Here comes the tale of Aṣṭāvakra, in which he vanquished Bandin in debate, and the sage regained his father, who had gone into the ocean; the obtaining by Savyasācin (Arjuna) of divine weapons, and the battle with the Nivātakavacas and the inhabitants of Hiraṇyapura; Arjuna's reunion with his brothers on Gandhamādana. Then comes the Ghoṣayātrā, in which Arjuna fought the Gandharvas; the return to the lake of Dvaitavana and the abduction of Draupadī by Jayadratha from the hermitage, whom Bhīma, swift as the wind, pursued. In the meeting with Mārkaṇḍeya, tales are told in sections: the appearance of Kṛṣṇa and his conversation with Satyabhāmā; the tales of Vrīhidraunika, of Aindradyumna, of Sāvitrī, of Auddālaki, and of Vainya (Pṛthu), and the extensive tale of the Rāmāyaṇa. Then follows how Indra stole Karṇa's earrings; the Āraṇeya-parva, in which Dharma instructed his own son (Yudhiṣṭhira); and the Pāṇḍavas, having received boons, went toward the west. Such is the third, the Āraṇyaka-parva: two hundred sixty-nine chapters and eleven thousand six hundred sixty-four verses.