50. SUSTENANCE OF PAANDAVAAS

SRIMAD MAHABHARATA > AARANYA PARVA > INDRALOKA GAMANA PARVA > CHAPTER 50 - SUSTENANCE OF PAANDAVAAS

“Janamejaya said, ‘Having sent the heroic Paandavaas into exile, these lamentations, O Muni (Vaishampaayana), of Dhritarashtra were perfectly fruitless. Why did the king permit his foolish son Duryodhana to thus anger those mighty warriors, the Paandavaas? Tell us now, O Brahmana, what was the food of the sons of Paandu, while they lived in the forest? Was it of the wilderness, or was it the produce of cultivation?’

“Vaishampaayana said, ‘Those bulls among men (Paandavaas), collecting the produce of the wilderness and killing the deer with pure arrows, first dedicated a portion of the food to the Brahmanas, and themselves are the rest. For, O king (Janamejaya), while those heroes (Shoora in Sanskrit) wielding large bows lived in the forest, they were followed by Brahmanas of both classes – those worshipping with Agni and those worshipping without it. There were ten thousand Mahatma Snaataka Brahmanas, all knowledgeable with the means of Moksha, whom Yudhishthira supported in the forest. Killing with arrows Rurus, black deers and other kinds of clean animals of the wilderness, he (Yudhishthira) gave them to those Brahmanas. No one that lived with Yudhishthira looked pale or ill, or was lean or weak, or was sad or terrified. The chief of the Kurus – the Dharmaraja Yudhishthira – maintained his brothers as if they were his sons, and his relatives as if they were his blood brothers. Draupadi of pure fame fed her husbands and the Dwijas, as if she was their mother; and last of all took her food herself. The king (Yudhishthira) himself going towards the east, Bhima towards the south, the twins (Nakula and Sahadeva) towards the west and the north, daily killed with bow in hand the deer of the forest, for the sake of meat. It was thus the Paandavaas lived for five years in the Kaamyaka forest, in anxiety at the absence of Arjuna, and engaged all the while in study, prayers (Japa in Sanskrit) and yagnas.’”