Shaunaka said: -
1. Tell me again in detail all that king Janamejaya asked his ministers to say about his father’s ascention to heaven.
Souti said: -
2. O Brahmana, hear all that the king asked his ministers and all that they said about the death of Parikshit.
Janamejaya said: -
3. You know all that happened to my father, and how my illustrious father met with his death.
4. Hearing from you all about my father, I shall do what is proper and good. I shall not do otherwise.
Souti said: -
5. Being asked by that high-souled king Janamejaya, the virtuous and wise ministers thus replied.
The Ministers said: -
6. Hear, O King. What you have asked. Hear an account of that king of the world, your illustrious father’s life, and how he left this world.
7. Your father was ‘virtuous, and noble, and a protector of his subjects. Hear, how that high-souled king conducted himself on earth.
8. That virtuous king, virtuously inclined, protected, like Virtue and Justice themselves, the four castes, keeping them in the duties of their respective orders.
9. Blessed with fortune and with matchless prowess, he protected the goddess earth. He hated none and had none to hate him.
10. Like Prajapati he looked at all creatures with equal eyes. The Brahmanas, Kshatryas, Vaisyas and Sudras.
11. Engaged in their respective duties, O king, were all impartially protected by him. He maintained widows, orphans, the maimed and the poor.
12. He was handsome, and was like a second Soma to all creatures. All were contended and blessed with good fortune by that truthful and greatly powerful king.
13. He was the disciple of Saradatwa in the science of arms. O Janameiaya, your father was the beloved of Govinda (Krishna).
14. He was the favourite of all men and was greatly renowned. He was born in the womb of Uttara when the Kuru race was almost destroyed.
15. Therefore the mighty son of Abhimanyu was called Parikshit. He was learned in the treatise on the duties of kings and was adorned with all the noble qualities.
16. He had his passions under control, he was intelligent, he was gifted with great memory, he was practiser of all virtues, a conqueror of six passions, a greatly intelligent man, fully acquainted with the science of ethics.
17-18. Your father ruled over his subjects for sixty years. When he died, all the people were extremely sorry. After him, O best of men, you have acquired this hereditary kingdom of the Kurus, (who have been ruling over it) for the last thousand years. O protector of every creature, you were installed when you were a child.
Janamejaya said: -
19. None was born in our dynasty who did not look after the good of his subjects and who was not beloved by them. See specially the conduct of my grandfathers (five Pandava brothers) who were ever engaged in great deeds.
20. How did my such a noble father meet with his death? Describe it to me. I am desirous of hearing it.
Souti said: -
21. Thus asked by the king, the ministers, the well-wishers of the king, told him everything as it had happened.
The Ministers said: -
22-23. O king, that monarch, the lord of the world, greatly obedient to all Sastras like the first of all beings, became addicted to sports like the best of bow-men, the great warrior and exceedingly powerful Pandu. He made over to us all state affairs.
24. Once on a time he went into the forest and pierced a deer with an arrow. Having thus wounded the deer, he followed it armed with sword and quiver,
25. Alone on foot. But he could not, however, come upon that lost deer.
26. He, being sixty years old, and therefore fatigued and hungry, saw a great Rishi in that great forest.
27. The King accosted that Rishi, who was then observing the vow of silence, but the Rishi did not make any reply.
28. The fatigued and the hungry king grew angry with the Rishi who sat motionless as a piece of wood in observance of his vow of silence.
29. Knowing not that the Rishi was observing a vow of silence, your father, being angry, insulted him.
30. O excellent one of the Bharata race, he took up from the ground a dead snake with the end of his bow and placed it on the shoulder of that holy Rishi.
31. But that wiseman did not speak a word, good or bad, and he did not become angry. He remained as he was, bearing the snake on his shoulder.
Thus ends the forty ninth chapter, Astika, in the Adi Parva.