(Markandeya-Samasya Parva)
Vaisampayana said, “While they were dwelling at that place, there set in
the season of the rains, the season that puts an end to the hot weather
and is delightful to all animated beings. Then the black clouds, rumbling
loudly, and covering the heavens and the cardinal points, ceaselessly
rained during day and night. These clouds, counted by hundreds and by
thousands, looked like domes in the rainy season. From the earth
disappeared the effulgence of the sun; its place was taken by the
stainless lustre of the lightning; the earth became delightful to all,
being overgrown with grass, with gnats and reptiles in their joy; it was
bathed with rain and possessed with calm. When the waters had covered
all, it could not be known whether the ground was at all even or
uneven;--whether there were rivers or trees or hills. At the end of the
hot season, the rivers added beauty to the woods being themselves full of
agitated waters, flowing with great force and resembling serpents in the
hissing sound they made. The boars, the stags and the birds, while the
rain was falling upon them began to utter sounds of various kinds which
could be heard within the forest tracts. The chatakas, the peacocks and
the host of male Kohilas and the excited frogs, all ran about in joy.
Thus while the Pandavas were roaming about in the deserts and sandy
tracts, the happy season of rain, so various in aspect and resounding
with clouds passed away. Then set in the season of autumn, thronged with
ganders and cranes and full of joy; then the forest tracts were overrun
with grass; the river turned limpid; the firmament and stars shone
brightly., And the autumn, thronged with beasts and birds, was joyous and
pleasant for the magnanimous sons of Pandu. Then were seen nights, that
were free from dust and cool with clouds and beautified by myriads of
planets and stars and the moon. And they beheld rivers and ponds, adorned
with lilies and white lotuses, full of cool and pleasant water. And while
roving by the river Saraswati whose banks resembled the firmament itself
and were overgrown with canes, and as such abounded in sacred baths,
their joy was great. And those heroes who wielded powerful bows, were
specially glad to see the pleasant river Saraswati, with its limpid
waters full to the brim. And, O Janamejaya, the holiest night, that of
the full moon in the month of Kartika in the season of autumn, was spent
by them while dwelling there! And the sons of Pandu, the best of the
descendants of Bharata, spent that auspicious juncture with righteous and
magnanimous saints devoted to penance. And as soon as the dark fortnight
set in immediately after, the sons of Pandu entered the forest named the
Kamyaka, accompanied by Dhananjaya and their charioteers and cooks.”