“O son, thou shouldst not bear in mind the woes inflicted on thee on account of the match at dice.  It behoveth thee not to remember the afflictions of Draupadi.  It behoveth thee not to remember the other woes which were yours in consequence of the acts of your kinsmen,the woes, viz., that were due to battle or to other situations.  Do thou meet Duryodhana now according to the ordinances of polite intercourse.  This is Heaven, O lord of men.  There can be no enmities here.

“Though thus addressed by Narada, the Kuru king Yudhishthira, endued with great intelligence, enquired about his brothers and said, If these eternal regions reserved for heroes be Duryodhanas, that unrighteous and sinful wight, that man who was the destroyer of friends and of the whole world, that man for whose sake the entire Earth was devastated with all her horses and elephants and human beings, that wight for whose sake we were burnt with wrath in thinking of how best we might remedy our wrongs, I desire to see what regions have been attained by those high-souled heroes, my brothers of high vows, steady achievers of promises, truthful in speech, and distinguished for courage.  The high-souled Karna, the son of Kunti, incapable of being baffled in battle, Dhrishtadyumna, Satyaki, the sons of Dhrishtadyumna and those other Kshatriyas who met with death in the observance of Kshatriya practices, where are those lords of Earth, O Brahmana?  I do not see them here, O Narada.  I desire to see, O Narada, Virata and Drupada and the other great Kshatriyas headed by Dhrishtaketu, as also Shikhandi, the Pancala prince, the sons of Draupadi, and Abhimanyu, irresistible in battle.

2

“Yudhishthira said, Ye deities, I do not see here Radhas son of immeasurable prowess, as also my high-souled brothers, and Yudhamanyu and Uttamaujas, those great car-warriors that poured their bodies (as libations) on the fire of battle, those kings and princes that met with death for my sake in battle.  Where are those great car-warriors that possessed the prowess of tigers?  Have those foremost of men acquired this region?  If those great car-warriors have obtained these regions, then only do you know, ye gods, that I shall reside here with those high-souled ones.  If this auspicious and eternal region has not been acquired by those kings, then know, ye gods, that without those brothers and kinsmen of mine, I shall not live here.  At the time of performing the water rites (after the battle), I heard my mother say, Do thou offer oblations of water unto Karna.  Since hearing those words of my mother, I am burning with grief.  I grieve also incessantly at this, ye gods, that when I marked the resemblance between the feet of my mother and those of Karna of immeasurable soul, I did not immediately place myself under orders of that afflicter of hostile ranks.  Ourselves joined with Karna, Shakra himself would have been unable to vanquish in battle.  Wherever may that