Janamejaya said, “Having sent the heroic sons of Pandu into exile, these
lamentations, O Muni, of Dhritarashtra were perfectly futile. Why did the
king permit his foolish son Duryodhana to thus incense those mighty
warriors, the sons of Pandu? Tell us now, O Brahmana, what was the food
of the sons of Pandu, while they lived in the woods? Was it of the
wilderness, or was it the produce of cultivation?”
Vaisampayana said, “Those bulls among men, collecting the produce of the
wilderness and killing the deer with pure arrows, first dedicated a
portion of the food to the Brahmanas, and themselves are the rest. For, O
king, while those heroes wielding large bows lived in the woods, they
were followed by Brahmanas of both classes, viz., those worshipping with
fire and those worshipping without it. And there were ten thousand
illustrious Snataka Brahmanas, all conversant with the means of
salvation, whom Yudhishthira supported in the woods. And killing with
arrows Rurus and the black deer and other kinds of clean animals of the
wilderness, he gave them unto those Brahmanas. And no one that lived with
Yudhishthira looked pale or ill, or was lean or weak, or was melancholy
or terrified. And the chief of the Kurus--the virtuous king
Yudhishthira--maintained his brothers as if they were his sons, and his
relatives as if they were his uterine brothers. And Draupadi of pure fame
fed her husbands and the Brahmanas, as if she was their mother; and last
of all took her food herself. And the king himself wending towards the
east, and Bhima, towards the south, and the twins, towards the west and
the north, daily killed with bow in hand the deer of the forest, for the
sake of meat. And it was that the Pandavas lived for five years in the
woods of Kamyaka, in anxiety at the absence of Arjuna, and engaged all
the while in study and prayers and sacrifices.”