Chapter 27

Vaishampayana said, “Arrived at the auspicious Ganga full of sacredwater, containing many lakes, adorned with high banks and broad shores,and having a vast bed, they cast off their ornaments, upper garments, andbelts and girdles. The Kuru ladies, crying and afflicted with greatgrief, offered oblations of water unto their sires and grandsons andbrothers and kinsmen and sons and reverend seniors and husbands.Conversant with duties, they also performed the water-rite in honour oftheir friends. While those wives of heroes were performing this rite inhonour of their heroic lords, the access to the stream became easy,although the paths (made by the tread of many feet) disappearedafterwards. The shores of the stream, though crowded with those spousesof heroes, looked as broad as the ocean and presented a spectacle ofsorrow and cheerlessness. Then Kunti, O king, in a sudden paroxysm ofgrief, weepingly addressed her sons in these soft words, That hero andgreat bowman, that leader of leaders of car-divisions, that warriordistinguished by every mark of heroism, who hath been slain by Arjuna inbattle, that warrior whom, ye sons of Pandu, ye took forth, Sutas childborn of Radha, that hero who shone in the midst of his forces like thelord Surya himself, who battled with all of you and your followers, wholooked resplendent as he commanded the vast force of the Duryodhana, whohad no equal on earth for energy, that hero who preferred glory to life,that unretiring warrior firm in truth and never fatigued with exertion,was your eldest brother. Offer oblations of water unto that eldestbrother of yours who was born of me by the god of day. That hero was bornwith a pair of earrings and clad in armour, and resembled Surya himselfin splendour! Hearing these painful words of their mother, the Pandavasbegan to express their grief for Karna. Indeed, they became moreafflicted than ever. Then that tiger among men, the heroic Yudhishthira,sighing like a snake, asked his mother, That Karna who was like an oceanhaving shafts for his billows, his tall standard for his vortex, his ownmighty arms for a couple of huge alligators, his large car for his deeplake, and the sound of his palms for his tempestuous roar, and whoseimpetuosity none could withstand save Dhananjaya, O mother, wert thou theauthoress of that heroic being? How was that son, resembling a verycelestial, born of thee in former days? The energy of his arms scorchedall of us. How, mother, couldst thou conceal him like a person concealinga fire within the folds of his cloth? His might of arms was alwaysworshipped by the Dhartarashtras even as we always worship the might ofthe wielder of gandiva! How was that foremost of mighty men, that firstof car-warriors, who endured the united force of all lords of earth inbattle, how was he a son of thine? Was that foremost of all wielders ofweapons our eldest brother? How didst thou bring forth that child ofwonderful prowess? Alas, in consequence of the concealment of this affairby thee, we have been undone! By the death of Karna, ourselves with allour friends have been exceedingly afflicted. The grief I feel at Karnasdeath is a hundred times greater than that which was caused by the deathof Abhimanyu and the sons of Draupadi, and the destruction of thePancalas and the Kurus. Thinking of Karna, I am burning with grief, likea person thrown into a blazing fire. Nothing could have been unattainableby us, not excepting things belonging to heaven. Alas, this terriblecarnage, so destructive of the Kurus, would not have occurred. Copiouslyindulging in lamentations like these, king Yudhishthira the just utteredloud wails of woe. The puissant monarch then offered oblations of waterunto his deceased elder brother. Then all the ladies that crowded theshores of the river suddenly sent up a loud wail of grief. Theintelligent king of the Kurus, Yudhishthira, caused the wives and membersof Karnas family to be brought before him. Of righteous soul, heperformed, with them, the water-rite in honour of his eldest brother.Having finished the ceremony, the king with his senses exceedinglyagitated, rose from the waters of Ganga.”