Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/478

sons, 'I am the mother of the five Pandavas and am now in their midst! Yet am I burning with thirst!' Kunti repeatedly said this unto her sons. Hearing these words, from affection for his mother Bhima's mind was warmed by compassion and he resolved to go (along as before). Then Bhima, proceeding through that terrible and extensive forest without a living soul saw a beautiful banian with wide-spreading branches. Causing his brothers and mother, O thou bull of the Bharata race, to alight there, he said unto them, 'Rest ye here, while I go in quest of water. I hear the sweet cries of acquatic fowls. I think there must be a large pool here.' Commanded, O Bharata, by his eldest brother who said unto him 'Go,' Bhima proceeded in the direction whence the cries of those acquatic fowls were coming. And, O thou bull of the Bharata race, he soon came upon a pool, and bathed and slaked his thirst. And affectionate unto his brothers, he brought for them, O Bharata, water by soaking his upper garments. Hastily retracing his way over those four miles he came unto where his mother was and beholding her he was afflicted with sorrow and began to sigh like a snake. Distressed with grief at seeing his mother and brothers asleep on the bare ground, Vrikodara began to weep. 'Oh wretch that I am, who beholdeth his brothers asleep on the bare ground, what can befall unto me more painful than this? Oh, they who formerly at Varanavata could not sleep on the softest and most valuable beds are now asleep on the bare ground! Oh, what more painful sight shall I ever beholdd than that of Kunti,—the sister of Vasudeva that grinder of hostile hosts,—the daughter of Kuntiraja,—herself decked with every auspicious mark,—the daughter-in-law of Vichitravirya,—the wife of the illustrious Pandu,—the mother of us (five brothers),—resplendant as the filaments of the lotus, and delicate and tender and fit to sleep on the most costly beds,—thus asleep, as she should never be, on the bare ground? Oh, she who hath brought forth these sons by Dharma and Indra and Maruta—she who hath ever slept within palaces—now sleepeth fatigued on the bare ground! What more painful sight shall ever be