Ashvamedhika Parva

To expiate the killing of kinsmen, Yudhishthira performs the ashvamedha, releasing a sacrificial horse to wander for a year with Arjuna following it as its guardian. Arjuna fights the kings through whose lands it passes, and at Manipura is struck down by his own son Babhruvahana before being revived by a naga jewel. Krishna restores the stillborn Parikshit, last of the Kuru line, killed in the womb by Ashvatthama's weapon. The book also holds the Anugita, Krishna's quieter restatement of the Gita for Arjuna, and closes with the mongoose whose golden head declares a poor man's handful of barley worth more than the whole imperial rite.