Shloka 6
अध्याय ५७ — राजोपरिचरवसोः धर्मोपदेशः, सत्यवत्याः उत्पत्तिः, व्यासजन्म च
Adhyāya 57: Indra’s Counsel to King Vasu; Origin of Satyavatī; Birth of Vyāsa
पिच्छल: कौणपकश्चुक्र: कालवेग: प्रकालन: । हिरण्यबाहु: शरण: कक्षक: कालदन्तक:,वे बेचारे सर्प माताके शापसे पीड़ित हो विवशतापूर्वक सर्पयज्ञकी आगमें होम दिये गये थे। उनके नाम इस प्रकार हैं--कोटिश, मानस, पूर्ण, शल, पाल, हलीमक, पिच्छल, कौणप, चक्र, कालवेग, प्रकालन, हिरण्यबाहु, शरण, कक्षक और कालदन्तक
śaunaka uvāca | picchalaḥ kauṇapakaś cukraḥ kālavegaḥ prakālanaḥ | hiraṇyabāhuḥ śaraṇaḥ kakṣakaḥ kāladantakaḥ ||
Śaunaka said: “(Among those serpents were) Picchala, Kauṇapaka, Cukra, Kālavega, Prakālana, Hiraṇyabāhu, Śaraṇa, Kakṣaka, and Kāladantaka.” In the surrounding narrative, these are named as among the snakes who, afflicted by their mother’s curse, were helplessly drawn into Janamejaya’s serpent-sacrifice and offered into the fire—an episode that frames the moral tension between inherited fate and the possibility of restraint and compassion.
शौनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
By listing individual serpent-names within the larger account of the sarpa-yajña, the text underscores how mass violence driven by vengeance and inherited curses still falls upon distinct beings; it invites reflection on restraint (saṃyama) and compassion even when a narrative of ‘deserved fate’ is available.
Śaunaka, in dialogue at the sages’ forest-sacrifice setting, enumerates serpents associated with the catastrophe of Janamejaya’s snake-sacrifice, where snakes—compelled by a curse and ritual power—are drawn into the fire; this naming occurs as part of recounting that episode’s scope and gravity.