named Sunda and Upasunda living together and incapable of being slain by anybody unless each slew the other. They ruled the same kingdom, lived in the same house, slept on the same bed, sat on the same seat, and ate from the same dish. And yet they killed each other for the shake of Tilottama. Therefore, O Yudhishthira, preserve your friendship for one another and do that which may not produce disunion amongst you !
'On hearing this, Yudhishthira asked,-0 great Muni, whose sans were Asuras called Sunda and Upasunda ? Whence arose that dissension amongst them, and why did they slay each other? Whose daughter also was this Tilottama for whose love the maddened brothers killed each other? Was she an Apsara (water nymph) or the daughter of any celestial? O thou whese wealth is asceticism, we desire, O Brahmana, to hear in detail everything as it happened ! Indeed, our curiosity hath become great !"
Thus ends the two hundred and tenth section in the Rajya-labha Parva of the Adi Parva.
SECTION CCXI
(Rajya-labha Parva continued)
Vaisampayana said, "Hearing the:e words of Yudhishthira, Narada replied,-'O son of Pritha, listen with thy brothers to me as I recite this old story, O Yudbishtbira, exactly as everything happened ! In olden days, a mighty Daitya named Nikumbha, endued with great energy and strength was born in the race of the great Asura, Hiranyakasipu. Unto this Nikumbha, were born two sons called Sunda and Upasunda. Both of them were mighty Asuras endued with great energy and terrible prowess. The brothers were both fierce and possessed of wicked hearts. And those Daityas were both of the same resolu. tion, and ever engaged in achieving the same tasks and ends. They were ever sharers with each other in happiness as well as in woe. Each speaking and doing what was agreeable to the other, the brothers never were unless they were together, and never went anywhere unless together. Of exactly the same disposition and habits, they seemed to be one individual divided into two parts. Endued with great energy and ever of the same resolution in everything they undertook, the brothers gradually grew up. Always entertaining the same purpose, desirous of subjugating the three worlds, the brothers, after due initiation, went to the mountains of Vindhya. And wending there, severe were
