Markandeya Narrates Savitri's Story to the Pandavas

The night ended. The sun's disc arose. Having performed their morning rites, all the ascetics reassembled. The great rishis did not tire of recounting to Dyumatsena everything about Savitri's great glory. Then the subjects arrived from the land of Shalva. They told the king how his enemy had been slain by his own adviser. The minister had killed him, along with his aides and well-wishers. The enemy's soldiers had run away. In unison, all the subjects had decided: Dyumatsena should be their king. Irrespective of whether he possessed sight or did not have eyesight, he should be the king. They had been dispatched to him because of this decision. The vehicles had come, and so had the four kinds of forces. Now that his victory had been proclaimed in the city, they asked the fortunate king to leave, so that he might occupy the seat of his father and grandfathers for many nights. When they saw that the king now had sight and was healthy, all of them bowed their heads in submission, their eyes dilated with wonder. Dyumatsena greeted all the aged brahmanas who lived in the hermitage. They honoured him, and he left for the city. Shaibya left in Savitri's company. They were in a decorated and radiant palanquin pulled by men and surrounded by soldiers. The priests happily instated Dyumatsena and instated his great-souled son as the heir apparent. Over a long period of time, Savitri gave birth to a hundred sons. They were brave, never retreated from battle, and extended her fame. She also had one hundred extremely powerful brothers, begotten by Ashvapati, king of the Madras, on Malavi. Thus Savitri saved all of them from the misfortune that had arisen — herself, her father, her mother, her mother-in-law, her father-in-law, her husband, and the entire lineage. Markandeya concluded: "In that fashion, the fortunate Draupadi, honoured because of her good conduct, will deliver all of you, like Savitri, born from a noble lineage."