Chapter 153

“Vaisampayana said, ‘King Yudhishthira then caused his troops to encampon a part of the field that was level, cool, and abounding with grass andfuel. Avoiding cemeteries, temples and compounds consecrated to thedeities, asylums of sages, shrines, and other sacred plots. Kunti’shigh-souled son, Yudhishthira, pitched his camp on a delightful, fertile,open and sacred part of the plain. And rising up, again, after hisanimals had been given sufficient rest, the king set out joyouslysurrounded by hundreds and thousands of monarchs. And Kesava accompaniedby Partha began to move about, scattering numerous soldiers ofDhritarashtra (kept as outposts). And Dhrishtadyumna of Prishata’s raceand that mighty car-warrior of great energy, viz., Yuyudhana, otherwisecalled Satyaki, measured the ground for the encampment. And arrived, OBharata, at the holy Hiranwati which flows through Kurukshetra, which wasfilled with sacred water, and whose bed was divested of pointed pebblesand mire, and which was regarded as an excellent tirtha, Kesava caused amoat to be excavated there, and for its protection stationed a sufficientnumber of troops with proper instructions. And the rules that wereobserved in respect of the tents of the high-souled Pandavas, werefollowed by Kesava in the matter of the tents he caused to be set up forthe kings (that came as their allies). And, O monarch, costly tents,incapable of being attacked, apart from one another, were, by hundredsand thousands, set up for those kings on the surface of the earth, thatlooked like palatial residences and abounded with fuels and edibles anddrinks. And there were assembled hundreds upon hundreds of skilledmechanics, in receipt of regular wages and surgeons and physicians,well-versed in their own science, and furnished with every ingredientthey might need. And king Yudhishthira caused to be placed in everypavilion large quantities, high as hills, of bow-strings and bows andcoats of mail and weapons, honey and clarified butter, pounded lac,water, fodder of cattle, chaff and coals, heavy machines, long shafts,lances, battleaxes, bow-staffs, breast-plates, scimitars and quivers. Andinnumerable elephants cased in plates of steel with prickles thereon,huge as hills, and capable of fighting with hundreds and thousands, wereseen there. And learning that the Pandavas had encamped on that field,their allies, O Bharata, with their forces and animals, began to marchthither. And many kings who had practised Brahmacharya vows, drunk(consecrated) Soma and had made large presents to Brahmanas atsacrifices, came there for the success of the sons of Pandu.'”