Shringi Curses King Parikshit for Insulting His Father
Hearing how the king humiliated his silent father, Shringi’s rage ignites. He touches water and pronounces a fatal curse: within seven days, the serpent-king Takshaka will bite Parikshit dead. His father rebukes the rash act, but the words are already spoken, setting an irrevocable fate in motion.
When Krisha finished his report, Shringi stiffened like a celestial pillar. His eyes reddened with anger until he looked like a blazing fire. Afflicted with rage and powered by the strength of his ascetic energy, the powerful rishi’s son touched water — the ritual act that formalizes a curse — and pronounced the king’s doom.
“The evil-hearted and vile king, the defiler of Brahmanas and disgrace of the Kuru lineage, who has placed a dead snake on my old and feeble father’s shoulders, will, triggered by my words, be taken to the abode of Yama within seven nights from today, bitten by angry Takshaka, the lord of the serpents, and smitten with the swift virulence of his poison.”
The curse was set. Its mechanism was precise: Takshaka, the serpent-king, would be the instrument; the king’s death would come within a week.
Shringi then went to his father and found him seated in the cowshed, the dead snake still on his shoulders. Seeing it, Shringi was again possessed by anger. Shedding tears of grief, he told Shamika what he had done. “O father! When I heard how the evil-hearted King Parikshit insulted you, I cursed him in anger. That worst of the Kuru lineage deserves such a terrible curse. Within seven days from today, Takshaka, the king of the snakes, will send the evil one to Vaivasvata’s abode.”
The father was not pleased. Shamika told his enraged son, “O son! Your act does not bring me pleasure. This is not the dharma for ascetics.” He laid out the practical and moral calculus. They lived in the king’s domain and were righteously protected by him. Ruling kings, who maintained order so ascetics could pursue their vows, must always be pardoned for their lapses. “If you destroy dharma, it will destroy you.”
He offered a defense for Parikshit: the king had come to the forest tired, hungry, and thirsty. He did not know Shamika was under a vow of silence. The king himself practiced austerities. “Therefore, you have committed an evil act through childishness. O son! In no way does that king deserve a curse from us.”
But a curse, once spoken by one of Shringi’s power, could not be recalled. The prophecy was now in motion.