Pandavas Observe Rainy and Autumn Seasons
Exiled to the desert, the Pandavas endure the arrival of the rainy season — clouds, thunder, and endless torrents transforming the barren land. When autumn follows, they find the sacred Sarasvati river overflowing with clear water and roam its banks in delight before the dark fortnight sends them onward to Kamyaka.
The Pandavas were living in the desert when the rainy season arrived.
It came as a release. The summer heat that had baked the earth and parched every living thing was finally broken. Clouds heavy with thunder rolled in from every direction, enveloping the sky and all the horizons. Through night and day, rain fell in hundreds and thousands of torrents. The net of the sun's rays disappeared; lightning flashed across the darkness. Grass sprouted from the earth. Flies and reptiles, numbed by the heat, stirred back into life. Smoke and dust vanished. Everything was covered with water — plain and uneven terrain, rivers and land — until nothing could be told apart.
The rivers themselves became turbulent, roaring like arrows in flight. At the end of summer, they made the groves beautiful again. From the drenched forests came a chorus of sounds: boars, animals, birds. Stokakas (a type of bird), peacocks, and male cuckoos grew maddened and fluttered about, joined by proud frogs. The Pandavas roamed safely through the desert regions as the rainy season passed in all its forms, the roar of the clouds fading behind them.
Then autumn arrived.
The season came with masses of curlews and swans. The forests were covered with new growth. The water that had flowed everywhere during the rains now ran clear. The sky and the stars emerged sharp and bright. Nights were cooled by clouds, the dust settled, and the heavens shone with planets, stars, and the moon. The Pandavas saw auspicious rivers and ponds, bearers of cool water, adorned with white water lilies and white lotuses.
They found great delight in roaming around the sacred tirtha (pilgrimage site) of Sarasvati. Its banks were as wide as the sky, covered with nipas (a type of tree) and wild rice. The brave ones — wielders of firm bows — were extremely happy on seeing the sacred Sarasvati, overflowing with clear water.
While they dwelt there, the sacred night of parvasandhi (the conjunction of seasons) in autumn arrived, in the month of Kartika. All the Pandavas, the best of the Bharata lineage, spent that great and supreme conjunction in the company of holy and great-souled ascetics. When the dark fortnight set in, the Pandavas — together with Dhoumya, the charioteers, and the cooks — travelled to Kamyaka. Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 476