Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s3.155

c9.s3.155

Parikshit was succeeded on the Kuru throne by his eldest son **Janamejaya**. The *Mahābhārata* refers to a great snake-sacrifice performed by this king. In this connection it is stated that the king conquered Taxila.¹ It is clear from the *Pañchaviṁśa Brāhmaṇa*² and the *Baudhāyana Śrauta Sūtra*³ that the epic account of the Kuru king's *Sarpa-satra* cannot be regarded as having any historical basis. There is hardly any doubt that the *Satra* mentioned in the Vedic texts is the prototype of the famous sacrifice described in the epic. The story seems to have undergone three stages of development. The original tale is concerned with a mythical rite performed by the serpents one of whom was named Janamejaya, who served as an *Adhvaryu* (priest). "Through this rite the serpents vanquished death." The next stage is reached in the *Baudhāyana Śrauta Sūtra*. Janamejaya appears among the kings and princes of the serpents assembled for sacrifice in human shape at Khāṇḍavaprastha (in the Kuru country) with the object of obtaining poison. In the epic the performer of the sacrifice is identified with the Kuru king; and the object of the sacrifice is not the acquisition of immortality for the serpents, or of poison, but the extinction of these reptiles. It is impossible to find in the doings of these venomous creatures a reference to an historic strife.¹