Mahabharata – 57

by 

Sankar Mukherjee

&

Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                                            AdiParva.

 A conference of the snakes

We have noted that quite a few of the snakes were animated motiveless malignity. They bit men & other animals to death for no fault of theirs. The creator Brahma was however concerned with it. He did not want the creation to be destroyed by the venomous snakes. It were these snakes that engineered the fraud where by Ucchaisrava looked black. But quite a few snakes were reluctant to comply with Kadru’s fraud. One of them was Ananta the eldest of the snakes. He abhorred hatred & motiveless malignity of his snake brothers. He renounced the world in pursuit of penance. In the earlier episode we have dwelled on what became of Ananta. But there were other snakes also who did not agree with their mother. They were neither jealous nor envious nor the angry type. Since they did not comply with Kadru’s wishes, Kadru  impulsively cursed all her children, be they pious or sinful. The curse had simultaneous effect in both the worlds heaven & earth. While the snakes on the earth were constantly scared of the curse, the gods were equally shocked to learn that there would be mayhem of the snakes.

As Ananta was no longer there Vasuki was elected the king of the snakes. He likened Indra who was elected by the gods. Presently after assuming the throne of the snake world Vasuki summoned a conference of the snakes. Because as a king he must see to that the species called snake are not wiped off from the face of the existence. So the conference deliberated on how to save the snake from their impending doom. They were already in the know that the king Janamejaya would summon a fire sacrifice where they would be pulled from their habitats with the power of Mantra & flung into the sacrificial fire. How to escape from the destruction of the snakes to happen in times to come? The snakes at the assembly had different suggestions. Some of them said that they would bite Janamajaya to death. That would resolve the problem. Others said that they themselves would play the role of the ministers who would advise Janamajaya so that the latter restrain himself from doing the fire sacrifice. Others said they would simply kill the priest & preceptor of Janamejaya with venomous bites. Some others suggested that they would pollute the ingredients for the fire sacrifice by pissing & shitting on them. Others said that they would steal away all the props of the fire sacrifice while the priests would be busy otherwise. Vasuki however could not agree with these suggestions. He knew that the curse of a mother could not be avoided so easily. If Janamajaya’s fire sacrifice does not take place there will be some other happening that would bring about the disaster of the race of the snakes. Then a snake named Elapatra rose to  speak. He pointed out that what is lotted could be blotted only with the aid of fate. True that the snakes are destined to die because of their mother’s curse. When the mother cursed snakes Elapatra was very scared & took shelter in the mother’s lap. Seated there he could see the gods approaching Brahma the creator. They were shocked to learn that snakes would be killed. But Brahma smiled at them. He told that the sinful among the snakes would be killed no doubt. But others must survive. This could be done through a marriage deal. Vasuki has a sister in Jaratkaru. She should be married to a man of the same name. Their child would save the snakes from impending doom.

Thus begetting a child is value in the Mahabharata . It is a child alone who can save it’s race from impending destruction. And we surmise that henceforth the whole snake world was full of prayer for the child to be born from the womb of their sister Jaratkaru. It is the mother that can give birth such children. So every mother is venerable.

Thanks to great economist Malthus & capitalist values women are no longer revered as would be mothers. Hence the humanity today is equally scared of an impending spell to work.If another nuclear war takes place man shall have fight with sticks again.

Be that as it may the snakes learning that the saviour must come to set up a kingdom of heaven in the measureless caverns where snakes live , the whole crowd of snakes dispersed dancing dangling their hoods that shone like flowers.