Bhima's grandson Barbarika, armed with three infallible arrows that could end the war in a moment, vows to fight always for the losing side. Krishna, in disguise, sees that this generous vow would destroy both armies, and asks the youth for his own head in charity. Barbarika gives it gladly, asking only to watch the war - and his living head upon a hill watches the whole of Kurukshetra. The epic does not tell this tale; it comes from later tradition.

The sage Mudgala lives at Kurukshetra by gleaning fallen grains like a bird, yet gives away even that little without complaint. The irascible Durvasa comes to test him, devouring his food and abusing him on six sacred days of the moon - and cannot shake his serene contentment. Offered heaven itself as reward, Mudgala questions its nature, learns that heaven too is impermanent, and refuses it to seek the peace that does not pass.

To console the blind king Dhritarashtra after the war destroyed his house, the wise Vidura tells a single terrible parable: a man lost in a forest falls into a well, hangs by creepers from a tree gnawed by black and white rats, a serpent waiting below and an elephant above - and forgets it all for a few drops of honey. The whole condition of the soul caught in the world, held in one image.

A playful princess pierces the eyes of a sage hidden in an anthill and is given in marriage to the blind old hermit in atonement. Sukanya serves him with perfect devotion and refuses even the love of the beautiful Ashvin gods - who, moved by her fidelity, restore Chyavana's youth and sight, then test her to choose her husband from three identical youths. A tale of faithfulness rewarded.

King Sagara's sixty thousand arrogant sons are burned to ashes by the glance of the sage Kapila, their souls unable to rest. Only the heavenly river Ganga can purify them - so across four generations the kings strive, until Bhagiratha's terrible penance brings her down from heaven, her world-shattering fall borne on Shiva's head, to wash the ashes and free the dead.

The demon Taraka wins a boon making him unslayable by gods, asuras and rakshasas, and the gods, cursed by Uma to have no offspring, cannot bear a champion. But a spark of Shiva's energy has fallen into the fire, beyond the curse's reach, and it passes from Agni to the Ganga to the six star-mothers, the Krittikas, who nurse the six-faced child Skanda. Made commander of heaven, the war-god slays the unkillable demon and frees the worlds.

Three asura brothers win three flying fortresses - gold in heaven, silver in the sky, iron on earth - that can be destroyed only by a single arrow at the one instant in a thousand years when all three unite. When their pride oppresses the worlds, the gods build Shiva a chariot of the whole universe, and at the moment the cities unite he looses one cosmic arrow that burns all three cities to ash.

When his bride Pramadvara dies of a snakebite on the eve of their wedding, the young brahmin Ruru gives half of his own remaining life to bring her back. But his grief curdles into a vow to kill every snake he meets - until a harmless serpent, a cursed sage in disguise, teaches him that a brahmin's true law is non-injury and forgiveness, not vengeance.

A proud young brahmin, refusing to learn humbly under a teacher, tries to force the gods to pour the whole of the Vedas into his mind by sheer penance. Indra, disguised, shows him the folly by trying to dam the Ganga with handfuls of sand. Yavakri wins his knowledge - but without the discipline that makes it safe, his arrogance leads him to ruin.

Narada tells Yudhishthira that King Harishchandra alone among royal sages rivals Indra in heaven, thanks to his great Rajasuya; the epic mentions him only briefly, and the fuller story of his trial of truth comes from later tradition. To keep a promise, the emperor Harishchandra gives away his kingdom, then sells his wife, his son, and finally himself into servitude at a cremation ground - and still will not speak a single lie, even when his own dead son is brought to his fire. Tested to the utmost, his truth is vindicated and all is restored.