Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists

"No,""""Return""My"""Myths of the Hindus ^f Buddhistsno ! cried all the ministers, and even Kama, whosurrounded him. "No, no ! Let there now be peace! ButDhritarashtra said :son s desire shall be fulfilled.Let them be recalled !Then even Gandharl, the aged queen, came into thecouncil-chamber and implored the king her husband tocast off Duryodhana, their eldest son, rather than againallow him to have his way.But Dhritarashtra s was the obstinacy of a weak intellect.He said : If our race is about to be destroyed,I am ill ableto prevent it. Let my son s desire be fulfilled. Let thePandavas return !The Renewal of the ContestYudhishthira and his brothers had gone far along the roadwhen the royal messenger overtook them with the king scommand for their return. There was no great need forwas false.compliance. They knew well that the playThey might easily have made some courteous excuse andpushed on to their own city.But the mind of a man underthe sway of calamity becomes deranged. Yudhishthira, atthe wordsand play! took on the look of a manunder a spell.And in due course, to the despair of alltheir friends, the Pandavas once more entered Hastinapuraand addressed themselves to play.Once more the dice were thrown. Again Sakuni cried:J)I have won ! And the Pandavas stood up mastersof themselves, but doomed to live twelve years in theforests and a thirteenth year unrecognized in some city ;from there, if recognized, to return to the wild woods foranother twelve years of exile.But as they went forth, grim and silent, to their exile, wisemen marked the manner of their going and read in it of a164