discourses of
other saints, of Bhrigu and Bharadwaja, of Manu and Brihaspati, of
Vyasa and Suka, of Yajnavalkya and Janaka, of Narada and Narayana.
He explains _Sankhya_ philosophy and _Yoga_ philosophy, and lays down
the laws of Marriage, the laws of Succession, the rules of Gifts,
and the rules of Funeral Rites. He preaches the cult of Krishna, and
narrates endless legends, tales, traditions, and myths about sages
and saints, gods and mortal kings. All this is told in two Books
containing about twenty-two thousand couplets, and forming nearly
one-fourth of the entire Sanscrit Epic!

The reason of adding all this episodical and comparatively recent
matter to the ancient Epic is not far to seek. The Epic became
more popular with the nation at large than dry codes of law and
philosophy, and generations of Brahmanical writers laboured therefore
to insert in the Epic itself their rules of caste and moral conduct,
their laws and philosophy. There is no more venerable character in
the Epic than Bhishma, and these rules and laws have therefore been
supposed to come from his lips on the solemn occasion of his death.
As a storehouse of Hindu laws and traditions and moral rules these
episodes are invaluable; but they form no part of the real Epic, they
are not a portion of the leading story of the Epic, and we pass them
by.

Bhishma dies and is cremated; but the endless exposition of laws,
legends, and moral rules is not yet over. Krishna himself takes
up the task in a new Book, and, as he has done once before in the
_Bhagavat-gita_, he now once more explains to Arjun in the _Anu-gita_
the great truths about Soul and Emancipation, Creation and the Wheel
of Life, True Knowledge and Rites and Penance. The adventures of the
sage Utanka, whom Krishna meets, then take up a good many pages. All
this forms no part of the real Epic, and we pass it by.

Yudhishthir has in the meantime been crowned king of the Kurus
at Hastinapura, and a posthumous child of Abhimanyu is named
Parikshit, and is destined to succeed to the throne of the Kurus. But
Yudhishthir's mind is still troubled with the thoughts of the carnage
of the war, of which he considers himself guilty, and the great saint
Vyasa advises the performance of the _aswa-medha_, or the Sacrifice
of the Horse, for the expiation of the sin.

The Sacrifice of the Horse was an ancient Hindu custom practised by
kings exercising suzerain powers over surrounding kings. A horse was
let