of the large and dreadful _Gandiva_, ever producing thundering twang and
always destructive of hostile hosts, and with which he had conquered, on
a single car, gods and men and _Nagas_ and swelling provinces. And the
warlike Yudhishthira, that represser of foes, unfastened the undecaying
string of that bow with which he had defended the field of Kurukshetra.
And the illustrious Bhimasena unstrung that bow by means of which that
sinless one had vanquished in fight the Panchalas and the lord of
Sindhu, and with which, during his career of conquest, he had,
single-handed, opposed innumerable foes, and hearing whose twang which
was like unto the roar of the thunder or the splitting of a mountain,
enemies always fly (in panic) from the field of battle. And that son of
Pandu of coppery complexion and mild speech who is endued with great
prowess in the field, and is called Nakula in consequence of his
unexampled beauty in the family, then unfastened the string of that bow
with which he had conquered all the regions of the west. And the heroic
Sahadeva also, possessed of a mild disposition, then untied the string
of that bow with which he had subjugated the countries of the south. And
with their bows, they put together their long and flashing swords, their
precious quivers, and their arrows sharp as razors. And Nakula ascended
the tree, and deposited on it the bows and the other weapons. And he
tied them fast on those parts of the tree which he thought would not
break, and where the rain would not penetrate. And the Pandavas hung up
a corpse (on the tree), knowing that people smelling the stench of the
corpse would say--_here sure, is a dead body_, and avoid the tree from a
distance. And on being asked by the shepherds and cowherds regarding the
corpse, those repressers of foes said unto them, 'This is our mother,
aged one hundred and eighty years. We have hung up her dead body, in
accordance with the custom observed by our forefathers.' And then those
resisters of foes approached the city. And for purposes of non-discovery
Yudhishthira kept these (five) names for himself and his brothers