Chapter 49
Vaisampayana said, “Then Hrishikesa and king Yudhishthira, and all thosepersons headed by Kripa, and the four Pandavas, riding on those carslooking like fortified cities and decked with standards and banners,speedily proceeded to Kurukshetra with the aid of their fleet steeds.They descended on that field which was covered with hair and marrow andbones and where millions of high-souled Kshatriyas had cast away theirbodies. It abounded also with many a hill formed of the bodies and bonesof elephants and steeds, and human heads and skulls lay stretched over itlike conch-shells. Variegated with thousands of funeral pyres and teemingwith heaps of armour and weapons, the vast plain looked like the drinkinggarden of the Destroyer himself used and abandoned recently. The mightycar-warriors quickly proceeded, viewing the field of battle haunted bycrowds of spirits and thronged with Rakshasas. While proceeding, themighty-armed Kesava, that delighter of all the Yadavas, spoke untoYudhishthira about the prowess of Jamadagni’s son, ‘Yonder, at adistance, O Partha, are seen the five lakes of Rama! There Rama offeredoblations of Kshatriya blood unto the manes of his ancestors. It washither that the puissant Rama, having freed the earth of Kshatriya forthrice seven times, gave up his task.”
“Yudhishthira said,–‘I have great doubts in what thou sayest aboutRama’s having thrice seven times exterminated the Kshatriyas in days ofold. When the very Kshatriya seed was burnt by Rama, O bull among theYadus, how was the Kshatriya order revived, O thou of immeasurableprowess? How, O bull of the Yadus, was the Kshatriya order exterminatedby the illustrious and high-souled Rama, and how did it again grow? Infrightful car-encounters millions of Kshatriyas were slain. The earth, Oforemost of eloquent men, was strewn with the corpses of Kshatriyas. Forwhat reason was the Kshatriya order thus exterminated in days of yore byRama, the high-souled descendant of Bhrigu, O tiger among the Yadus? Othou of Vrishni’s race, remove this doubt of mine, O bird-bannered hero!O Krishna, O younger brother of Baladeva, the highest knowledge is fromthee.'”
Vaisampayana said,–“The puissant elder brother of Gada then narratedunto Yudhishthira of incomparable prowess everything that happened, infull detail, as to how the earth had become filled with Kshatriyas.”
