And the reptile, urged to execute the will of Fate, violently
darted its envenomed fangs into the body of the heedless maiden. And stung
by that serpent, she instantly dropped senseless on the ground, her colour
faded and all the graces of her person went off. And with dishevelled hair
she became a spectacle of woe to her companions and friends. And she who
was so agreeable to behold became on her death what was too painful to
look at. And the girl of slender waist lying on the ground like one asleep--
being overcome with the poison of the snake--once more became more
beautiful than in life. And her foster-father and the other holy ascetics
who were there, all saw her lying motionless upon the ground with the
splendour of a lotus. And then there came many noted Brahmanas filled with
compassion, and they sat around her. And Swastyatreya, Mahajana, Kushika,
Sankhamekhala, Uddalaka, Katha, and Sweta of great renown, Bharadwaja,
Kaunakutsya, Arshtishena, Gautama, Pramati, and Pramati's son Ruru, and
other inhabitants of the forest, came there. And when they saw that maiden
lying dead on the ground overcome with the poison of the reptile that had
bitten her, they all wept filled with compassion. But Ruru, mortified
beyond measure, retired from the scene.'"
So ends the eighth section of the Pauloma Parva of the Adi Parva of the
blessed Mahabharata.
SECTION IX
(Pauloma Parva continued)
"Sauti said, 'While those illustrious Brahmanas were sitting around the
dead body of Pramadvara, Ruru, sorely afflicted, retired into a deep wood
and wept aloud.
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