Shloka 37
Āstīka-stuti at Janamejaya’s Sacrifice (आस्तीकस्तुतिः / यज्ञप्रशंसा)
480 पक यस्य दास्यामि यातनाम् | एकं तु 4 तद् वृत्तं निर्जने वने
Janamejaya uvāca: “Bhaviṣyāmi prayatnapūrvakaṁ ko’pi upāyaṁ kṛtvā Takṣakaṁ etad-arthaṁ daṇḍayiṣyāmi. Kintu ekaṁ śrotum icchāmi—Nāgarāja-Takṣakasya Kāśyapa-brāhmaṇasya ca saṁvādaḥ nirjane vane abhavat. Tat sarvaṁ vṛttāntaṁ kena dṛṣṭaṁ śrutaṁ ca? Yuṣmākaṁ samīpaṁ eṣā kathā katham āgatā? Etat śrutvāhaṁ sarpāṇāṁ nāśaṁ prati cintayiṣyāmi.”
Janamejaya said: “In the future, I will, with deliberate effort, find some means and punish Takṣaka for this. Yet I wish to hear one point. The conversation between Takṣaka, king of serpents, and the brahmin Kāśyapa must have taken place in a lonely forest. Who could have seen and heard that entire episode? How did this account reach you? After hearing this, I will decide upon the destruction of the serpents.”
जनमेजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights a dharmic tension between personal vengeance and responsible kingship: before acting destructively, a ruler should seek reliable testimony and understand how knowledge is transmitted. It implicitly warns that anger-driven collective punishment (destroying all serpents) demands careful inquiry and ethical restraint.
Janamejaya, still intent on punishing Takṣaka for Parīkṣit’s death, questions the credibility of the reported forest dialogue between Takṣaka and the brahmin Kāśyapa. He asks who witnessed it and how the story reached the narrators, and says he will decide about annihilating the serpents after hearing this.