SECTION LXXXII

“Sanjaya said, ’While Krishna and Daruka were thus conversing together, that night, O king, passed away. (When morning dawned), king Yudhishthira rose from his bed.  Paniswanikas and Magadhas and Madhuparkikas and Sutas, gratified that bull among men (with songs and music).  And dancers began their dance, and sweet-voiced singers sang their sweet songs fraught with the praises of the Kuru race.  And skilled musicians, well-trained (in their respective instruments), played on Mridangas and Jharjharas and Bheris, and Panavas, and Anakas, and Gomukhas, and Adamvaras, and conchs, and Dundubhis of loud sound, and diverse other instruments.  That loud noise, deep as the roar of the clouds, touched the very heavens.  And it awoke that foremost of kings, viz., Yudhishthira, from his slumber.  Having slept happily on his excellent and costly bed, the king awoke.

And the monarch, rising from his bed, proceeded to the bath-room for performing those acts that were absolutely necessary.  Then a hundred and eight servants, attired in white, themselves washed, and all young, approached the king with many golden jars filled to the brim.  Seated at his ease on a royal seat, attired in a thin cloth, the king bathed in several kinds of water fragrant with sandal-wood and purified with Mantras.  His body was rubbed by strong and well-trained servants with water in which diverse kinds of medicinal herbs had been soaked.  He then washed with adhivasha water rendered fragrant by various odoriferous substances.  Obtaining then a long piece of cloth (for the head) that was as white as the feathers of the swan, and that had been kept loose before him, the king tied it round his head for drying the water.  Smearing his body then with excellent sandal-paste, and wearing floral garlands, and addressing himself in clean robes, the mighty-armed monarch sat with face towards the cast, and his hands joined together.  Following the path of the righteous, the son of Kunti then mentally said his prayers.  And then with great humility he entered the chamber in which the blazing fire (for worship) was kept.  And having worshipped the fire with faggots of sacred wood and with libations of clarified butter sanctified with Mantras, he came out of the chamber.  Then that tiger among men, entering a second chamber, beheld there many bulls among Brahmanas well-acquainted with the Vedas.  And they were all self-restrained, purified by the study of the Vedas and by vows.  And all of them had undergone the bath on the completion of sacrifices performed by them.  Worshippers of the Sun, they numbered a thousand.  And, besides them, there were also eight thousand others of the same class.  And the mighty-armed son of Pandu, having caused them to utter, in distinct voices, agreeable benedictions, by making presents to them of honey and clarified butter and auspicious fruits of the best kind, gave unto each of them a nishka of gold, a hundred steeds