The Ministers said: -
1. O king of kings, that tired and hungry monarch, having placed the snake on the shoulder of the Rishi, came back to his owh capital.
2. The Rishi had a son, born of a cow, named Sringi. He was greatly renowned, exceedingly powerful, and greatly energetic and very wrathful.
3. He used to go to Brahma and worshipped him. Commanded by him, Sringi was one day returning home,
4-5. When he heard from his friend how his father had been insulted by your father. He heard that he was bearing on his shoulder a dead snake as motionless as a piece of wood, without doing any injury to the man who had insulted him thus.
6. O king, he heard that your father had insulted the Rishi) who was a great ascetic, the best of Rishis, a controller of his passions, a pious and holy man, a door of wonderful deeds, his soul enlightened with asceticism, and his senses and their functions under his complete control.
7. His practices were pious, his speeches pure. He was contented and had no avarice; he had not the least meanness. nor had he any avarice. He was old, and observant of the vow of silence.
8. And he was the refuge of all creatures. Such was the Rishi whom your father insulted. The son of that Rishi, however, cursed your father in anger.
9. Though that son of the Rishi was but a boy, he had the splendour of mature age. He speedily touched water and spoke thus in anger.
10-12. With reference to your father, burning as if in effulgence, “Behold my ascetic powers. The angry and effulgent snake Takshaka, as spoken by me, will bum with his poison, within seven nights hence, the wretch who has placed a dead snake on the shoulder of my sire.” Having said this, he went to the place where his father was.
13. Seeing his father, he told him of the curse uttered by him. That best of Rishis sent to your lather.
14. A well-mannered and virtuous disciple, named Gaurmukha. After having taken rest for a while, he (Gaurmukha) told everything to the king (your father,)
15. (Saying in the words of his preceptor) “O king, you have been cursed by my son. Takshaka will burn you with his poison. O great king be careful.
16. O Janamejaya, your father, having heard these terrible words, took every precaution against the powerful snake Taksnaka.
17. When the seventh day arrived, a Brahmana Rishi, named Kashyapa, wished to come to the king.
18. The king of the snakes, Takshaka, saw Kashyapa, and that king of the snakes asked that Brahmana, “Where are you going in a hurry? And what is your business for which you go?”
Kashyapa said: -
19. O Brahmana, I am going where (he best of the Kurus, the king named Parikshit is. He will to-day be killed by the snake Takshaka.
20. I am going in a hurry to cure him, so that he, being treated by me, may not be killed by the snake.
Takshaka said: -
21-22. O Brahmana, I am that very Takshaka. Why do you wish to revive the king bitten by me. Behold my wonderful power. You are incapable of reviving the king bitten by me. Having said this, Takshaka there and then bit a lord of the forest (a banian tree).
23. The tree was reduced to ashes as soon as bitten by the snake; but, O king, Kashyapa, however, revived it.
24. Thereupon Takshaka, in order to tempt him, said, “Tell me what is your desire.” and Kashyapa replied to Takshaka.
25. “Iam going there with the desire of (getting) wealth.” The illustrious Takshaka, (thereupon) told him in sweet words,
26. “O sinless one, take from me more wealth than you expect to get from that king. And then go back.”
27. The best of men, Kashyapa, being thus addressed by the snake, and having received from him as much wealth as he desired to get, went back.
28-29. When the Brahman went back, Takshaka went in disguise to that best of kings, your virtuous father, who was then staying with all precautions in bis palace; and he burnt him with the fire of his poison. After this (most lamentable event,) you, O best of kings, were installed on the throne.
30. O best of kings, we have told you all that we saw and heard, though the account is terrible and cruel.
31. O best of kings, you have now heard how (your father) the great king of the world was killed, and how Rishi Uttanka was insulted, do what is proper.
Souti said: -
32. Thereupon the chastiser of foes, Janamejaya addressed all his ministers thus.
Janamejaya said: -
33-34. From whom have you heard this wonderful account of the lord of the forest, burnt to ashes by Takshaka, and revived again by Kashyapa? My father could not have certainly died were the poison neutralised by the Mantras of Kashyapa.
35. The sinful wretch, the worst of the snakes (Takshaka), thought in his mind,— If the Brahmana revives the king bitten by me.
36. “All the world will laugh at me saying, Takshaka had no poison any longer.” Certainly having thought so, he gratified the Brahmana.
37-38. I have, however, devised a means by which I shall punish him. I now wish to hear how you heard and how you saw what happened in the solitude of the forest,—especially the conversation between Takshaka and Kashyapa, having heard this, I shall devise means for the destruction of the snakes.
The Ministers said: -
39. O king, hear from whom we heard the conversation between that king of the Brahmanas and the king of the snakes.
40. O king, a certain man had climbed that lord of the forest to collect its dry twigs for sacrificial fuel.
41. He was not seen by the Brahmana or the snake. O king, he too was reduced to ashes with the tree.
42. O king of kings, he was revived with the tree by the power of the Brahmana. That man, a servant of a Brahmana, came to us,
43. And told us in detail what happened between Takshaka and the Brahmana. O king, we are thus able to tell you what we saw or heard. O best of kings, having heard it, do what should be done now.
Souti said: -
44. Having heard the words of the ministers, the king Janamejaya began to weep in grief and squeezed his hands.
45. The lotus-eyed king breathed long and hot breaths; the king shed tears and wept aloud.
46. The king, afflicted with grief and sorrow, shed tears, and touching water according to the form, thought for a while as if sifting something in his mind. Then addressing all his ministers, he said:-
Janamejaya said: -
47. I have heard your account of my father’s ascension to heaven.
48-49. Know now what is my fixed resolve. No time should be lost to avenge the wretch Takshaka who killed my father. The wretch killed the king, making Sringi a mere pretext.
50. Out of malignity alone he prevented Kashyapa from coming. If that Brahmana had come, my father would have certainly lived.
51. What harm could have possibly come to him if the king had revived by the grace of Kashyapa and the precautions taken by the ministers?
52. He, being ignorant of my anger, prevented that best of Brahmanas, Kashyapa, from coming to my unconquerable father.
53. The aggression of the wretch Takshaka is great, for ne gave wealth to the Brahmana, so that he might not revive the king.
54. I must avenge myself on my father’s enemy, to please myself, to please Uttanka and you all.
Thus ends the fiftieth chapter, Astika, in the Adi Parva.
Souti said: -
1. The illustrious king having said so, the ministers expressed their approbation. The king expressed his determination of performing a Snake-sacrifice.
2. The Lord of the earth, the best of the Kurus, king (Janamejaya) the son of Parikshit, then called his priest Pitwijas.
3. And that accomplished speaker spoke on the accomplishment of his great task. (He said), “I must avenge on that wretch Takshaka.
4-5. Tell me what I must do. Do you know any act by which I can throw Takshaka with all his friends and relatives in the blazing fire? I want to burn that wretch of a snake as he burnt my father with his poison.
The Ritwijas said: -
6. O king, there is a sacrifice devised by the celestials for you. It is known as the Snake-sacrifice and is spoken of in the Puranas.
7. O king, you alone can accomplish it, and no one else. The men, learned in the Puranas, have told us that there is such a sacrifice.
Souti said: -
8. O excellent one, thus addressed, that royal sage thought Takshaka already thrown into the blazing fire and burnt to ashes
9. The king then told these Brahmanas, learned in Mantras: “I shall perforin that sacrifice. Tell me the things that) are necessary.
10. O best of Brahmanas, there upon lift wse Ritwijas, learned in the Sastras, measured, according to the ordinances, a piece of land for the sacrificial platform.
11-13. It was graced by the presence of holy Brahmanas; it was decked with much valuable wealth; it was full of wealth and paddy. On this sacrificial platform they according to rites installed the King in the Snake-sacrifice. But before the commencement of the sacrifice happened
14-15. An incident which foreboded a hinderance to it. For when the sacrificial platform was being built, a man, Suta by caste, well acquainted with the Puranas and learned in the art of masonry and of laying foundations, said.
16. The land in which the platform was made and the time when it was measured indicate that this sacrifice will not be completed. A Brahmana will be its cause.”
17. Having heard this, the king, before he was installed in the sacrifice, ordered the gate keepers, saying, “None must be allowed to enter here without my permission.”
Thus ends the firty first chapter, Astika, in the Adi Parva.