Chapter 1 | Snake Sacrifice
After Parikshit, his son, Janamejaya ruled the Kingdom of Yudhisthir, Hastinapura. He was well obedient to the Dharma and the rules of morality. One day, He was sitting in his courtroom with his ministers and saw a Brahman who was coming inside the room through the gates. King, quickly rose from his throne and saluted the Brahman with respect, after the mighty King, all the ministers also saluted the Brahman and arose in their place.
Janamejaya said, ‘O Brahman, Tell me, what you want me to do for you?’
Utanka said, ‘The Takshak, poisonous and the prince of Snakes killed your father, and you didn’t do anything, O King, you should not leave a sinful person who killed your father. This is a huge loss to the Kuru race. You should perform a great sacrifice to eradicate the snake race from the earth, this will be the punishment for the sinful thing done by the Takshak’.
King Janamejaya heard each word carefully said by the Rishi Utanka, curiosity on his face, desire to know about his father he asked his ministers,
‘I want to hear about my father so please tell me about my father’.
As per the King’s command, the minister started saying,
‘ O great king, your father was a wise man who always protected the truth, always followed the Dharma and never spoke a word lie, protected the poor and orphans, He was one of the favorites of Madhusudana. He saw the great god Krishna in the womb of his mother before birth and was a disciple of Kripacharya. Abhimanyu’s son was well known for his perfection in his warfare and the welfare and political policies of his kingdom’.
After hearing what the ministers said to Janamejaya, he asked about the death of his father. Ministers replied,
‘The nice King Parikshit was gone for hunting in the forest. King saw a beautiful deer wandering inside. He pierced it with an arrow with perfection and went ahead to get the deer, but surprisingly he saw nothing in front of him where he should have found the dead deer. Parikshit started searching for the deer he just pierced with his excellent arrow.
Because of the protective gears and old age, the King became fatigued and being hungry and thirsty, he entered into an Asylum of a Rishi where one Rishi was sitting in the silent penance. He inquired about the deer, but he got no reply from the Rishi as he was in the penance. Being angry, He placed a dead snake onto the shoulder of the Rishi and went to his capital Hastinapura. The Rishi said nothing to the great king. This was a huge insult to the Sage. Son of the sage, Sringin, after hearing about the insult of his father, he filled with wrath and soon he cursed the King Parikshita that, after seven days, snake Takshak will bite the King Parikshit and he will soon die.’
