Pandu Travels with His Wives to the Ascetic Mountains
Having given away his jewels and sent his servants home, Pandu begins his new life. With Kunti and Madri, he travels through sacred and remote mountains, living on roots and fruit under the protection of siddhas and rishis, until he finds a place to stop.
The servants stood before Pandu, awaiting their final orders. The king, who had just given away his crown and his wives’ ornaments, spoke plainly. “Go to Nagapura,” he said, “and say that Pandu has left for the forest. He has given up riches, desire, happiness and the supreme joy of sex. The descendant of the Kuru lineage has left with his wives.”
Hearing these words from the lion of the Bharata lineage, the servants and attendants broke down. They sorrowed and lamented, bewailing in loud and pitiable voices. They shed hot tears, took their leave of the lord of the earth, and turned toward Hastinapura with his message. When Dhritarashtra heard what had happened in the great forest, the best among kings mourned for his brother.
Pandu, Kunti, and Madri were already gone.
Living on roots and fruit, the Kourava prince began his migration. He went with his wives to the mountain named Nagasabha. From there, he traveled to the region of Chaitraratha and crossed the Varishena river. He crossed the great Himalayas themselves and entered the domain of Gandhamadana mountain.
They were not alone in the wilderness. They were protected by the great beings — the siddhas (perfected ones) and the supreme rishis (sages) who inhabited those heights. The pattern of their life was set: for some time they lived on the mountains, for some time on the plains. They were pilgrims without a destination, a crownless king and his two queens moving through a landscape of ascetics.
Their journey traced a path through places of power and solitude. They went to Lake Indradyumna. They crossed the peak known as Hansakuta. And finally, the wandering stopped. The ascetic king arrived at Shatashringa — the mountain of a hundred peaks — and there, at a hermitage, he concluded his journey. The forest phase of his life, and the story that would unfold from it, had found its setting.