mother to one hundred sons! All these came
into the world at one birth, in the shape of a lump of flesh, which
the ascetic divided into one hundred and one pieces, each of which was
enclosed in a pot of rarefied butter, where these germs gradually
developed into one hundred sons and one daughter.

As long as Pandu sojourned in the Himalayas, the blind prince reigned
in his stead, but when he died, his surviving widow brought to the
capital (Hastinapur) her five divine sons, the Pandavs. There the
blind uncle had them brought up with their cousins, the hundred Kurus
(or Kauravas), with whom, however, they were never able to live in
perfect peace. Once, as the result of a boyish quarrel, a Kuru flung
Bhima, one of the Pandavs, into the Ganges, where, instead of sinking,
this hero was inoculated by serpent-bites with the strength of ten
thousand elephants before he returned to his wonted place at home.

The young princes, who had all been trained to fight by their tutor,
Drona, and who had already given sundry proofs of their proficiency in
arms, were finally invited by the blind monarch to give a public
exhibition of their skill. The poem gives us a lengthy description of
this tournament, expatiating on the flower-decked booths reserved for
the principal spectators, and dilating particularly on the fact that
the blind monarch, unable to see with, his own eyes, made some one sit
beside him to describe all that was going on.

After the preliminary sacrifice offered by the tutor, the skill of the
princes, as archers, was tested on foot, on horseback, in howdahs, and
in chariots; then they indulged in mock fights with swords and
bucklers, closely watched by Drona, who pronounced his favorite
Arjuna, the third Pandav, the finest athlete ever seen.

Still the princes shook their weapons, drove the deep resounding car,
Or on steed or tusker mounted waged the glorious mimic war!
Mighty sword and ample buckler, ponderous mace the princes wield,
Brightly gleam their lightning rapiers as they range the listed field,
Brave and fearless is their action, and their movements quick and light,
Skilled and true the thrust and parry of their weapons flaming bright![42]

Thereupon, from the ranks of the spectators, emerged Karna, son of a
charioteer, who challenged Arjuna to fight with him, but the prince
refused on the score that they were not of equal rank. Still a legend
assures us that Karna was a child of the Sun-god, se