What benefit is done to this hero, slain by me in battle, by those Brahmanas who were commissioned to attend upon this foremost one of Kuru’s race engaged in following the steed?  Let the Brahmanas direct what expiation should now be undergone by me, a cruel and sinful wretch, that has slain his own sire in battle.  Having slain my own sire, I should, suffering every kind of misery, wander over the Earth, cruel that I am, covering myself with his skin.  Give me the two halves of my sire’s head to day, (so that I may wander over the Earth with them for that period), for there is no other expiation for me that have slain my own sire.  Behold, O daughter of the foremost of snakes, thy husband slain by me.  Verily, by slaying Arjuna in battle I have accomplished what is agreeable to thee.  I shall today follow in the track by which my sire has gone.  O blessed one, I am unable to comfort myself.  Be happy today, O mother, seeing myself and the wielder of Gandiva both embrace death today.  I swear to thee by truth itself (that I shall castoff my life-breaths).’  Having said these words, the king, deeply afflicted with grief, O monarch, touched water, and exclaimed in sorrow, ’Let all creatures, mobile and immobile, listen to me.  Do thou also listen to me, O mother.  I say the truth, O best of all daughters of the snakes.  If this best of men, Jaya, my sire, does not rise up, I shall emaciate my own body, sitting on the field of battle.  Having slain my sire, there is no rescue for me (from that dire sin).  Afflicted as I am with the sin of slaying my sire, I shall without doubt have to sink in Hell.  By slaying a heroic Kshatriya one becomes cleansed by making a gift of a hundred kine.  By slaying my sire, however, so dire has been my sin that my I rescue is impossible.  This Dhananjaya, the son of Pandu, was the one hero endued with mighty energy.  Possessed of righteous soul, he was the author of my being.  How can I be rescued after having slain him?  Having uttered these lamentations, the high-souled son of Dhananjaya, king Vabhruvahana, touched water and became silent, vowing to starve himself to death.’

“Vaisampayana continued, ’When the king of Manipura, that chastiser of foes, afflicted with grief, along with his mother, sat down to starve himself to death, Ulupi then thought of the gem that has the virtue of reviving a dead man.  The gem, the great refuge of the snakes, thus thought of, came there.  The daughter of the prince of snakes taking it up, uttered these words that highly gladdened the combatants standing on the field.  ’Rise up, O son.  Do not grieve.  Jishnu has not been vanquished by thee.  This hero is incapable of being vanquished by men as also by the deities with Vasava himself at their head I have exhibited this illusion, deceiving your senses, for the benefit of this foremost of men, viz., thy illustrious sire.  O thou of Kuru’s race, desirous of ascertaining the prowess of thyself, his son, this slayer of hostile heroes, O king, came