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Mahābhārata The History of the Great India
<< 41 The Citizen's Anger >>
 |  | When the night was over, every man and woman in the city rushed about the ruins looking for the beloved sons of Pandu. When the people finally extinguished the blaze, they saw from the remains of the house that it had been intentionally built with lac and that the minister Purocana had burned in the blaze.
| | | "Surely Duryodhana, that evildoer, arranged this to destroy the Pandavas," the people wailed. Without doubt, Dhrtarastra's son has burned to death the heirs to Pandu's empire, and Dhrtarastra did not forbid this murder. It is now clear that Bhisma, son of Santanu, does not really follow the religious principles, nor do Drona, Vidura, Krpa, and the rest of the Kauravas. We ourselves shall send a message to the wicked Dhrtarastra: 'Your greatest desire is now fulfilled. You have burned to death the sons of your own brother Pandu'.
| | | Searching for the Pandavas, the people removed what was left of the burned house and saw the Nisada woman with her five innocent sons, burned to death. While helping to clean and purify the area, the very same excavator who had built the tunnel covered the hole with debris so that it was unnoticed by the other men.
| | | The people of the town then sent word to Dhrtarastra that the Pandavas, along with the minister Purocana, had burned to death in a fire.
| | | Upon hearing the shocking news of the destruction of the the sons of Pandu, Dhrtarastra lamented in great agony.
| | | Today my beloved brother King Pandu has died and there will be no other like him, for his heroic sons have burned to death along with their poor mother! Men must go at once to the city of Varanavata and offer the highest final honors to those heroes and to the precious daughter of King Kuntibhoja. Arrange at once for large, magnificent urns for their remains, and let all those who loved them, who were their friends, pay homage to them in this tragic moment. In these trying circumstances, anything I can do to benefit the departed souls of the Pandavas and Kunti must be done, and we shall spend for it!
| | | Having thus spoken, and surrounded by his relatives, Dhrtarastra, the son of Ambika, offered the holy water for the sons of Pandu. The Kauravas cried and shrieked in the depths of anguish, but Vidura lamented only briefly, for he knew the truth.
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