372 Kajendralala Mitra — An Imperial Assemblage [No. 3, 



precious materials that could be collected from the different parts of India, 

 including some highly-prized stones from the Himalaya. Its description 

 refers to flowers of crystal, partitions of glass, and marbles of all colours j to 

 spacious and lofty apartments, and doors and windows, terraces and gardens, 

 artificial lakes and fountains. Much of this is doubtless due to the poet's 

 imagination ; but there was nevertheless enough to make the owner proud 

 of its possession, and to long to show it to his rivals. To inaugurate it by a 

 grand festival was the first idea that occurred to his mind, and that suggested 

 the ambitious scheme of celebrating the politico-religious sacrifice of the 

 Eajasiiya, and raising the principality to the rank of an empire. 



This was, however, not an easy task to accomplish. Close by, to the 

 north, there was Hastinapura, the capital of their ancestors, in the possession 

 of their inveterate enemies the Kurus. To the east, Mathura was held by 

 a powerful sovereign. To the south, the king of Malava was a standing 

 menace, and to the west there was the principality of Virata, # which 

 would not in a hurry yield to its neighbours. There were besides other 

 mighty sovereigns in different parts of India, who were proud of their high 

 position, and not at all disposed to succumb to what to them was a new- 

 born and petty Eaj. 



The most powerful king at the time, however, was Jarasandha, sovereign 

 of Magadha. He had carried his victorious arms as far as Mathura, and 

 expelled therefrom the Yadavas, who had wrested it from a relative of his. 

 His army was the largest and best-trained ; and he had already imprisoned 

 ninety- seven princes with a view, when the number came up to a hundred 

 and twelve, to offer them as a sacrifice to the gods, by way of a preliminary 

 to his raising the white umbrella of imperial sovereignty. For the Pan- 

 davas to wage war against him, with any hope of success, was out of the 

 question, and no one in India could proclaim himself an emperor without 

 bringing on a most desolating retribution from that monarch. 



To remove Jarasandha from the field by other than open warfare was, 

 therefore, the first scheme to which the Pandavas set their head, and assas- 

 sination was resolved upon as the only means feasible. Disguised as Brah- 

 manas, Bhima, Arjuna, and Krishna set out for Magadha, and, entering the 

 palace by a back door, took him unawares, while he was engaged in his 

 prayers, and killed him. The Mahabharata gives a long account of the in- 

 terview, and says, he was challenged to a single combat, and fell under the 

 blows of Bhima, the " wolf-stomached" hero. But this appears to be a 

 euphemism for assassination, inasmuch as the Pandavas were ever after 



* The modern Bengal districts of Kangpur and Dinajpur to the north claim to be 

 the ancient Virata, but the cattle-lifting foray of the Kurus in the country of Virata, 

 described in the Virata Parva of the Mahabharata, leaves no doubt as to the true posi- 

 tion of that country having been as given above. 



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