The illustrious and great Rishi
himself, by sprinkling water over that ball of flesh, began to divide it
into parts. And as it was being divided into parts, the nurse began to
take them up and put them one by one into those pots filled with clarified
butter. While this process was going on, the beautiful and chaste Gandhari
of rigid vows, realising the affection that one feeleth for a daughter,
began to think within herself, 'There is no doubt that I shall have a
hundred sons, the Muni having said so. It can never be otherwise. But I
should be very happy if a daughter were born of me over and above these
hundred sons and junior to them all. My husband then may attain to those
worlds that the possession of a daughter's sons conferreth. Then again,
the affection the women feel for their sons-in-law is great. If, therefore,
I obtain a daughter over and above my hundred sons, then, surrounded by
sons and daughter's sons, I may feel supremely blest. If I have ever
practised ascetic austerities, if I have ever given anything in charity,
if I have ever performed the homa (through Brahamanas), if I have ever
gratified my superiors by respectful attentions, then (as the fruit of
those acts) let a daughter be born unto me.' All this while that
illustrious and best of Rishis, Krishna-Dwaipayana himself was dividing
the ball of flesh; and counting a full hundred of the parts, he said unto
the daughter of Suvala, 'Here are thy hundred sons. I did not speak aught
unto thee that was false.
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