keen weapons, while advancing unarmed against
fighting foes, have all assumed bright forms and attained the regions of
Brahman. The remaining warriors, that have in anyhow met with death on
the precincts of the field of battle, have attained the region of the
Uttara-Kurus.'

"Dhritarashtra said, 'By the power of what knowledge, O son, thou seest
these things like one crowned with ascetic success? Tell me this, O
mighty-armed one, if thou thinkest that I can listen to it without
impropriety!'

"Yudhishthira said, 'While at thy command I wandered in the forest, I
obtained this boon on the occasion of sojourning to the sacred places. I
met with the celestial rishi Lomasa and obtained from him the boon of
spiritual vision. Thus on a former occasion I obtained second sight
through the power of knowledge!'

"Dhritarashtra said, 'It is necessary that our people should burn, with
due rites, the bodies of both the friendless and the friended slain. What
shall we do with those that have none to look after them and that have no
sacred fires? The duties that await us are many. Who are those whose
(last) rites we should perform? O Yudhishthira, will they obtain regions
of blessedness by the merit of their acts, they whose bodies are now
being torn and dragged by vultures and other birds?'"

Vaishampayana continued, "Thus addressed, Kunti's son Yudhishthira of
great wisdom commanded Sudharma (the priest of the Kauravas) and Dhaumya,
and Sanjaya of the Suta order, and Vidura of great wisdom, and Yuyutsu of
Kurus race, and all his servants headed by Indrasena, and all the other
Sutas that were with him, saying, 'Cause the funeral rites of the slain,
numbering by thousands, to be duly performed, so that nobody may perish
for want of persons to take care of them!' At this command of king
Yudhishthira the just, Vidura and Sanjaya and Sudharma and Dhaumya and
Indrasena and others, procuring sandal, aloe and other kinds of wood used
on such occasions, as also clarified butter and oil and perfumes and
costly silken robes and other kinds of cloth, and large heaps of dry
wood, and broken cars and diverse kinds of weapons, caused funeral pyres
to be duly made and lighted and then without haste burnt, with due rites
the slain kings in proper order. They properly burned upon those fires
that blazed forth with libations of clarified butter in torrents over
them, the bodies of Duryodhana and his hundred brothers, of Shalya, and
king Bhurishrav