तीर्थयात्रा पर्व — जमदग्नि की कथा

Rama said: O father, for my fault you have been killed like a deer in the forest with arrows by those mean and foolish wretches, the sons of Kirtavirya.

O father, virtuous and ever steady in the honest path as you were, how can fate permit that you should die in this way?

What an awful sin must have been committed by them who have with hundreds of arrows killed you who were ever engaged in asceticism, who were old and who were averse to fight with them.

How can those shameless men speak of their (shameful) deed to their friends and relatives that they have killed virtuous man who was averse to fight.

Avitavarna Said: O king, thus did he lamentin piteous manner; and then that great ascetic performed all the obsequies of his (deceased) father. That conqueror of hostile cities, Rama, then set fire (to the funeral pyre) of his, father, O descendant of Bharata and then took an oath to destroy all Kshatriyas.

That mighty hero, greatly powerful in battle, equal to god of death himself, then took up weapons in anger; and alone he killed the sons of Kirtavirya.

O best of Kshatriyas, that foremost of all wielders of arms, Rama, destroyed all those Kshatriyas who were their followers.

Twenty-one times that lord made the earth Kshatriya-less. With their blood he made five lakes in Samantapanchaka.

That perpetuator of the Bhrigu race then offered there oblations to his ancestors. Then Rechika appeared to him in a visible form and stopped him.

Then the mighty son of Jamadagni offered libations to the lord of the celestials in a great sacrifice, in which he bestowed the earth of the Ritvijas.

O king, he built an altar made of gold which was ten vyamas (2O yards) in breadth and nine in height. He made a gift of it to the illustrious Kashyapa.

O king, then at the request of Kashyapa, the Brahmanas divided it into a number of shares and thus they came to be called the Khandavayanas (share-takers).

O king, having bestowed the earth on the illustrious Kashyapa, he engaged in severe austerities on the Mahendra, the foremost of mountains.

Thus did hostility arise between him and the Kshatriyas that lived on the earth. The entire world was thus conquered by the imineasurably effulgent Rama.

Vaishampayana said : Then on the fourteenth day of noon, the high-souled Rama at the proper hour appeared before the Brahinanas and Dharınaraja (Yudhishthira) with his younger brothers.

O king of kings, that foremost of kings, that lord, then with his brothers offered highest worship to the Brahmanas; and they also worshipped him (Rama).

Having worshipped the son of Jamadagni and having received due respect from him, he (Yudhishthira) spent a night on the Mahendra (mountain) and he then started towards the south.