direction.[1]17 Beholding these signs that indicated the perverse course of Time, and seeing that the day of the new moon coincided with the thirteenth (and the fourteenth) lunation, Hrishikeça, summoning the Yādavas, said unto them these words:18—'The fourteenth lunation has been made the fifteenth by Rāhu once more. Such a day had appeared at the time of the great battle of the Bharatas. It has once more appeared, it seems, for our destruction.'[2]19—The slayer of Keçi, viz., Janārddana, thinking upon the omens that Time showed, understood that the thirtysixth year had come, and that what Gāndhāri, burning with grief on account of the death of her sons, and deprived of all her kinsmen, had said was about to transpire.20–21 'The present is exactly similar to that time which Yudhishthira had noted at sight of those awful omens which appeared when the two armies were arrayed in order of battle.'22 Vāsudeva, having said so, endeavoured to bring about those occurrences which would make Gāndhāri's words true. That chastiser of foes commanded the Vrishnis to make a pilgrimage to some sacred water.23 The messengers forthwith proclaimed at the command of Keçava that the Vrishnis should make a journey to the sea-coast for bathing in the sacred waters of the ocean."24
Section III.
Vaiçampāyana said,—"At that time the Vrishni ladies dreamt every night that a woman of black complexion and white teeth, entering their abodes, laughed aloud and ran through Dwārakā, snatching from them the auspicious threads in their wrists.1 The men dreamt that terrible vultures,
- ↑ The blare of the conch is regarded as a good omen. In the houses of the Yādavas, however, as soon as a conch was blown, it was followed by the bray of asses all around. That was an evil omen.—T.
- ↑ The moon has altogether fifteen lunations. Sometime two and even three lunations coincide in course of a single solar day. The last phenomenon is called 'Tryahasparça.' Rāhu is, in really, the descending node of the moon. A Tryahasparça, brought about by the action of Rāhu, is looked upon as a very fatal day.—T.
