royal order.  Whether I have, in that matter, acted rightly or wrongly, I pray you with joined hands to dispel all remembrance of it from your hearts.—­This one is old; this one has lost all his children; this one is afflicted with grief; this one was our king;—­this one is a descendant of former kings;—­considerations like these should induce you to forgive me.  This Gandhari also is cheerless and old.  She too has lost her children and is helpless.  Afflicted with grief for the loss of her sops, she solicits you with me.  Knowing that both of us are old and afflicted and destitute of children, grant us the permission we seek.  Blessed be you, we seek your protection.  This Kuru king, Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, should be looked after by you all, in prosperity as well as in adversity.  He will never fall into distress, he that has for his counsellors four such brothers of abundant prowess.  All of them are conversant with both righteousness and wealth, and resemble the very guardians of the world.  Like the illustrious Brahman himself, the Lord of the universe of creatures, this Yudhishthira of mighty energy will rule you.  That which should certainly be said is now said by me.  I make over to you it this Yudhishthira here as a deposit.  I make you also a deposit in the hands of this hero.  It behoves you all to forget and forgive whatever injury has been done to you by those sons of mine that are no longer alive, or, indeed, by any one else belonging to me.  Ye never harboured any wrath against me on any previous occasion.  I join my hands before you who are distinguished for loyalty.  Here, I bow to you all.  Ye sinless one, I, with Gandhari by my side, solicit your pardon now for anything done to you by those sons of mine, of restless understandings, stained by cupidity, and ever acting as their desires prompted.’  Thus addressed by the old monarch, all those citizens and inhabitants of the provinces, filled with tears, said nothing but only looked at one another."’

SECTION X

“Vaisampayana said, ’Thus addressed, O thou of Kuru’s race, by the old king, the citizens and the inhabitants of the provinces stood sometime like men deprived of consciousness.  King Dhritarashtra, finding them silent, with their throats choked by grief, once more addressed them, saying, ’Ye best of men, old as I am, sonless, and indulging, through cheerlessness of heart, in diverse lamentations along with this my wedded wife, I have obtained the permission, in the matter of my retirement into the forest, of my sire, the Island-born Krishna himself, as also of king Yudhishthira, who is conversant with every duty, ye righteous denizens of this kingdom.  Ye sinless ones, I, with Gandhari, repeatedly solicit you with bent heads.  It behoves you all to grant us permission.’