Vasus, O king, recited this history to
me.[1943] Asked by thee, O foremost of righteous men, I have recited this
history that is excellent and sacred and fraught with great merit. Thou
hadst asked me about what constitutes the highest duty, O king. This
history is my answer to thy query. A brave man he was, O monarch, that
betook himself to the practice of the Unccha vow in this way, without
expectation of any fruit. Firmly resolved, that Brahmana, instructed, by
the chief of Nagas in this way about his duty, betook himself to the
practice of Yama and Niyama, and subsisting the while upon such food as
was allowed by the Unccha vow, proceeded to another forest."'"

The end of Santi Parva.

FOOTNOTES

1. Literally, the period of impurity. The period of mourning is the
period of impurity, according to the Hindu scriptures. By performing the
Sraddha rite, one becomes pure again. Till then, one can perform no
religious rites.

2. Literally, "shall not appear to thee by inward light."

3. The meaning is this, "This weapon shall not dwell with thee up to thy
last moments. Thou shalt forget it or it shall not appear at thy bidding,
when thy death becomes nigh, though at other times, thou mayst be master
of it."

4. The Kurus, our foes, having fallen in battle, have all gone to heaven,
while grief has become our lot.

5. Sanjata Valaratnesu is the true reading.

6. The Bombay reading Jayaphalam is correct. The Bengal reading
Jammaphalam, however, is not unmeaning.

7. What Yudhishthira says here is this: all the warriors that have been
slain in this battle have perished, they have not attained to heaven; if,
indeed, heaven has been theirs, then the slayers too would obtain heaven,
the scriptural ordinance having said so. It is impossible, however, to
suppose that men of wrath who have done such wicked deeds should obtain
such regions of bliss hereafter.

8. Pairs of opposites, such as heat and cold, joy and grief, etc. Comp.
Gita.

9. Because wealth enables its possessor to practise the rites of religion.

10. The sense is that when I will not wrong the denizens of even the
woods, there is little chance of my wronging men of the world.

11. There is a class of recluses who support life by gathering the fallen
fruits of trees. Taking the tree for a living person, they walk under its
shade and beg of it its fruits. Those fruits that fall down on such
occasions are regarded as the alms granted by the tree to it