dear friend of Sakra and known otherwise under the name
of Alamvana's son and who is filled with compassion, said,--"I, in former
days, repaired to the mountains of Gokarna and sat myself to practise
severe penances for a hundred years. As the reward of those penances, I
obtained from Sarva, O son of king Pandu, a hundred sons, all of whom
were born without the intervention of woman, of well-restrained soul,
conversant with righteousness, possessed of great splendour, free from
disease and sorrow, and endued with lives extending over a hundred
thousand years."--Then the illustrious Valmiki, addressing Yudhishthira,
said,--"Once upon a time, in course of a dialectical disputation, certain
ascetics that were possessors of the homa fire denounced me as one guilty
of Brahmanicide. As soon as they had denounced me as such, the sin of
Brahmanicide, O Bharata, possessed me. I then, for cleansing myself,
sought the protection of the sinless Isana who is irresistible in energy.
I become cleansed of all my sins. That dispeller of all sorrows, viz.,
the destroyer of the triple city of the Asuras, said unto me,--'Thy fame
shall be great in the world.'"--Then Jamadagni's son, that foremost of all
righteous persons, shining like the Sun with blazing splendour in the
midst of that conclave of Rishis, said unto the son of Kunti these
words:--"I was afflicted with the sin, O eldest son of Pandu, of
Brahmanicide for having slain my brothers who were all learned Brahmanas.
For purifying myself, I sought the protection, O king, of Mahadeva. I
hymned the praises of the great Deity by reciting his names. At this,
Bhava became gratified with me and gave me a battle-axe and many other
celestial weapons. And he said unto me,--'Thou shalt be freed from sin and
thou shalt be invincible in battle; Death himself shall not succeed in
overcoming thee for thou shalt be freed from disease.'--Even thus did the
illustrious and crested Deity of auspicious form said unto me. Through
the grace of that Deity of supreme intelligence I obtained all that He
had said." Then Viswamitra said,--"I was formerly a Kshatriya. I paid my
adorations to Bhava with the desire of becoming a Brahmana. Through the
grace of that great Deity I succeeded in obtaining the high status of a
Brahmana that is so difficult to obtain."--Then the Rishi Asita-Devala,
addressing the royal son of Pandu, said,--"In former days, O son of Kunti,
through the curse of Sakra, all my merit due to t