rounded with high mansions perfectly white and
resembling the cloud-kissing peaks of Kailasa. The windows of those
mansions were covered with net works of gold; the walls were set with
diamonds and precious costly carpets and cloths. All those mansions
adorned with wreaths and garlands of flowers and rendered fragrant with
excellent aloes, were all white and spotless, like unto the necks of
swans. And the fragrance therefrom could be perceived from the distance
of a Yojana (eight miles). And they were each furnished with a hundred
doors wide enough to admit a crowd of persons; they were adorned with
costly beds and carpets, and beautified with various metals; they
resembled the peaks of the Himavat. And in those seven-storied houses of
various sizes dwelt the monarchs invited by Drupada whose persons were
adorned with every ornament and who were possessed with the desire of
excelling one another. And the inhabitants of the city and the country
who had come to behold Krishna and taken their seats on the excellent
platforms erected around, beheld seated within those mansions those lions
among kings who were all endued with the energy of great souls. And those
exalted sovereigns were all adorned with the fragrant paste of the black
aloe. Of great liberality, they were all devoted to Brahma and they
protected their kingdoms against all foes. And for their own good deeds
they were loved by the whole world.

"The Pandavas, too, entering that amphitheatre, sat with the Brahmanas
and beheld the unequalled affluence of the king of the Panchalas. And
that concourse of princes, Brahmanas, and others, looking gay at the
performances of actors and dancers (large presents of every kind of
wealth being constantly made), began to swell day by day. And it lasted,
O king, several days, till on the sixteenth day when it was at its full,
the daughter of Drupada, O thou bull of the Bharata race, having washed
herself clean entered the amphitheatre, richly attired and adorned with
every ornament and bearing in her hand a dish of gold (whereon were the
usual offerings of Arghya) and a garland of flowers. Then the priest of
the lunar race--a holy Brahmana conversant with all mantras--ignited the
sacrificial fire and poured on it with due rites libations of clarified
butter. And gratifying Agni by these libations and making the Brahmanas
utter the auspicious formula of benediction, stopped the musical
instruments that were playing all around. An