The description of the food of the Pandavas

Janamejaya said : O (Muni), king Dhritarashtra must uselessly have lamented after having sent the heroic sons of Pandu into exile.

Why did the king thus permit his narrowminded son Duryodhana to excite the anger of those mighty warriors, the sons of Pandu?

What was the food of the sons of Pandu while they lived in the woods? You explain to me-was it obtained from the woods or was it the product of cultivation?

Vaishampayana said : The best of men ate the produce of the wilderness and the (meat of) deer killed with pure arrows, which they first dedicated to the Brahmanas.

O king, both classes of Brahmanas (those worshipping with fire and those worshipping without it) followed these heroes wielding large bows while they lived in the wilderness.

There were ten thousand most illustrious Snataka Brahmanas, who had perfect knowledge in the matter and means of salvation and whom Yudhishthira fed in the woods.

He dedicated the black and other kinds of deer and clean animals of the forest to those Brahmanas, after having killed them with his arrows.

None of those who lived with Yudhishthira in the woods looked either pale or diseased, lean or weak and timid or terrified.

The best of the Kurus, the most virtuous Yudhishthira, supported his dear brothers as if they were his sons; and maintained his relatives, as if they were his own brothers.

The famous Draupadi first supplied her husband and the Brahmanas with food like their mother and at last she took her food herself.

The king going towards the east and Bhima towards the south and the twins towards the west or the north, put an end to the race of the deer in the forest (by daily killing them with their bows) for the sake of meat.

Thus the Pandavas lived in the forest of Kamyaka for five years; but all the while they remained very anxious on account of the absence of Arjuna and were always busy with study, prayers and sacrifices.