Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists

The Escape of the Pandavaspart of the house which adjoined Purochanna s ownquartersin the arsenal. Then he set fire to various otherparts, and leaving it all to blaze up of itself, he, with hismother and brothers, entered the subterranean passageto make their escape. And none knew that a poor lowcastewoman had come to the feast, accompanied by herfive sons, nor that all six, in the sleep of intoxication, laywithin the burning house. And since drowsiness and fearimpeded the motion of the Pandavas, the gigantic Bhlmalifted his mother to his shoulder, and then, taking twobrothers under each arm, pushed forward along the secretpassage, and came out after a while into the darkness ofthe forest. And Bhlma, thus loaded, pushed on, breakingthe trees with his breast, and pressing the earth deep withthe stamping of his feet.And behind them the citizens of Benares stood all nightwatching the burning of the house of lac, wailing aloudfor the fate of the princes, whom they supposed to bewithin, and loudly condemning the wicked Purochanna,whose motives they understood thoroughly well; andwhen morning was ceme they found the body of Purochanna and the bodies of the innocent low-caste womanand her five sons, and sending word to Dhritarashtra in thedistant capital, they proceeded to render royal honours to theunfortunate victims. But the miner who had been employed by Vidura contrived to help in the moving about ofthe ashes, and so to cover the entrance to the secretpassage as he did so that none suspectedits existence.Meanwhile, when the Pandavas had emerged from theforest they found in a fair ship on the Ganges a man whoseemed to be measuring the river and searchingits bed tofind a ford. And this was really that captain who hadbeen sent by Vidura to wait for the hour of the Pandava141