e Brahmana Drona and the
aged king, the senior member of the house, are living happily, after
having banished the sons of Pritha? Fie upon the vicious-minded leaders
of Bharata's race! What will that sinner, the chieftain of the earth,
say to the departed forefathers of his race, when the wretch will meet
them in the world to come? Having hurled from the throne his
in-offensive sons, will he be able to declare that he had treated them
in a blameless way? He doth not now see with his mind's eye how he hath
become so sightless, and on account of what act he hath grown blind
among the kings of this entire earth. Is it not because he hath banished
Kunti's son from his kingdom? I have no doubt that Vichitravirya's son,
when he with his sons perpetrated this inhuman act, beheld on the spot
where dead bodies are burnt, flowering trees of a golden hue. Verily he
must have asked them, when those stood before him with their shoulders
projected forward towards him, and with their large red eyes staring at
him, and he must have listened to their evil advice, since he fearlessly
sent away Yudhishthira to the forest, who had all his weapons of war
with him and was borne company by his younger brothers. This Bhima here,
whose voracious appetite is like that of a wolf, is able to destroy with
the sole strength of his powerful arms, and without the help of any
weapons of war, a formidable array of hostile troops. The forces in the
field of battle were utterly unmanned on hearing his war-cry. And now
the strong one is suffering from hunger and thirst, and is emaciated
with toilsome journeys. But when he will take up in his hand arrows and
diverse other weapons of war, and meet his foes in the field of battle,
he will then remember the sufferings of his exceedingly miserable
forest-life, and kill his enemies to a man: of a certainty do I
anticipate this. There is not throughout the whole world a single soul
who can boast of strength and prowess equal to his. And his body, alas!
is emaciated with cold, and heat and winds. But when he will stand up
for fight, he will not leave a single man out of his foes. This powerful
hero, who is a very great warrior when mounted on a car--this Bhima, of
appetite rivalling a wolf's conquered single-handed all the rulers of
men in the east, together with, those who followed them in battle; and
he returned from those wars safe and uninjured. And that same Bhima,
miserably dressed in the bark of trees, is now