breathed a hot
and long sigh, and was bathed in tears of grief. And beholding his
brothers lying dead, the mighty armed son of Dharma with heart racked in
anxiety, began to lament profusely, saying, 'Thou hadst, O mighty-armed
Vrikodara, vowed, saying,--_I shall with mace smash the thighs of
Duryodhana in battle!_ O enhancer of the glory of the Kurus, in thy
death, O mighty-armed and high-souled one, all that hath become
fruitless now! The promises of men may be ineffectual; but why have the
words of the gods uttered in respect of thee been thus fruitless? O
Dhananjaya, while thou wert in thy mother's lying-in-room, the gods had
said,--_O Kunti, this thy son shall not be inferior to him of a thousand
eyes!_ And in the northern Paripatra mountains, all beings had sung,
saying,--_The prosperity (of this race), robbed by foes will be
recovered by this one without delay. No one will be able to vanquish him
in battle, while there will be none whom he will not be able to
vanquish._ Why then hath that Jishnu endued with great strength been
subject to death? Oh, why doth that Dhananjaya, relying on whom we had
hitherto endured all this misery, lie on the ground blighting[66] all my
hopes! Why have those heroes, those mighty sons of Kunti, Bhimasena and
Dhananjaya, came under the power of the enemy,--those who themselves
always slew their foes, and whom no weapons could resist! Surely, this
vile heart of mine must be made of adamant, since, beholding these twins
lying today on the ground it doth not split! Ye bulls among men, versed
in holy writ and acquainted with the properties of time and place, and
endued with ascetic merit, ye who duly performed all sacred rites, why
lie ye down, without performing acts deserving of you? Alas, why lie ye
insensible on the earth, with your bodies unwounded, ye unvanquished
ones, and with your vows untouched?' And beholding his brothers sweetly
sleeping there as (they usually did) on mountain slopes, the high souled
king, overwhelmed with grief and bathed in sweat, came to a distressful
condition. And saying,--It is even so--that virtuous lord of men,
immersed in an ocean of grief anxiously proceeded to ascertain the cause
(of that catastrophe). And that mighty-armed and high-souled one,
acquainted with the divisions of time and place, could not settle his
course of action. Having thus bewailed much in this strain, the virtuous
Yudhishthira, the son of _Dharma_ or _Tapu_, restrained his soul an