Maha-Bharata, The Epic Of Ancient India - Conclusion
The real Epic ends with the war and with the funerals of the deceased
warriors, as we have stated before, and Yudhishthir's Horse-Sacrifice
is rather a crowning ornament than a part of the solid edifice. What
follows the sacrifice is in no sense a part of the real Epic; it
consists merely of concluding personal narratives of the heroes who
have figured in the poem.
Dhrita-rashtra retires into a forest with his queen Gandhari, and
Pritha, the mother of the Pandav brothers, accompanies them. In the
solitude of the forest the old Dhrita-rashtra sees as in a vision
the spirits of all the slain warriors, his sons and grandsons and
kinsmen, clad and armed as they were in battle. The spirits disappear
in the morning at the bidding of Vyasa, who had called them up. At
last Dhrita-rashtra and Gandhari and Pritha are burnt to death in a
forest conflagration, death by fire being considered holy.
Krishna at Dwarka meets with strange and tragic adventures. The
Vrishnis and the Andhakas become irreligious and addicted to
drinking, and fall a prey to internal dissensions. Valadeva and
Krishna die shortly after, and the city of the Yadavas is swallowed
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poem by Romesh Chunder Dutt
Added by Poetry Lover
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