Return to the city. May your mind ever stand steady on dharma." Thus did Kunti bless her illustrious-son and depart.

Yudhishthira stood speechless. Kunti went on her way, looking back occasionally at him and her other sons.

Each with hand on the shoulder of the other, this picture of the three elders of the tribe wending their way to the forest, leaving their sons behind, is painted by the poet so vividly that it fills the reader with solemn grief, as if the parting happened in his own family now.