Parikshit and Takshaka
King Parikshit was the son of
Abhimanyu, the heroic Pandava side warrior and son of
Arjuna, who died fighting a formidable army of seven great
Kuru warriors in the battle of Kurukshetra.
Abhimanyu's wife was Uttara, the princess of Matsya
and the daughter of Virata. At the end of Kurukshetra war,
Asvatthama, the son of preceptor Dronacharya, to avenge his
father's tragic death in the battle, tried to kill the entire Pandava
clan. He hurled the Brahmastra against the foetus which was there in
Uttara's womb. Lord Krishna, the Supreme Lord of the Universe
took pity and saved the unborn child during its birth and also punished
Asvatthama severly for such a despicable act. It is said that
Parikshit, as the new born child came to be known, had tried to see who
his saviour was right after his birth (Ikshan - to see in Sanskrit), he
was named as Parikshit (Pari+Ikshit). When the
Panadavas, after thirty six years of reign, went to heaven, they gave
the kingdom to Parikshit. The latter was a just and able ruler and was
fond of hunting like all Kshatriya kings. One day, while hunting he shot an
arrow against a deer, which instantly fled. Thinking that he had hit the deer,
the king, chased it, but after a long time could not find it. In the meanwhile
the sun was up, the heat was unbearable and the king was extremely afflicted by
hunger and thirst. He then came across a sage who was sitting under a tree, deep
in contempation. The sage was called Samika. He had taken a vow of
Mauna or silence. Therefore he was not supposed to speak a word and the
king did not know it. The king asked the sage if he had seen any deer. The sage
remained quite. Once, twice, thrice the king asked and got no reply. At this,
being already tired and devoid of senses, he got angry, thinking that the sage
had deliberately insulted him by not replying to him. He saw a dead snake nearby
and in order to insult him, took that snake using his bow end and put it round
the neck of the sage. The good sage remained quiet and motionless and did not
speak a word of condemnation and even did not mind the incident, being of great
wisdom and compassion. The king, when he came back to his senses, was sorry, but
did not know how to rectify his error.
The sage or Rishi, had a son called
Sringin. Sringin, unlike hiss father, was extremely wrathful. He had
acquired great merit through his austerities but could not control his anger.
When another Rishi's son, jokingly informed him of the insult that has
been heaped upon his father, Sringin got the detail of the incident,
and being of vengeful spirit, then and there cursed Parikshit that he
would die within seven days from the bite of Takshaka, a virulent
serpent. He then informed his father about his curse. His father was not at all
pleased. Breaking his vow of silence, he strongly condemned his son for such
lack of control and told him that an ascetic should not behave in the way that
he did, as it destroys all the merits of acsetism. Also a king is the protector
and bereft of a king, the kingdom gets destroyed along with those who are under
his protection. Therefore Parikshit, being a just and righteous king,
who committed an error out of his ignorance, should never have been cursed. He
then sent one of his disciples with due instructions to forwarn
Parikshit about the impending danger.
The disciple Gaurmukha went to the king's
palace and duly informed him of the danger. The king was very repentant by the
harsh act that he had done and also by hearing that Samik had taken the
vow of silence when he insulted him in that manner. He then met his ministers
and counsellors and together they chalked out a plan. A huge mansion was to be
built on a single column in which the king would stay and conduct the affairs of
the king for the next seven days with the help of his able and trusted
ministers. Nobody was allowed in the palace and the king was well guarded by
physicians and learned Brahmins. On the seventh day, Takshaka
himself was coming down to Hastinapur to fulfill his obligations when
he met a Brahmin on the way. The Brahmin's name was
Kasyap. He was proficient in Yoga powers and could cure any
ailment. When Takshaka asked the Brahmin as to why he was
going to Hastinapur when the king would die of snake bite,
Kasyap said that he could cure even Takshaka's bite and was
going to save the king as well as to earn a lot of wealth by doing so.
Takshaka then gave his introduction and told Kasyap that
nobody had power to cure anybody affected by Takshaka's bite. He
challenged Kasyap, to revive a big banyan tree which he burned to ashes
with his poison. Kasyapa worked wonders by reviving that tree step by
step, by first generating a seed from the ashes, then a small plant sprouting
from that seed and then the big banyan tree from it. Takshaka now
became anxious and told Kasyap that since he was going there for wealth
and not for any altruistic reason, Takshaka himself would give him all
the wealth he needed if only he returned from there without going to
Hastinapur. He convinced Kasyap that time had run out for
Parikshit and therefore Kasyap would only earn a demerit and
bad names by trying to revive one who had already been ordained to depart.
Kasyap agreed to the proposal, took a lot of wealth from
Takshaka and went away from there.
Takshaka now hatched a plan. He sent some
of the Nagas dressed as Brahmins with fruits and other
offerings to the king. The Brahmins were duly received by the monarch
who was very happy that the day was ending and yet Takshaka had not
come. He therefore decided to celebrate by eating those fruits. But the first
fruit that he took had a worm inside. He joculously remarked that since
Takshaka was no where to be seen and the seventh day was ending, that
worm should bite him in order that the sage's curse became true. He placed the
worm on his neck. At once Takshaka, who had disguised himself as that
worm, coiled round the neck of the king and with a tremendous roar that
frightened everybody present, bit the king who died as a result of the virulent
poison. The entire palace was burned to ashes by Takshaka's poison. His
job accomplished, Takshaka disappeared to the realm of the
Nagas. The people of the kingdom were aggrieved and they made the young
prince Janamejaya as the king.
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