Alas, in consequence of the concealment of this affair by thee, we have been undone!  By the death of Karna, ourselves with all our friends have been exceedingly afflicted.  The grief I feel at Karnas death is a hundred times greater than that which was caused by the death of Abhimanyu and the sons of Draupadi, and the destruction of the Pancalas and the Kurus.  Thinking of Karna, I am burning with grief, like a person thrown into a blazing fire.  Nothing could have been unattainable by us, not excepting things belonging to heaven.  Alas, this terrible carnage, so destructive of the Kurus, would not have occurred.  Copiously indulging in lamentations like these, king Yudhishthira the just uttered loud wails of woe.  The puissant monarch then offered oblations of water unto his deceased elder brother.  Then all the ladies that crowded the shores of the river suddenly sent up a loud wail of grief.  The intelligent king of the Kurus, Yudhishthira, caused the wives and members of Karnas family to be brought before him.  Of righteous soul, he performed, with them, the water-rite in honour of his eldest brother.  Having finished the ceremony, the king with his senses exceedingly agitated, rose from the waters of Ganga.”

The end of Stri-parva.

The Mahabharata

of

Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

BOOK 12

SANTI PARVA

Translated into English Prose from the Original Sanskrit Text

by

Kisari Mohan Ganguli

[1883-1896]

Scanned at sacred-texts.com, 2004.  Proofed by John Bruno Hare, November 2004.

THE MAHABHARATA

SANTI PARVA

SECTION I

(Rajadharmanusasana Parva)

Om!  Having bowed down to Narayana, and Nara, the foremost of male beings, and unto the goddess Saraswati, must the word Jaya be uttered.

“Vaisampayana said, ’Having offered oblations, of water unto all their friends and kinsmen, the sons of Pandu, and Vidura, and Dhritarashtra, and all the Bharata ladies, continued to dwell there (on the banks of the sacred stream).  The high-souled sons of Pandu desired to pass the period of mourning,[1] which extended for a month, outside the Kuru city.  After king Yudhishthira the just had performed the water-rites, many high-souled sages crowned with ascetic success and many foremost of regenerate Rishis came there to see the monarch.  Among them were the Island-born (Vyasa), and Narada, and the great Rishi Devala, and Devasthana, and Kanwa.  They were all accompanied by best of their pupils.  Many other members of the regenerate order, possessed of wisdom and accomplished in the Vedas, leading lives of domesticity or belonging to the Snataka class, came to behold the Kuru king.