Having saluted Narayana and Nara the best of male beings as also the goddess of learning let us cry success.

Janamejaya said How did my great grand fathers, stricken with the fear of Duryodhana, live incognito in the city of Virata?

O Brahmana, how did the highly lucky Draupadi, devoted to her husbands, afflicted with woe and in the habit of reciting the names of the Supreme being, live undiscovered?

Vaishampayana said Listen, O ruler of men, how your great grand-fathers spent their days in the city of Virata without being discovered.

Having thus received the boon from Dharma (the god of virtue) the best of the virtuous retired to the asylum, and described to the Brahmanas, all that came to pass.

Having described everything to the Brahmanas, Yudhishthira gave over to the Brahmana the fire sticks along with the churning staff which he had lost.

0 Bharata, then the high-souled potentate Yudhishthira, the offspring of Dharma, called all his younger brothers together and addressed them thus:

For these twelve years, we have been exiled from our kingdom. This is the thirteenth year very had to pass.

Therefore, O Arjuna, the son of Kunti, from here make a judicious choice of a place where we may stay one year without being known by our enemies.

Arjuna said O lord of men, by virtue of Dharma's gift of boon we shall to about without being known to the people. There is no doubt of it.

from among But for purposes of our abode I shall mention some places some places both pleasant and sequestered, please fix upon those.

About the kingdom of Kurus there are many beautiful countries with plenty of corn viz. Panchala, Chedi, Matsya, Shurasena, Patachchara, Dasharna, Navarashtra, Malla, Shalva, Yugandhara and extensive Kuntirashtra, Saurashtra and Avanti.

Which of these, O king, do you select for your abode, where we may live all the year round. On which of these places, Oking, does your choice fall, where we may live all the year round.

Yudhishthira said O you of mighty arms, what the worshipful deity (Dharma), the lord of all beings, has said must be so; there can be no other alternative.

After consulting together we must seek out a pleasant auspicious and agreeable place, where we may live all together without fear.

The aged Virata, the king of Matsya, is powerful, charitable, of righteous disposition, ever beloved and also attached to the Pandavas.

In the city of Virata, O dear one, we shall, O Bharata, spend the whole of his year, doing his work.

Tell me, O sons of Kuru, in what capacities we shall have to present ourselves after we shall have gone to the king of the Matsya.

Arjuna said O god among men, how will you work in his domain, O virtuous one, in what capacity will you reside in the city of Virata?

O king, you are gentle, charitable, modest, righteous, and true to promise. O Pandava, what will you do, although afflicted with calamity.

Like an ordinary person a king is not accustomed to hardships; how will you, as a king, thus get over the awful calamity that has overtaken you.

Yudhishthira said O you sons of Kuru, O you best among men, listen what work I shall do after having come before the king Virata.

Appearing as a twice-born one, Kanka by name, expert in dice and fond of game, I shall be a counter of that high-minded king.

Moving upon boards nice ivory pawns, blue, yellow, red and white, by means of red and black dice I shall please the king with his friends and ministers. When I shall thus be satisfying the king no body shall be able to find me out.

If the king asks me I shall say-"formerly I was the friend of Yudhishthira, as dear as his life.”

I have told you all that-how I would pass my days there. O Vrikodara, in what capacity will you live in the city of Virata?