Chapter 10

Vaishampayana said, “Hearing these words of Vidura, that bull of Bharatasrace (Dhritarashtra) ordered his car to be yoked. The king once moresaid, Bring Gandhari hither without delay, and all the Bharata ladies.Bring hither Kunti also, as well as all the other ladies with her. Havingsaid these words unto Vidura, conversant with every duty, Dhritarashtraof righteous soul, deprived of his senses by sorrow, ascended on his car.Then Gandhari, afflicted with grief on account of the death of her sons,accompanied by Kunti and the other ladies of the royal household, came atthe command of her lord to that spot where the latter was waiting forher. Afflicted with grief, they came together to the king. As they met,they accosted each other and uttered loud wails of woe. Then Vidura, whohad become more afflicted than those ladies, began to comfort them.Placing those weeping fair ones on the cars that stood ready for them, heset out (with them) from the city. At that time a loud wail of woe arosefrom every Kuru house. The whole city, including the very children,became exceedingly afflicted with grief. Thoseladies that had not beforethis been seen by the very gods were now helpless, as they were, for theloss of their lords, seen by the common people. With their beautifultresses all dishevelled and their ornaments cast off, those ladies, eachattired in a single piece of raiment, proceeded most woefully. Indeed,they issued from their houses resembling white mountains, like a dappledherd of deer from their mountain caves after the fall of their leader.These fair ladies, in successive bevies, O king, came out, filled withsorrow, and ran hither and thither like a herd of fillies on a circusyard. Seizing each other by the hand, they uttered loud wails after theirsons and brothers and sires. They seemed to exhibit the scene that takesplace on the occasion of the universal destruction at the end of theYuga. Weeping and crying and running hither and thither, and deprived oftheir senses by grief, they knew not what to do. Those ladies whoformerly felt the blush of modesty in the presence of even companions oftheir own sex, now felt no blush of shame, though scantily clad, inappearing before their mothers-in-law. Formerly they used to comfort eachother while afflicted with even slight causes of woe. Stupefied by grief,they now, O king, refrained from even casting their eyes upon each other.Surrounded by those thousands of wailing ladies, the king cheerlesslyissued out of the city and proceeded with speed towards the field ofbattle. Artisans and traders and Vaishyas and all kinds of mechanics,issuing out of the city, followed in the wake of the king. As thoseladies, afflicted by the wholesale destruction that had overtaken theKurus, cried in sorrow, a loud wail arose from among them that seemed topierce all the worlds. All creatures that heard that wail thought thatthe hour of universal destruction had come when all things would beconsumed by the fire that arises at the end of the Yuga. The citizensalso (of Hastinapura), devoted to the house of Kuru, with hearts filledwith anxiety at the destruction that had overtaken their rules, set up, Oking, a wail that was as loud as that uttered by those ladies.”