Kurus arrayed in order
of battle.'"

[40] This sloka is not correctly printed in any of the texts
that I have seen. The Burdwan Pandits read _tat-samim_. This I
think, is correct, but then _asasada_ in the singular when the
other verbs are all dual seems to be correct. The poet must have
used some other verb in the dual for _asasada_.

Vaisampayana continued, "And the low-minded and foolish Uttara out of
folly alone, began to bewail (his fate) in the presence of the
high-spirited (Arjuna) disguised (as his charioteer) in these words, 'My
father hath gone out to meet the Trigartas taking with him his whole
army, leaving me in the empty city. There are no troops to assist me.
Alone and a mere boy who has not undergone much exercise in arms, I am
unable to encounter these innumerable warriors and all skilled in
weapons. Do thou, therefore, O Vrihannala, cease to advance!'

"Vrihannala said, 'Why dost thou look so pale through fear and enhance
the joy of thy foes? As yet thou hast done nothing on the field of
battle with the enemy. It was thou that hadst ordered me, saying, _Take
me towards the Kauravas_. I will, therefore, take thee, thither where
those innumerable flags are. I will certainly take thee, O mighty-armed
one, into the midst of the hostile Kurus, prepared to fight as they are
for the kine like hawks for meat. I would do this, even if I regarded
them to have come hither for battling for a much higher stake such as
the sovereignty of the earth. Having, at the time of setting out, talked
before both men and women so highly of thy manliness, why wouldst thou
desist from the fight? If thou shouldst return home without recapturing
the kine, brave men and even women, when they meet together, will laugh
at thee (in derision). As regards myself, I cannot return to the city
without having rescued the kine, applauded as I have been so highly by
the _Sairindhri_ in respect of my skill in driving cars. It is for those
praises by the _Sairindhri_ and for those words of thine also (that I
have come). Why should I not, therefore, give battle to the Kurus? (As
regards thyself), be thou still.'

"Uttara said, 'Let the Kurus rob the Matsyas of all their wealth. Let
men and women, O Vrihannala, laugh at me. Let my kine perish, let the
city be a desert. Let me stand exposed before my father. Still there is
no need of battle.'"

Vaisampayana continued, "Saying this, that much affrighted prince decked
in ea