o the brim. Seated at
his ease on a royal seat, attired in a thin cloth, the king bathed in
several kinds of water fragrant with sandal-wood and purified with
Mantras. His body was rubbed by strong and well-trained servants with
water in which diverse kinds of medicinal herbs had been soaked. He then
washed with adhivasha water rendered fragrant by various odoriferous
substances. Obtaining then a long piece of cloth (for the head) that was
as white as the feathers of the swan, and that had been kept loose before
him, the king tied it round his head for drying the water. Smearing his
body then with excellent sandal-paste, and wearing floral garlands, and
addressing himself in clean robes, the mighty-armed monarch sat with face
towards the east, and his hands joined together. Following the path of
the righteous, the son of Kunti then mentally said his prayers. And then
with great humility he entered the chamber in which the blazing fire (for
worship) was kept. And having worshipped the fire with faggots of sacred
wood and with libations of clarified butter sanctified with Mantras, he
came out of the chamber. Then that tiger among men, entering a second
chamber, beheld there many bulls among Brahmanas well-acquainted with the
Vedas. And they were all self-restrained, purified by the study of the
Vedas and by vows. And all of them had undergone the bath on the
completion of sacrifices performed by them. Worshippers of the Sun, they
numbered a thousand. And, besides them, there were also eight thousand
others of the same class. And the mighty-armed son of Pandu, having
caused them to utter, in distinct voices, agreeable benedictions, by
making presents to them of honey and clarified butter and auspicious
fruits of the best kind, gave unto each of them a nishka of gold, a
hundred steeds decked with ornaments, and costly robes and such other
presents as were agreeable to them. And making unto them presents also of
kine yielding milk whenever touched, with calves and having their horns
decked with gold and their hoofs with silver, the son of Pandu
circumambulated them. And then seeing and touching Swastikas fraught with
increase of good fortune, and Nandyavartas made of gold, and floral
garlands, water-pots and blazing fire, and vessels full of sun-dried rice
and other auspicious articles, and the yellow pigment prepared from the
urine of the cow, and auspicious and well-decked maidens, and curds and
clarified butter and honey, a