Itihāsa / Mahābhārata chronicle / Sauptika · 42 of 50
42. The child
Sauptika (सौप्तिक)
Aśvatthāman has one act left, and it is aimed at the future rather than the camp. Uttarā is pregnant with Abhimanyu's son. A weapon is sent at the womb. This page says that it was sent, and that the child was the target. It does not name a procedure and it does not describe a weapon's working.
Kṛṣṇa says he will turn it aside. The child will live, and will be called Parīkṣit, the one who was tested before he was born. He will be the father of Janamejaya, the king to whom this poem is recited at a snake sacrifice, which is the frame of the first sitting. The chronicle's two ends meet. The boy inside the dead boy's wife is the father Janamejaya will avenge, and fail to avenge, before he sits down to hear.
The cost of the turning-aside is part of the same hour. Aśvatthāman is not executed. He is sent out into the world with the curse and without the jewel, a living remainder of the half-truth that killed his father. The Pāṇḍavas have an heir and no sons. When Yudhiṣṭhira sits the throne, he will be ruling a kingdom of widows, and he will know it.
नेपालीमा
अश्वत्थामाले गर्भतिर अस्त्र छोड्यो, अभिमन्यु र उत्तराको नजन्मेको छोरातिर। यो पृष्ठले लक्ष्य गर्भ थियो भन्छ। अस्त्रको काम लेख्दैन। कृष्णले त्यसलाई मोड्नेछु भन्नुभयो। बच्चा बाँच्नेछ, नाम परीक्षित हुनेछ, जन्मनुअघि नै परीक्षा भएको। उनी जनमेजयका पिता हुनेछन्। जनमेजयका सामु सर्पयज्ञमा यो कविता पढिन्छ, र त्यही पहिलो बैठकको ढाँचा हो। कथाका दुई छेउ मिल्छन्। मरेको बालककी पत्नीको गर्भमा रहेको बालक नै ती पिता हुन्, जसको बदला जनमेजयले सुन्न बस्नुअघि लिन खोज्नेछन्, तर लिन सक्ने छैनन्। अस्त्र मोडिनुको मूल्य त्यही घडीको अंश हो। अश्वत्थामा मारिएन। ऊ श्राप बोकेर, मणि बिना, संसारमा निस्क्यो, आफ्ना पिताको ज्यान लिने अर्धसत्यको जीवित अवशेष भएर। पाण्डवहरूसँग उत्तराधिकारी छ, तर छोराहरू छैनन्। युधिष्ठिर सिंहासनमा बस्दा उनले विधवाहरूको राज्य चलाउनेछन्, र उनलाई यो थाहा हुनेछ।