And I myself have obtained a hundred
sons. And my husband Satyavan hath obtained a life of four hundred
years. It was for the sake of my husband's life that I had observed that
vow. Thus have I narrated unto you in detail the cause by which this
mighty misfortune of mine was afterwards turned into happiness." The
_Rishis_ said, "O chaste lady of excellent disposition, observant of
vows and endued with virtue, and sprung from an illustrious line, by
thee hath the race of this foremost of kings, which was overwhelmed with
calamities, and was sinking in an ocean of darkness, been rescued."'
"Markandeya continued, 'Then having applauded and reverenced that best
of women, those _Rishis_ there assembled bade farewell to that foremost
of kings as well as to his son. And having saluted them thus, they
speedily went, in peace with cheerful hearts, to their respective
abodes.'"
SECTION CCLXLVII
"Markandeya continued, 'When the night had passed away, and the solar
orb had risen, those ascetics, having performed their morning rites,
assembled together. And although those mighty sages again and again
spake unto Dyumatsena of the high fortune of Savitri, yet they were
never satisfied. And it so happened, O king, that there came to that
hermitage a large body of people from Salwa. And they brought tidings of
the enemy of Dyumatsena having been slain by his own minister. And they
related unto him all that had happened, viz.
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