After two years had passed from the date of the return of the Pandavas from the retreat of heir sire), the celestial Rishi, Narada, O king, came to Yudhishthria.

the mighty-armed Kuru king, that foremost of speakers, viz., Yudhishthira, having duly adored him, made him take a seat. After the Rishi had rested a while, the king asked him saying, 'It is after a long time that I see your holy self arrived at my court. Are you in peace and happiness, O learned Bhimasena?

What are toe countries which you have passed through? What can I do for you? Do you tell me. You are the foremost of twiceborn ones, and you are our highest refuge.

Narada said I have not seen you for a long time. Hence it is that I have come to you from my asylum. I have seen many sacred waters and the sacred rivers Ganga, also, O king.

People living on the banks of Ganga report that the great Dhritarashtra is practicing the austerest of penances.

Have you seen him there? Is that perpetuator o Kuru's race in peace? Are Gandhari and Pritha and the Suta's son Sanjaya also in peace?

How, indeed, is that royal sire of mine doing? I wish to hear this, O holy one, if you have seen the king.

Narada said Listen, O king, with calmness to me as I tell you what I have heard and seen in that asylum.

After your return from Kurukshetra, O delighter of the Kurus, Your sire, O king, proceeded towards Gangadvara.

That intelligent king took with him his (sacred) fire, Gandhari and his daughter-in-law Kunti, as also Sanjaya of the Suta caste, and all the Yajakas.

Having penances for wealth, your sire set himself to the practice of severe austerities. He held pebbled of stone in his mouth and had air alone for his food, and abstained altogether from speech.

Engaged in severe penances, he was adored by all the ascetics in the forest. In six months the king was reduced to only a skeleton.

Gandhari lived on water alone, while Kunti took a little food a intervals of month. Sanjaya, O Bharata, lived, eating a little every sixth day.

The sacred fire, O monarch, (bclonging to the Kuru king) was duly adored by the sacrificing assistants who were with him, with libations of clarified butter poured on it. They did this whether the king saw the rite or not.

The king had no fixed dwelling. He became a wanderer through those forests. The two queens, as also Sanjaya, followed him.

Sanjaya acted as the guide on even and uneven land. The faultless Pritha, O king, became the eye of Gandhari.

One day, that best of kings went to a spot on the margin of Ganga. He then bathed in the sacred river and finishing his ablutions turned his face toward his hermitage.

The wind rose high. A fierce wild fire set in. It began to burn that forest all around.

When the herds of animals were being burnt all around, as also the snakes which inhabited. that region, herds of wild board began to take themselves to the nearest marshes and waters.

When that forest was thus afflicted on all sides and such distress came upon all the living creature living there, the king, who had taken no food, was incapable of moving or exerting himself at all.

Your two mothers also, exceedingly emaciated, could not move. The king, seeing the fire approach him from all sides, addressed the Suta Sanjaya, that foremost of skillful charioteers, saying, 'Go, O Sanjaya, to such a place where the fire may not burn you.

As regards ourselves, we shall allow our bodies to be destroyed by this fire and attain to the greatest end. To him, Sanjaya, that foremost of speakers, said-'O king, this death, brought on by a fire that is not sacred, will prove calamitous to you. I do not, however, see any means by which you can escape from this fire. our

That which should next be done should be marked by you. Thus addressed by Sanjaya the king once more said, “This death cannot be calamitous to us, for we have left our home of own accord. Water, fire, wind, and abstention from food, are laudable for ascetics. Do you, therefore, leave us, O Sanjaya, forthwith.' Having said these words to Sanjaya the king concentrated his mind.

Facing the east, he sat down, with Gandhari and Kunti. Seeing him in that attitude Sanjaya walked round him.

Gifted with intelligence, Sanjaya said, 'Do you concentrate your mind. O powerful one!' The son of a Rishi, and himself endued with great wisdom, the king acted as he was told.

Governing all the senses, he remained like a post of wood. The highly blessed Gandhari, and your mother Pritha top, remained in the same attitude.

Then your royal sire was overtaken by the wild-fire, Sanjaya, his minister succeeded in escaping from that fire.

I saw him on the banks of Ganga in the midst of ascetics. Gifted with great, energy and great intelligence's he bade them farewell and then started for the mountains of Himavat.

Thus the great Kuru king met with his death, and it was thus that Gandhari and Kunti, your two others, also met with death, O monarch.

In course of my wanderings at will, I saw the bodies of that king and those two queens, O Bharata.

Many ascetics came to that asylum, having heard of the end of king Dhritarashtra. They did not at all grieve for that end of theirs.

There, O best of men, I heard all the details of how the king and the two qucens, O son of Pandu, had been burnt.

O king of kings, you should not grieve for him. The monarch, of his own will, as also Gandhari and your mother, got that contact with fire,

Vaishampayana said, Hearing of the departure of Dhritarashtra from his world, the great Pandavas all bewailed.

Lord sounds of wailing were heard within the inner apartments of the palace. The citizens also, hearing of the end of the old king, bewailed aloud.

'O Fie', cried king Yudhishthira in great agony, raising his arms a loft. Thinking of his mother, he wept like a child. All is brothers too, headed by Bhimasena, old the same.

Hearing that Pritha had met with such a face, the royal ladies bewailed aloud in grief.

All the people grieved upon hearing that the old king, who had become childless, had been burnt to death and that the helpless Gandhari too had shared his fate.

When those sounds of wailing ceased for a while, king Yudhishthira the just, shopping his tears by summoning all his patience, said these words.