In the Tirthayatra Parva of Mahabharata, the story of sage Agastya and how he dries up the oceans by drinking all their water is narrated. This story follows that one to explain how the oceans were filled with water again.

In olden times a king named Sagara was born in the Ishkvasu dynasty. He was very strong, and powerful, and had two wives  but no sons. He wanted a son very much and did penance on Mount Kailasa for a long time, and pleased Lord Shiva.

Shiva appeared before him, and said that I am happy with you, and you will soon have sons. Because of the time you have asked for this boon (astrological significance) one of your wives will have 60,000 sons, and the other one will have 1 son. All of the 60,000 sons will be destroyed at the same time but your lineage will be continued by the grandson from the wife who will have one son.

Both his queens got pregnant in due time; queen Vaidarbhi gave birth to a gourd, and queen Shaibya to a son.

The king was about to throw the gourd but a voice from the sky told him to take the seeds from the gourd, and preserve them in a vessel partly filled with warm ghee. He did as told, and soon 60,000 sons were born from the seeds.

His sons were numerous, and powerful and due to their strength they caused havoc and oppressed everyone including the gods.

One day King Sagara decided to do an Ashvamedha sacrifice, and released the horse. This horse was lost at the edge of the now dried ocean, and his sons returned to tell him this news. He was angry at hearing the news and told them not to return till they found the horse.

The sons were hell bent on finding the horse, and went to great lengths to find it and caused destruction along the way. Finally, they noticed a hole in the earth where the ocean had dried up, and then went inside the hole to eventually the reach the lowest of the nether regions known as Patala.

They searched for the horse in patala, and saw that the horse was next to the powerful sage Kapila. The brothers charged towards sage Kapila in order to retrieve the horse and punish him, but when the sage’s meditation was broken, and he opened his eyes all the brothers were burned to ashes instantly.

Narad saw all this and went to King Sagar and told him what happened. King Sagar was extremely remorseful and told his grandson Anshuman who was Asamanja’s son who was the only son of Shaibya that because of Sagara’s greed his 60,000 sons have been killed, and he has already abandoned his other son Asamanja.

At this, Yudhisthar asks sage Lomasha who is narrating this story why Sagara abandoned Asamanja.

Lomasha tells him that Asamanja used to grasp the weak and crying infants of the citizens by the neck and throw them in the river. The citizens went to the king to complain against Asamanja and Sagara decided to expel him from the country.

Back to the main story, Sagara now wants Anshuman to go retrieve the horse because he is very miserable at not being able to complete the sacrifice.

Ashuman goes to the place where the earth has been torn apart, enters the ocean and reaches patala where sage Kapila is present.

He bows down to the sage and Kapila tells him that he is very happy with him, and tells him to ask for a boon. Anshuman first asks him for the horse, and then he asks him for water to purify his uncles.

The text in the story is not immediately clear here, but you later realize that in fact he is asking for Gangajal and what has happened is that along with the oceans the rivers have probably also dried up or maybe they equated Ganga to an ocean as well.

Regardless, Kapila gives him the horse, and gives him the blessing that Anshuman’s grandson will bring down the “three-coursed one” from heaven. The three coursed one is the river Ganga which flows on heaven, earth, and nether regions, and is therefore three coursed.

In due course Bhaghirath is born who is to fulfill this destiny, and he did penance for a thousand years to please Ganga. The river Ganga personified shows herself to him, and asks him what he wants. He tells her that his 60,000 uncles cannot go to heaven till the time they are sprinkled with her water, and asks her to descend on the earth so their souls can be freed, and they can go to heaven.

Ganga tells him that she is happy with him and that she will descend down on the earth to do as he wishes. However, the earth will not be able to sustain her force if she descends directly on the earth, and he must please Lord Shiva so that he gives permission for the river Ganga to fall down on his head and sustain the pressure from the falls so that the earth may be spared.

Bhaghirath then goes to Mount Kailasa and prays to Lord Shiva for a thousand years, and Lord Shiva shows himself  and says that he will bear the fall of the great Ganga when she descends from the heavens.

The river Ganga falls on the head of Lord Shiva, and then reaches earth, and asks Bhaghiratha to show him the way where he wants her to flow. Bhaghiratha takes her to the ocean where his ancestors died and thus they are purified and reach heaven, and the oceans are also populated with water again!

In olden times there was a asura (demon) named Ilvala who lived in Manimati and had a younger brother called Vatapi.

He asked a brahmana for a son equal to Indra but the brahmana refused. Ilvala had a boon with which we could call any dead person, and that dead person would take their old body, and come back to the world.

Ilvala changed his brother Vatapi into a ram, cooked him, and fed him to the brahmana who had refused him. Ilvala then called his brother back from the dead, and Vatapi ripped open the brahmana’s stomach, and came back to the world.

Ilvala was a cruel asura who did this to many brahmans.

At this time, the sage Agastya was roaming the earth and came across a cave where he saw his ancestors hanging upside down. The sage asked him whey they were hanging upside down, and they told him they are this way because Agastya has no offspring, and that Agastya should perform his duty, and beget a child, and free his ancestors from this state.

Agastya searched for a bride equal to his being but couldn’t find one, so he created limbs of a perfect woman, and gave them as a boon to the king of Vidarbha (modern day Nagpur) and his wife who were childless. A girl was born to them called Lopamudra, and when Lopamudra was of a marriageable age, Agastya came to the king to ask him to marry her.

The king was very upset at this because he didn’t want to marry the princess to a penniless ascetic but he was afraid of saying no to Agastya and facing his wrath. So, he asked his wife what he should do? However, Lopamudra herself told her father that she wishes to be married to Agastya, so he should not worry about her, and get her married.

He did as asked, and Agastya asked his wife to lose all palatial garments and get dressed in deerskin, and bark and follow him. She dressed as an ascetic, followed him and they started living happily.

Then one day Agastya saw her getting out of the river after her bath, and summoned her for intercourse.

She said that there is no doubt that a man marries for offspring, but it is my desire that you get adorned in garlands, I get dressed in celestial garments, and then we consummate our marriage on a bed like the one in my father’s palace.

Agastya says that I don’t have riches like your father, and can’t get a bed or celestial garments. She insists that you are a great sage and you can command all the riches in the world, so do that which will fulfill my desire without reducing your ascetic merit.

The sage then goes to king Srutarvan who is known to be the richest king on earth, and asks him to give Agastya riches such that no injury is caused to anyone else. The king gives a detail of his expenses and revenues to Agastya and says you can take whatever you want. Agastya compares the revenues to the expenses, and sees that they are exactly equal, and decides he can’t take any riches from Srutarvan. Then they go to the king Vradhnaswa and the same thing happens, they then go to the king Trasadasyu but the same thing happens.

Now, they decide to go to Ilvalu who they know to possess immense riches.

Ilvalu receives them and according to his custom, cooks his brother Vatapi as a ram and serves it to them. The kings are extremely disturbed but Agastya asks them to put their mind to rest and then eats Vatapi alone. When Ilvalu calls Vapati from the dead, Agastya merely belches, and says I have already digested him.

At this Ilvalu is sad and now asks for the purpose of Agastya’s visit. Agastya tells him that he wants riches, and takes with him cows, gold coins, and other wealth.

The princess Lopamudra is now happy and ready for consummation. Agastya tells her that he is extremely happy with her and asks her what she wants.

Does she want a thousand sons, or a hundred sons equal to ten, or ten sons equal to hundred or just one son who can vanquish a thousand?

Lopamudra answered, ‘Let me have one son equal unto a thousand, O thou endued with wealth of asceticism! One good and learned son is preferable to many evil ones.'” (Probably the moral of this story).

The foetus grew for seven years and thus Dridhasyu was born and thus also his ancestors were freed of their debt.

On hearing this story, Yudhishthara asks who this great sage Agastya is, and how he became so great, and Lomasa starts recounting the tale of Agastya.

He says that in Satyuga or Kritayuga there was an asura called Vritra who had a terrible coterie of asuras and was causing great havoc to people and gods. The thirty gods with Indra at their head went to Brahma and asked for his help.

Brahma asked them to go to the sage Dadicha and ask for his bones. He said that only with his bones can you create a vajra powerful enough to kill Vritra.

They assemble and go to Dadicha and ask for his bones, and Dadicha gives up his body for the welfare of the world and lets them use his bones. The gods take his bones to Vishwakarma who is the architect of the gods, and he creates a powerful vajra which he gives Indra.

Indra then accompanied by the other gods goes to fight Vritra and a terrible fight ensues, the asuras are winning this fight, and all the gods are terrified, Indra himself is very scared, and Vishnu gives him some of his own energy to continue fighting. Indra is still terrified but somehow manages to strike a fatal blow to Vritra, but he doesn’t realize that he has killed Vritra and goes and hides in a lake after killing Vritra.

The other asuras disperse at this sight, and go and hide in the depths of the ocean. There they plot the destruction of the worlds, and decide that everything is based on the austerities of the sages, and they will destroy all hermitages and all sages.

With this in mind they go to hermitages in the night, and kill all brahmans or sages there, and then return to hide in the sea during the day.

The gods are very disturbed at this and they go to Vishnu to ask him for his help and give them a way to save the sages because with the sages destroyed, the earth will be the destroyed, and after that the heaven will be destroyed.

Vishnu advises them to go to the sage Agastya and seek his help.

They then approach Agastya and as is customary praise him, and recount his tales of greatness, one of which was stopping the Vindhya mountain.

Yudhisthara asks why did Agastya need to stop the Vindhya mountain, and how did he do so?

Lomasha recounts the story to him. The Vindhya mountain tells the sun god that you circumambulate the Meru mountain every day, but never me. You should circumambulate me as well. The Sun says that I don’t do this on my own wish but because the creator of the universe has willed so and it is not possible for me to circumambulate you. Vindhya gets enraged at this and says that I will continue growing till I obstruct the path between you and the moon and the other planets and stop your motion altogether.

The gods are scared at this as there is no sign of Vindhya stopping, and they ask Agastya for his help. Agastya agrees, and with his wife goes to the Vindhya mountain and tells him that I must pass from north to south and that you must create a path for me to do so. Vindhya says that I will stop growing for you to pass, and will wait for you to return.

Agastya crosses the mountain with his wife, and tells her that he will never go back north and thus he stopped the progress of the mountain and the destruction of the solar system.

Back to the main story, Agastya hears from the gods their purpose of the visit, and asks them how he can help them. They seek his help to find the asuras in the seas, and he tells them witness as I dry up the ocean so no asuras can hide in them, and you can find and destroy all of them.

Having said this, he starts drinking the water of the oceans, and drinks all the water of the seven oceans.

The gods then find the asuras and kill all of them thus saving the earth. They then ask Agastya to restore the water but he says he has already digested it, and they should find another way to restore the oceans. The gods go to Brahma to seek his help but he says that a great deal of time must pass before the oceans are restored again, and that the king Bhaghiratha will do it in due time for the sake of his relatives. How he does that is another incredible story, but for another time!

 

Narada visits Yudhisthara and is asked about what Tirthas one should do and what is the benefit that is accrued by doing them. He tells him that in ancient times Bhishma asked the same question of the rishi Pulastya who tells him about several holy places, and what happens when you visit them. These are things like visiting a place is equal to donating a thousand cows, being absolved of the sins of killing a brahmana, being born a brahmana in the next life, getting a pot of gold etc.

There is an interesting story here about the rishi Mankanaka who found success at Saptasarasvata. Saptasarasvata is so named because it is believed that the river Saraswati had seven tributaries and the rishi Mankanaka made them confluence in Kurukshetra with his powers.

The story goes that Mankanaka cut his finger with the kushu grass and vegetable juice instead of blood started coming out of his body. He felt that this was an indication of extreme greatness, and he was immensely happy on seeing this, and started dancing, and the energy of his dance was so immense that all mobile and immobile things were benumbed, and also started swaying like they have been stunned. The lord Brahma along with other gods went to Shiva for help and asked him to make Mankanaka stop dancing so that the world may be rescued.

Shiva went to him and asked him why he was so delighted and dancing like that, and Mankanaka replied don’t you see there is vegetable juice in my body instead of blood, and that to him seemed a sign of greatness. Then the lord Shiva said that he is not surprised at this at all and pricked his finger and bled himself. Mankanka saw that there were ashes as white as snow that came from his body.

When Mankanaka saw this he was extremely shamed and fell down on Shiva’s feet. He told him there is no god greater than him, and that he has created everything and it is into him that everything enters into destruction at each yuga. He prayed to him for forgiveness of sort for being so proud (my interpretation) and asked that his austerities may not diminish. Shiva was happy with him, and went to live with him in his hermitage and thus this became an important tirth.

I wrote the passage above even though I found a translation Mankanaka’s story on this page.  I did this primarily because that excerpt is from Kisari Mohan Ganguli’s translation of the Mahabharata which is written in the late 19th century and as a result is not in modern english that we are used to reading.

 

Nala was the king of Nishadha, and is said to be the most handsome man in the world. He is also learned in Vedas, knows the art of charioteering, and is a brave warrior. In short, he’s a very virtuous king.

Bhima is the king of Gandharvas, and he has a daughter named Damayanti who is said to be the most beautiful woman in the world, and she is also virtuous in every way.

Nala and Damayanti have heard about each other and are curious about the other’s beauty, but they have never seen each other before. Even so, Nala is interested in meeting Damayanti and marrying her.

One day when Nala was in the forest, he saw a group of swans with golden wings, and intrigued by their beauty gave chase and captured one of them. The swan then spoke to him in human voice, and told him that if Nala spared his life, she will go to Damayanti and tell him about Nala’s virtues and with that promise Nala let her go.

Then the swan ascended the skies with his friends, and went to the forest where Damayanti was playing with her friends, and seeing the swans, Damayanti and her friends started giving them chase. The swans split into different directions, and the one who had promised Nala led Damayanti to a certain direction and when they were isolated, the swan spoke to her about the king Nala and Damayanti fell in love with him, and told the swan to tell Nala that she feels the same way for him as he does for her.

She was lovesick after this and her father, the king decided to organize a Swayamvara knowing that the time has come for his daughter to get married. The swan in the meantime conveyed what had happened to Nala and he was immensely happy.

On hearing the news of the swayamvara, Nala prepared to go to the palace, and win her over.

At about this time, Narada went into Indra’s assembly and Indra asked him why he hasn’t seen any kings pray to him and visit his assembly lately. Narada told him about Damayanti’s swayamvara, and Indra, Varuna, Yama and Agni decided they will attend the swayamvara as well.

On their way to the palace they saw King Nala and they stopped mesmerized by his good looks, and asked him who he was, and then told him about themselves, and told him to go to Damayanti and tell her that the four gods are coming to her swayamvara and she should choose one among them.

Nala was sad about this but he couldn’t refuse the gods, and went to visit Damayanti and told her what the gods had said and asked her to choose one of them. Damayanti had not seen him before but at once recognized him, and told him that she loved him, and couldn’t marry another person.

He told her that if she forsake the gods for him, that would be a great sin and will bring death to him. She said that let everyone come to the swayamvara and she will choose him in presence of the gods and in this way there will be no sin.

He recounted all of this to the gods, and then let them decide what they wanted to do. On the day of the swayamvara, Nala went into the palace, and Damayanti was delighted to see him, but she was greatly surprised to see there were not one but five Nalas. The gods had taken the form of Nala and went to the palace as him.

When Damayanti saw five Nalas, she thought to herself that there are signs on the gods that can be used to distinguish them from humans, but when they descend to earth they hide such signs. Thinking this, she prayed to the gods in her mind and said that she fell in love with Nala because of what the swan said, and that she is pure of mind and this is what the gods must have willed themselves, and if it is so then reveal the signs to her.

The gods on hearing her silent prayers became satisfied that her love is pure, and revealed their signs to her. Then she saw that four of the Nala’s feet were not touching the ground, neither were their eyes blinking. She also noticed that their garlands were untouched by dust and they weren’t perspiring. Then she looked at the real Nala and saw that his feet touched the ground, he was perspiring, his eyes blinked, his garland was dusty, and he had a shadow as well. In this way, she was able to identify Nala, and chose him to be her husband.

The gods were pleased, and gave eight boons to Nala, and returned to their heavenly abodes.

When they were returning to their abodes they met Kali and Dvapara on the way. Kali is the personification of the Kaliyuga, not to be confused with goddess Kali, and Dvapara is the impersonification of Dvaparayga, the third yuga in the four yuga Hindu cycle.

Kali told the gods that he was going to Damayanti’s swayamvara but he was told that the swayamvara is already over and she has chosen Nala as her husband.
He asked them how she could choose a human as her husband when there were gods present, and they said she has done so with their sanction, and Nala has great qualities and if Kali tries to curse him, and harrass him Kali himself will suffer. They said this and left, and after this Kali told Dvapara that I’m filled with rage, and I am going to enter into Nala’s body, and destroy him by making him gamble and play dice. He asked for Dvapara’s help for this, and an interesting aside here is that Dvapara also means the side of dice with two points. Kali is the side with one point, treta with three points, and satya or krita with four points. So, you can see that one leg of dharma was getting detroyed in each subsequent yuga, and the sides indicate how many legs the cow of dharma is standing on in that yuga.

Back to the main story, Kali went into Nishadha and waited for an opportunity to get into Nala’s body. He would get this opportunity if Nala did something wrong, and one day he peed and performed his pujas without washing his feet. At this, Kali got his chance and entered Nala’s body.

He then went to Pushkara, Nala’s brother and told him to challenge his brother to play dice with him, and Kali would defeat Nala by misguiding him.

Sure enough, a very Pandava – Kaurava type thing happens, and Nala is losing in dice to his brother. The difference is that this game goes on for months, and he is gradually losing things. Damayanti sees this and asks his charioteer Varshneya to go to the kingdom of Kundina and then be free to go wherever he wants. He was sad and does what he tolds, and then finds himself in employment of King Rituparna of Ayodhya (this has later significance in the story).
The other difference is that Nala doesn’t lose himself or Damayanti, just his kingdom and riches. At the end of the gambling, he takes off all his clothes and ornaments except for a single robe and goes out of the city and lives under a tree for three days. Damayanti too follows him and she too wears only a single robe to suffer the same fate as her husband.

He survives on only water for three days and then he sees birds with golden plumage in the sky and thinks to himself that these birds will be my food and their plumage will be my riches, and thus gives chase to the bird.

The birds however stole his single garment and flew towards the sky. They mocked him saying they were the dice in disguise and were not content that he has even a single garment left, and came to steal that from him and having taken that they flew away, and left Nala all ashamed and embarrassed of himself.

Thus he started talking to Damayanti and pointed the direction towards Vidharbha which was her home and told her how to get there. But Damayanti insisted that she won’t abandon him, and the thought of abandoning her shouldn’t cross his mind either because that will be very wrong of a dutiful husband. Nala assures her that he won’t do that and at this point there is an exchange between them on how in times of distress a wife is the best medicine for husband. She also tells him that both of them can go and live in her father’s house in Vidharbha but he tells her that he is too embarrassed to do that.

They spoke thus, and tired and fatigued came to a public dwelling house where Damayanti slept on the floor but Nala couldn’t fall asleep. He constantly thought of his misfortune and more than that the misfortune he has brought upon Damayanti and thought about whether it would be better for him to kill himself or desert her, he thought that if he deserted her then she might go to her relative’s houses and live a better life, but with him it was certain that she would face more misfortune. Thinking this he sliced off half her garment because he himself was naked, and then wore that and left with that. However, after a little while he returned to look at her still asleep and was even more distressed thinking how she would survive in this forest full of hunters and predators alone. But then he was driven away by Kali again. Thus he returned many times driven by his love, but Kali over-powered him every time, and he returned back away from her and finally deserted her.

When Damayanti awoke she was in shock, and grieved badly, she was terrified and was not only sad for herself but also sad about how Nala would survive without her. In her grief she cursed whomever had put a curse on Nala and made him do such evil things because she was sure that he wouldn’t do such a thing himself. Then she roamed the forest, and happened to come into a place where an ajgara or python or boa constrictor was present, and the snake got hold of her and was going to devour her. However, a hunter came in there and killed the snake and freed her. But the hunter was overcome with desire looking at how beautiful she was and seeing this Damayanti was overcome with rage, and cursed him and he was burned to the ground.

Then Damayanti roamed the forest again and came to a sacred peak and asked him about the whereabouts of Nala but he didn’t answer. Then she moved forward and came to a hermitage and asked them about Nala and the ascetics told her not to lament. Having said this, the ascetics along with their hermitage disappeared and Damayanti was amazed and wondered if she was dreaming or if this really happened and then she started wandering the forest again.

At this point she came across an Ashoka tree and asked him the same questions, and asked him to take away her sorrow. Interesting aside here is that Ashoka literally means without shoka or sorrow and is so named because it takes away the sorrow of one who looks at it and that is why it is thus named.

The Ashoka tree gave her no response either and she kept wandering and reached a caravan. By this time her hair was so dirty, and dishevelled she herself looked like she was either a rakshasi or a yakshi which means a demon and the leader of the caravan asked her who she was and asked her to protect the caravan thinking that she was not human. She told her that she was just human and so saying she joined the caravan and traveled with them to the kingdom of Chedi. In the night, a herd of elephants trampled and killed a lot of the men and women of this caravan and she lamented thinking she had brought about this misfortune to them and she wondered why she was so unfortunate and what she had done to suffer such a bad fate. However, she had no answers, and then she followed some brahmans who had survived and reached the city of Chedi. There the queen took her in and she started living with the queen.

On the other hand, Nala was roaming the forest and heard a voice calling out his name from a great fire, the voice was calling out to him to come and help him. Nala had a boon due to which he couldn’t be burned, and thus he entered the fire and saw that a serpent was burning in the middle of that fire. That serpent was Karkotaka and told Nala that he had bitten a brahmarishi who had cursed him and because of this curse he wasn’t able to move an inch and asked Nala to take him out of the fire, and then he would help Nala. Then the snake became as small as a thumb, and Nala took him and walked outside the fire. The snake then asked him to take ten steps, and as Nala walked ten paces, the snake came and bit him. At this, Nala became deformed, dwarfed and ugly. He was shocked to see this but the snake assured him that this is for his own welfare and that the venom won’t affect him but the being who has possessed him will continue to hurt till the time he is inside him. He further instructed Nala to go to the kingdom of Ayodhya and meet king Rituparna and exchange his knowledge of horses for his knowledge of dice and then his knowledge would be complete and he would then be able to reunite with his wife and get his kingdom back. He told Nala that when he wants to get his old form back he should wear two divine garments that the snake gave him and think about him and the snake would return and give him his form back.

The king did as told and went to Ayodhya and became a cook and charioteer for King Rituparna.

King Bhima, Damayanti’s father gave riches to brahmans and asked them to go find Nala and Damayanti. He promised a thousand cows and one village the size of a city to whomever brought them back. Even if they were only discovered, he would give them riches equal to ten thousand cows.

A brahman named Sudeva found Damayanti in Chedi and although she was covered with dirt and had become thin, he still recognized  ‘the dark one with round breasts’.

He approaches the queen with whom Damayanti is living and tells her who she really is. He tells her that there is a natural mark shaped like the lotus on her forehead but which is covered now with a cake of dirt. They clean the dirt and discover the mark. She then went to Vidarbha with Sudama.

There she reunited with her family and told her mother that she was very unhappy without Nala. So, they assembled brahmans and Damayanti asked them to go in all directions and say where are you o king who deserted your wife and left with half her garment.

The brahmans did as they were asked and one of them returned to Damayanti to tell her that a deformed man with short arms in Ayodhya under Rituparna replied to him and said that the dark one should not be angry.

On hearing this Damayanti goes to her mother and tells her that she secretly wishes to employ the service of Sudeva and send him to Ayodhya.

She told Sudeva to go to king Rituparna and tell him that Damayanti has decided to get married again and having computed the time this will happen tomorrow. She said that it’s not known whether King Nala is alive or dead and that’s why this decision has been taken.

Having heard this king Rituparna asked Bahuka if it’s possible to reach Vidarbha in a single day.

Interesting to note that these places have all existed historically for at least three to four thousand years. Nishadha mountain ranges are somewhere west of Kandahar in Afghanistan, Ayodhya is present Ayodhya and Vidarbha is just South of Madhya Pradesh.

Bahuka was troubled hearing this and couldn’t believe what he was hearing so he too wanted to go to this swayamvara and told King Rituparna it could be done.

He chose four lean horses and Rituparna was doubtful that they would be able to traverse the distance but he agreed and Bahuka asked Varshneya (his old charioteer) to join their journey and thus they set off for Vidarbha. They started going with the speed of wind and the king Rituparna was very impressed.

During their journey they came across a tree and Rituparna told Bahuka not everyone knows everything, now witness my great prowess of counting. He told him that the number of leaves and fruits still on the tree are more than the number fallen down by hundred and one. Those two branches have fifty million leaves and their fruits equal 2,095.

On hearing this unbelievable number Nala said I’ll count this myself and find out if it’s true but Rituparna said it will take too long and objected. But Nala was adamant and also confident that he’ll reach in time. So he got down, cut the tree, counted the leaves and fruits and saw that everything was correct. Rituparna told him that he’s skilled in dice and in counting. Nala said that he will give him the knowledge of horses if he gave him the knowledge of dice.

At this Rituparna gave him the knowledge of counting but said he’ll take the knowledge of horses at a later time because they are in a hurry.

When Nala acquired the knowledge Kali emerged out of his body and was vomiting Kartoka’s virulent poison. He was invisible to others but he told Nala that because of Damayanti’s curse he has been suffering inside.

Nala now continued his journey and their chariot reached the city where it made such a thunderous sound that the peacocks and the elephants thought it was going to rain. Nala‘s old horses thought he had returned and so did Damayanti.

When Rituparna reached the city, he saw that there was no swayamvara and decided not to mention it to king Bhima.

Damayanti was surprised to see that there is no Nala and wondered if he gave his skill to Varshneya. But then she suspected that the deformed Bahuka is actually Nala. She sent her lady messenger Keshini to him and they had a conversation in which Bahuka finds out that there’s actually no swayamvara and is overcome with grief to know the real reason that Damayanti sent the news, which is to get him there. He weeps but doesn’t disclose who he is.

Then Damayanti instructs Keshini to observe him carefully and put obstructions in whatever he’s doing.

She observes and reports back that on encountering a low passage, he never lowers his head but the passage rises, fire doesn’t burn him and flowers become fresher in his hands. On hearing that she gets convinced that this is Nala and instructs Keshini to bring back some meat cooked by him.

After tasting the food Damayanti was sure that this is Nala and sent Keshini with his children to him. He starts weeping at their sight and then she asked him to be brought to her. When he was brought to her she asked why Nala had abandoned him and he told her about Kali and said that now he has been vanquished because of her curse and his austerities and it’s time to be reunited again. Thus he wore the divine garments, thought of the serpent who gave him his old form. They both embraced each other, returned to his kingdom and lived happily and in prosperity.

Yudhishthara went to the first of Kamyaka on the banks of Saraswati.

There he told Arjun that he needs to go to Indra to acquire the weapons. He told him to go north to the mountain to Indra’s abode and traverse a path north and stop anyone from passing him.

When Arjun reached Indra’s abode in the Himalayas, Indra appeared in front of him as an ascetic and promised to grant him a boon. Arjun asked for knowledge of weapons and Indra said when Arjun had met Shiva, Indra will grant him the knowledge.

Arjun reaches a Himalaya peak and performs austerities there and Shiva shows himself disguised as a hunter. Both of them fight and Arjun loses but Shiv is pleased with his valor and shows him his true form and grants him a boon.

Arjun asks for the pashupata also known as brahmashira weapon which can destroy anything in three worlds and Shiva grants him that.

Yama, Varuna, Kuber and Indra then appear in front of him.

Yama gives him the staff, Varuna the noose and Kuber invisibility. Then Indra grants him his chariot to ascend to heavens.
This is the end of this section.

Indralokabhigamana Parva
This is the section about the visit to Indra’s abode.

Arjun lives here for five years and gets the Vajra as well as training on weapons. He also learns singing and dancing here.

One day the rishi Lomasa visits heaven and is surprised to see Arjun seated in Indra’s throne because Arjun is just a Kshatriya.

Indra tells him that ancient Nara and Narayana are  Dhananjaya and Hrishikesh. So Nara and Narayana are Arjun and Krishna. Nara and Narayana are further fifth avatars of Vishnu, twins born to Dharma whose chief abode is in Dwarika.

Indra tells him that the powerful asurs Nivatakavachas are harassing the gods and only Arjun and Krishna together can kill them and that’s one of their purposes on earth and why they are born.
Further, he tells Lomasha to visit Yudhishthara and tell him that Arjun will return soon and to protect Yudhishthara.

Now there’s a slight break where Janmajeya asks about Dhritarashtra and is told that he is repenting his decision. Then there’s an interesting question about what the Pandavas ate and whether they cultivated their food or gathered it. Dwaipayana answers that they hunted deer and ate what they gathered.

Janmajeya then asks what did the Pandavas do for five years without Arjun and Dwaipayana recounts that they were extremely sad and Bhima again urged Yudhishthara to recall Arjun and go to battle and blamed Yudhishthara for his gambling vice.

Yudhishthara pacifies him and at that moment a Rishi Brihadashva arrives whom Yudhishthara asks is there any man more unfortunate than him?

This starts the story of Nala.