learn), I at thy command went to the forest, for practising penances.
From _Kamyaka_ repairing to the _Bhrigutunga_, I spent there one night,
being engaged in austerities. And it came to pass that on the next I saw
a certain _Brahmana_. And he asked me, saying, "O son of Kunti, whither
wilt thou go?" Thereupon, O descendant of the Kurus, I truly related
unto him everything. And, O best of kings, having heard the true
account, the _Brahmana_ became well-pleased with me, and, O king,
praised me. Then the _Brahmana_, pleased with me, said, "O Bharata, be
thou engaged in austerities. By performing penances, thou wilt in a
short time behold the lord of the celestials." And according to his
advice I ascended the _Himavan_, and, O mighty king, began to practise
penances, (the first) month subsisting on fruit and roots. I spent the
second month, subsisting on water. And, O Pandava, in the third month I
totally abstained from food. And in the fourth month I remained with
upraised arms. And a wonder it is that I did not lose any strength. And
it came to pass that when the first day of the fifth month had been
spent, there appeared before me a being wearing the form of a boar,
turning up the earth with his mouth, stamping the ground with his feet,
rubbing the earth with his breast, and momentarily going about in a
frightful manner. And him followed a great being in the guise of a
hunter furnished with the bow, arrows, and the sword, and surrounded by
females. Thereupon, taking my bow and the two inexhaustible quivers, I
pierced with shafts that terrible and frightful creature. And
simultaneously (with me) that hunter also drawing a strong bow, more
severely struck at (the animal), as if shaking my mind. And, O king, he
also said unto me, "Why hast thou, transgressing the rules of hunting,
hit the animal first hit at by me? With these sharpened shafts will I
destroy thy pride. Stay!" Then that mighty-bodied one holding the bow
rushed at me. And with volleys of mighty shafts, he covered me entirely,
even as a cloud covereth a mountain with showers. Then, on my part, I