were left.
The eldest Pandav, who had marched on without heeding the rest, now
explained to his companion how Draupadi sinned through excessive love
for her husbands, and that his fallen brothers were victims of pride,
vanity, and falsehood. He further predicted that the speaker himself
would fall, owing to selfishness, a prediction which was soon
verified, leaving the eldest Pandav alone with his dog.

On arriving, Indra bade this hero enter heaven, assuring him the other
spirits had preceded him thither, but warning him that he alone could
be admitted there in bodily form. When the Pandav begged that his dog
might enter too, Indra indignantly rejoined that heaven was no place
for animals, and inquired why the Pandav made more fuss about a
four-legged companion than about his wife and brothers. Thereupon the
Pandav returned he had no power to bring the others back to life, but
considered it cowardly to abandon a faithful living creature. The dog,
listening intently to this dialogue, now resumed his proper
form,--for it seems he was the king's father in a former birth,--and,
having become human once more, he too was allowed to enter Paradise.

Straight as he spoke, brightly great Indra smiled,
Vanished the hound, and in its stead stood there,
The lord of death and justice, Dharma's self.
--_Edwin Arnold._

Beneath a golden canopy, seated on jewelled thrones, the Pandav found
his blind uncle and cousins, but failed to discern any trace of his
brothers or Draupadi. He, therefore, refusing to remain, begged
Indra's permission to share their fate in hell; so a radiant messenger
was sent to guide him along a road paved with upturned razor edges,
which passed through a dense forest whose leaves were thorns and
swords. Along this frightful road the Pandav toiled, with cut and
mangled feet, until he reached the place of burning, where he beheld
Draupadi and his brothers writhing in the flames. Unable to rescue
them, the Rajah determined to share their fate, so bade his heavenly
guide return to Paradise without him. This, however, proved the last
test to which his great heart was to be subjected, for no sooner had
he expressed a generous determination to share his kinsmen's lot, than
he was told to bathe in the Ganges and all would be well. He had no
sooner done so than the heavens opened above him, allowing him to
perceive, amid undying flowers, the fair Draupadi and his four
brothers