O friend, this,
indeed, is my solemn promise. My dominion, wealth and happiness, shall all
be dependent on thee.' At last the time came for his departure. Having
finished his studies, he bent his steps towards his country. I offered him
my regards at the time, and, indeed, I remembered his words ever
afterwards.
"Some time after, in obedience to the injunctions of my father and tempted
also by the desire of offspring, I married Kripi of short hair, who gifted
with great intelligence, had observed many rigid vows, and was ever
engaged in the Agnihotra and other sacrifices and rigid austerities.
Gautami, in time, gave birth to a son named Aswatthaman of great prowess
and equal in splendour unto the Sun himself. Indeed, I was pleased on
having obtained Aswatthaman as much as my father had been on obtaining me.
"And it so happened that one day the child Aswatthaman observing some rich
men's sons drink milk, began to cry. At this I was so beside myself that I
lost all knowledge of the point of the compass. Instead of asking him who
had only a few kine (so that if he gave me one, he would no longer be able
to perform his sacrifices and thus sustain a loss of virtue), I was
desirous of obtaining a cow from one who had many, and for that I wandered
from country to country. But my wanderings proved unsuccessful, for I
failed to obtain a milch cow. After I had come back unsuccessful, some of
my son's playmates gave him water mixed with powdered rice.
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