,
or them that have slain Brahmanas, or them that have
killed kine, or them that eat sugared milk and rice,
or food prepared of barley, or pot-herbs, or dishes
prepared of milk, sesamum, and rice, or thin cakes
of powdered barley fried in clarified butter or other
kinds of cakes, or meat, without having dedicated the
same to the gods,—even those regions shall
speedily be mine if I do not slay Jayadratha!—Those
regions to which they go that offer insults to Brahmanas
devoted to the study of the Vedas, or otherwise worthy
of respect, or to those that are their preceptors,
(those regions shall speedily be mine if I do not
slay Jayadratha!) That end which becomes theirs who
touch Brahmanas or fire with the feet, that end which
becomes theirs who throw phlegm and excreta and eject
urine into water, even that miserable end shall be
mine, if I do not slay Jayadratha! That end which
is his who bathes (in water) in a state of nudity,
or his who does not hospitably entertain a guest,
that end which is theirs who receive bribes, speak
falsehood, and deceive and cheat others, that end which
is theirs who offend against their own souls, or who
falsely utter praises (of others), or of those low
wretches who eat sweetmeats in the sight of servants
and sons and wives and dependents without sharing the
same with those, that awful end shall be mine if I
do not slay Jayadratha! That end which overtakes
the wretch of ruthless soul who without supporting
a righteous and obedient protege casts him off, or
him who, without giving unto a deserving neighbour
the offerings in Sraddhas, giveth them away unto those
that deserve them not, that end which is his who drinks
wine, or his who insults those that are worthy of
respect, or his who is ungrateful, or his who speaketh
ill of his brothers, that end shall soon be mine if
I do not stay Jayadratha! The end of all those
sinful persons whom I have not mentioned, as also
of those whom I have mentioned, shall soon be attained
by me, if after this night passes away, I do not slay
Jayadratha tomorrow:
“—Listen now to another oath of mine! If tomorrow’s sun set without my slaying that wretch, then even here I shall enter the blazing fire! Ye Asuras and gods and men. Ye birds and snakes, ye Pitris and all wanderers of the night, ye regenerate Rishis and celestial Rishis, ye mobile and immobile creatures, ye all that I have not mentioned, ye will not succeed in protecting my foe from me! If he enters the abode of the nether region, or ascends the firmament, or repairs to the celestials, or the realms of the Daityas, I shall still, with a hundred arrows, assuredly cut off, on the expiration of this night, the head of Abhimanyu’s foe!—’