THE PANDAVAS 201 



when their banishment was over, the Kauravas, 

 their wicked cousins, would not keep their word. 

 A heroic war ensued. The fight raged fiercely 

 up and down over the plains of Panipat, the 

 battle-ground of India even in this mythic 

 period. The five Pandava brothers won, beating 

 the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra, and all the 

 country from Pinjor to Delhi became part of 

 their newly-recovered kingdom. 



It takes eighteen books to tell the epic of the 

 Panda vas, so numerous are the interwoven tales. 

 But where the brothers hid for the twelve years 

 before their final victory is not revealed. Local 

 tradition, however, fills in these intervening 

 years, and tells how the five brothers first found 

 the spring, and took refuge there during their 

 banishment. Then after victory, and many 

 years of empire, they renounced their worldly 

 conquests, and undertook a pilgrimage to the 

 sacred Himalayas. When passing through their 

 ancient haunts at Pinjor, four of the brothers, 

 worn out by wars and journey ings, settled there. 

 Only the eldest brother, Yudisthara, travelled 

 on towards the snows of holy Himalaya and 

 Mount Meru. He won his way through at last, 

 but scornfully refused to enter a Paradise from 



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