ued the Asura, desirous of consuming him.
Beholding the Asura, Vasudeva stood with his weapon upraised, ready to
smite him down, seeing the discus uplifted and Agni pursuing from behind
to burn him, Maya said 'Run to me, O Arjuna, and protect me!' Hearing his
affrighted voice Arjuna said, 'Fear not!' That voice of Arjuna, O
Bharata, seemed to give Maya his life. As the merciful son of Pritha said
unto Maya that there was nothing to fear, he of the Dasarha race no
longer desired to slay Maya who was the brother of Namuchi, and Agni also
burned him not.'

"Vaisampayana continued, 'Protected from Indra by Krishna and Partha,
Agni gifted with great intelligence, burned that forest for five and ten
days. And while the forest burned Agni spared only six of its dwellers,
viz., Aswasena, Maya, and four birds called Sarngakas.'"

SECTION CCXXXI

(Khandava-daha Parva continued)

"Janamejaya said, 'O Brahmana, tell me why and when that forest burnt in
that way, Agni consumed not the birds called Sarngakas? Thou hast, O
Brahmana, recited (to us) the cause of Aswasena and the Danava Maya not
having been consumed. But thou hast not as yet said what the cause was of
the escape of the Sarngakas? The escape of those birds, O Brahmana,
appeareth to me to be wonderful. Tell us why they were not destroyed in
that dreadful conflagration.'

"Vaisampayana said, 'O slayer of all foes, I shall tell thee all as to
why Agni did not burn up those birds during the conflagration. There was,
O king, a great Rishi known by the name of Mandapala, conversant with all
the shastras, of rigid vows, devoted to asceticism, and the foremost of
all virtuous persons. Following in the wake of Rishis that had drawn up
their virile fluid, that ascetic, O monarch, with every sense under
complete control, devoted himself to study and virtue. Having reached the
opposite shores of asceticism, O Bharata, he left his human form and went
to the region of the Pitris. But going thither he failed to obtain the
(expected) fruit of his acts. He asked the celestials that sat around the
king of the dead as to the cause of his treatment, saying, 'Why have
these regions become unattainable by me,--regions that I had thought had
been acquired by me by my ascetic devotions? Have I not performed those
acts whose fruits are these regions? Ye inhabitants of heaven, tell me
why these regions are shut against me! I will do that which will give me
the fruit of my ascetic penance