sported on its bosom. Itself variegated with full-blown lotuses and
stocked with fishes and tortoises of golden hue, its bottom was without
mud and its water transparent. There was a flight of crystal stairs
leading from the banks to the edge of the water. The gentle breezes that
swept along its bosom softly shook the flowers that studded it. The banks
of that tank were overlaid with slabs of costly marble set with pearls.
And beholding that tank thus adorned all around with jewels and precious
stones, many kings that came there mistook it for land and fell into it
with eyes open. Many tall trees of various kinds were planted all around
the palace. Of green foliage and cool shade, and ever blossoming, they
were all very charming to behold. Artificial woods were laid around,
always emitting a delicious fragrance. And there were many tanks also that
were adorned with swans and Karandavas and Chakravakas (Brahminy ducks) in
the grounds lying about the mansion. And the breeze bearing the fragrance
of lotuses growing in water and (of those growing on land) ministered unto
the pleasure and happiness of the Pandavas. And Maya having constructed
such a palatial hall within fourteen months, reported its completion unto
Yudhishthira."


SECTION IV

Vaisampayana said,--"Then that chief of men, king Yudhishthira, entered
that palatial sabha having first fed ten thousand Brahmanas with
preparations of milk and rice mixed with clarified butter and honey with
fruits and roots, and with pork and venison. The king gratified those
superior Brahmanas, who had come from various countries with food seasoned
with seasamum and prepared with vegetables called jibanti, with rice mixed
with clarified butter, with different preparations of meat--with indeed
various kinds of other food, as also numberless viands that are fit to be