Here
follow the pathetic wailings of the wives of the slain heroes. Then the
wrath of Gandhari and Dhritarashtra and their loss of consciousness. Then
the Kshatriya ladies saw those heroes,--their unreturning sons, brothers,
and fathers,--lying dead on the field. Then the pacification by Krishna of
the wrath of Gandhari distressed at the death of her sons and grandsons.
Then the cremation of the bodies of the deceased Rajas with due rites by
that monarch (Yudhishthira) of great wisdom and the foremost also of all
virtuous men. Then upon the presentation of water of the manes of the
deceased princes having commenced, the story of Kunti's acknowledgment of
Karna as her son born in secret. Those have all been described by the
great Rishi Vyasa in the highly pathetic eleventh Parva. Its perusal
moveth every feeling heart with sorrow and even draweth tears from the
eyes. The number of sections composed is twenty-seven. The number of
slokas is seven hundred and seventy-five.
"Twelfth in number cometh the Santi Parva, which increaseth the
understanding and in which is related the despondency of Yudhishthira on
his having slain his fathers, brothers, sons, maternal uncles and
matrimonial relations. In this Parva is described how from his bed of
arrows Bhishma expounded various systems of duties worth the study of
kings desirous of knowledge; this Parva expounded the duties relative to
emergencies, with full indications of time and reasons. By understanding
these, a person attaineth to consummate knowledge.
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