Vyasa's Savitri

7. Request from the Citizens of Shalwa to Dyumatsena to Return and to Rule over the Kingdom, the Coronation Ceremony, and the Fulfilment of the Boons by Getting a Hundred Sons and a Hundred Brothers.

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Markandeya said:

1. When the night was over and the solar orb had well ascended they, all rich in austerities, performed their morning rituals and gathered again.

2. All those great Rishis spoke to Dyumatsena of the extreme good fortune of Savitri and were not contented even though they expressed it again and again.

3. About the same time, arriving, the citizens of Shalwa informed the King that his enemy had been killed by his own minister.

4. They further told him: His kin as well as his associates have also been murdered by the same minister; the army of the enemy too has fled.

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5. in one voice people in the entire kingdom have expressed their confidence in the former king only; whether he can see or he is blind, that matters not, and he alone shall be the rightful ruler.

6. O Sovereign, we have been sent, having arrived at this firm and flawless decision, to solicit you to return; the chariots are ready and the full army in all its four divisions is at your command.

7. O King, consent to it; a happy welcome awaits you even as the trumpets declare in the capital your victory. Long may you live and rule over the kingdom of your forefathers.

8. Seeing the King possessed with sight, and in good sound health, their eyes grew large with surprise; then, bowing their heads low, they all paid respects to him.

9. The King made his reverential obeisances to the elderly Brahmins of the ashram, worshipped them all and, with their approval, departed for his capital.

10. Shaibya along with Savitri sat in a well-decorated beautiful carriage drawn by several men and, with the army for protection, left the place.

11. Gladdened, there the priests sprinkled the holy unctuous waters and performed the coronation ceremony for Dyumatsena; the great-souled Satyavan was at the same time ceremoniously installed as the crown-prince.

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12. Then, in the course of long time, Savitri gave birth to a hundred sons, enhancing her name and her glory hero-warriors as they were, they never retreated from the battlefields.

13. In the same way her father Aswapati, the King of Madra, begot a hundred sons, true brothers to her from her mother Malawi; they too were mighty and great in strength.

14. That is how Savitri had saved and upraised herself, and her father and mother, her father-in-law and mother-in-law, extricated the whole House of her husband from calamity.

15. The fortune-bringer Draupadi, full of noble qualities, will also, like Savitri, high-born and chaste, carry you all across to the shore.

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