ting upon another. Alas, beholding Yudhishthira a courtier sitting
beside another and breathing adulatory speeches to the other, who can
help being afflicted with grief? And beholding the highly wise and
virtuous Yudhishthira, undeserving as he is of serving others, actually
serving another for sustenance, who can help being afflicted with grief?
And, O hero, that Bharata who was worshipped in court by the entire
earth, do thou now behold him worshipping another. Why then, O Bharata,
dost thou not regard me as one afflicted with diverse miseries, like one
forlorn and immersed in a sea of sorrow?'"

SECTION XIX

"Draupadi said, 'This O Bharata, that I am going to tell thee is another
great grief of mine. Thou shouldst not blame me, for I tell thee this
from sadness of heart. Who is there whose grief is not enhanced at sight
of thee, O bull of the Bharata race, engaged in the ignoble office of a
cook, so entirely beneath thee and calling thyself as one _of Vallava_
caste? What can be sadder than this, that people should know thee as
Virata's cook, Vallava by name, and therefore one that is sunk in
servitude? Alas, when thy work of the kitchen is over, thou humbly
sittest beside Virata, calling thyself as Vallava the cook, then
despondency seizeth my heart. When the king of kings in joy maketh thee
fight with elephants, and the women of the inner apartments (of the
palace) laugh all the while, then I am sorely distressed. When thou
fightest in the inner apartments with lions, tigers, and buffaloes, the
princess Kaikeyi looking on, then I almost swoon away. And when Kaikeyi
and those maidservants, leaving their seats, come to assist me and find
that instead of suffering any injury in limbs mine is only a swoon, the
princess speaks unto her women, saying, 'Surely, it is from affection
and the duty begot of intercourse that this lady of sweet smiles
grieveth for the exceedingly powerful cook when he fights with the
beasts. Sairindhri is possessed of great beauty and Vallava also is
eminently handsome. The heart of woman is hard to know, and they, I
fancy, are deserving of each other. It is, therefore, likely that the
Sairindhri invariably weepeth (at such times) on account of her
connection with her lover. And then, they both have entered this royal
family at the same time. And speaking such words she always upbraideth
me. And beholding me wroth at this, she suspects me to be attached to
thee.' When she speaketh thus, grea