DHRITARASHTRA'S ANXIETY

Draupadi accompanied Dharmaputra ' her dishevelled haircovering her face and her eyes streaming with tears. Dhaumya, the priest, went along with them singing the Sama hymns, addressed to Yama, the Lord of Death."

When he heard these words, Dhritarashtra was filled with ever greater fear and anxiety than before. He asked: "What do the citizens say.

Vidura answered: "O great king, I shall tell you in their own words what the citizens of all castes and creeds say: 'Our leaders have left us. Fie on the elders of the Kuru race who have suffered such things to happen!

The covetous Dhritarashtra and his sons have driven away the sons of Pandu to the forest.' While the citizens blame us thus, the heavens are vexed with cloudless lightning, and the distressed earth quakes, and there are other evil portents."

While Dhritarashtra and Vidura were conversing thus,the sage Narada suddenly appeared before them and declared: "Fourteen years from this day theKauravas will become extinct as the result of the crime committed by Duryodhana" and vanished from sight.

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