Ashvamedhika Parva

[3][4] Ashvamedhika Parva begins with an advice from Krishna and Vyasa who recommend Yudhishthira to perform the Ashvamedha ceremony.

Yudhishthira proceeds with the effort to mine gold, fill his treasury and perform the Ashvamedhika ceremony.

[5] The book includes Anugita parva, over 36 chapters, which Krishna describes as mini Bhagavad Gita.

Krishna recites Anugita - literally, Subsequent Gita - as a dialogue between a Brahmin's wife and Brahma.

Scholars have suggested Anugita to be a spurious addition to Ashvamedhika Parva in medieval times, and a corruption of the original Mahabharata.

Dhritrashtra, Vyasa and Vasudeva consoles him with narration of stories to give up affliction and perform a sacrifice with presents for fame.

Arjuna asks Krishna to repeat the holy discourse, what he told to him in time of battle as that has been forgotten by him.

Krishna shows his disagreement and says that either he is destitute of faith or his understanding is not good as that discourse is impossible to repeat, in detail, what he told him in higher state.

He then discourse him on Darkness, Passion and Goodness, saying Dharma is very dear to him, so in every yuga he took birth in diverse wombs, for restoring it, with the aid of others.

Arjuna's wife Chitrangada comes and starts to lament for her husband death by his son and vows for suicide if he does not comes back.

[1] The various manuscripts of the Mahabharata discovered in India in early to mid 19th century, show inconsistencies in the 36 Chapters of Anugita, including the name itself.

[10] Aswamedhika Parva includes the philosophical treatise Anûgîta, as well as many tales and fables such as the mongoose at the sacrifice.

A mongoose with blue eyes and colored gold on one side, appears during the final Aswamedhika stages of the fire yajna by Yudhishthira and other kings.

The mongoose, in a thundering human voice, says, "O kings, this animal sacrifice is not equal to the tiny amount of barley by an unccha-vow ascetic."

[2] Anugita parva, Chapter 27: In that forest,[11] Intelligence is the tree, Emancipation is the fruit, Tranquility is the shade; It has Knowledge for its resting house, Contentment for its water, and Kshetrajna[12] for its sun.

Two translations from 19th century, now in public domain, are those by Kisari Mohan Ganguli[1] and Manmatha Nath Dutt.