Having met the king thus, those brave chastisers of foes, before the sun
rose, went away, O monarch, to the places they chose. It was after this,
O king, that the sons of Pandu, those great car-warriors, encountered the
son of Drona, and putting forth their prowess, vanquished him, O monarch,
(in the way already related)."
12
Vaishampayana said, "After all the warriors had been slaughtered, king
Yudhishthira the just heard that his uncle Dhritarashtra had set out from
the city called after the elephant. Afflicted with grief on account of
the death of his sons, Yudhishthira, O king, accompanied by his brothers,
set out for meeting his uncle, filled with sorrow and overwhelmed with
grief for the slaughter of his (hundred) sons. The son of Kunti was
followed by the high-souled and heroic Krishna of Dasharhas race, and by
Yuyudhana, as also by Yuyutsu. The princess Draupadi also, burning with
grief, and accompanied by those Pancala ladies that were with her,
sorrowfully followed her lord. Yudhishthira beheld near the banks of the
Ganga, O king, the crowd of Bharata ladies afflicted with woe and crying
like a flight of she-ospreys. The king was soon surrounded by those
thousands of ladies who, with arms raised aloft in grief, were indulging
in loud lamentations and giving expression to all kinds of words,
agreeable and disagreeable: Where, indeed, is that righteousness of the
king, where is truth and compassion, since he has slain sires and
brothers and preceptors and sons and friends? How, O mighty-armed one,
hath thy heart become tranquil after causing Drona, and thy grandsire
Bhishma, and Jayadratha, to be slaughtered? What need hast thou of
sovereignty, after having seen thy sires and brothers, O Bharata, and the
irresistible Abhimanyu and the sons of Draupadi, thus slaughtered?
Passing over those ladies crying like a flight of she-ospreys, the
mighty-armed king Yudhishthira the just saluted the feet of his eldest
uncle.
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