[106] The “Mahabharata” quoted in “History of India,” by J. Talboys Wheeler, vol. i., pp. 386-390. [107] _Ibid._, p. 401. [108] “A Pilgrimage to the Field of the Mahabharata,” by Madho Ram, B.A., “Punjab Magazine,” June, 1890. [109] It is worth noting that it was on the western side of the lake that the Pandavas encamped, and Kauravas on the eastern side. [110] “Archæological Survey of India Reports,” vol. xiv. (Punjab), by General Cunningham, p. 90. [111] With the decay of Thanesar there has been a marked falling off in the number of pilgrims to the sacred places. “The sanitary arrangements introduced by the British authorities to prevent the spread of disease are said to be most unpopular and to deter large numbers of pilgrims from attending.... It is said that, whereas in former days great men used to march to Thanesar with small armies of followers and attendants they now come by rail with a few servants to the nearest station and return in the same way.”--_Gazetteer of the Ambala District_, pp. 73-74. On the other hand, the railways must bring to the shrines many who could not have spared the time or the money to visit them under the old conditions of travel. [112] “A Pilgrimage to the Field of the Mahabharata,” by Madho Ram, B.A., “Punjab Magazine,” June, 1890. [113] _Vide_ Dr. Lorinser’s Essay on the subject in the “Indian Antiquary,” vol. ii. and the reply thereto prefixed to the translation of the “Bhagavatgita,” by Kashi Nath Trimbak Telang, M.A., LL.B. [114] Arjuna had apparently forgotten that he had already encountered and defeated these venerable elders of his in the interests of the King of Panchala (p. 162). [115] As in sacrifices the gods derived sustenance from the ethereal portion of the burnt-offering, so, no doubt, the corporeal frame (especially when cremated) supplied an ethereal one for the disembodied soul, which was not yet entirely freed from the trammels of _matter_ though released from the bonds of its grosser forms. [116] There is a most important reason in favour of the special exception in regard to the performance of work in the case of sacrifices, for, as Krishna explains: “From food are all creatures; from rain is the production of food; rain is produced from sacrifice; and sacrifice is the outcome of work.”