Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/177

Rh Muni spake not a word good or bad and became not angry. And he continued in the same posture, bearing the dead snake.

And so ends the forty-ninth Section in the Astika of the Adi Parva.

 

( Astika Parva continued. )

Sauti continued, "And the ministers said, 'The king of kings then tired with hunger and exertion, having placed the snake upon the shoulder of that Muni, wended back to his capital. The Rishi had a son, born of a cow, of name Sringi. And he was widely known, of great prowess, excessive energy, and very wrathful. And going to his preceptor he was in the habit of worshiphing [sic] him. And commanded by him he was returning home, when he heard from a friend of his about the insult to his father by thy parent. And, O tiger among kings, he heard that his father, without having committed any fault, was bearing, motionless like a stake, upon his shoulder a dead snake placed thereon. And, O king, the Rishi, insulted by thy father, was severe in ascetic penances, the foremost of Munis, the controller of passions, pure, and ever engaged in wonderful acts. And his soul was enlightened with ascetic penances, and his organs and their functions were under complete control. And his practices and his speech were both handsome. And he was contented and without avarice. And he was without meanness of any kind and without envy. And he was old and in the observance of the vow of silence. And he was the refuge whom all creatures might seek in distress.

"And such was the Rishi insulted by thy father! And the son of that Rishi in wrath cursed thy father. And though young in years, the powerful one was old in ascetic splendour. And speedily touching water he spake, from anger and burning as it were with energy, these words in allusion to thy father:—'Behold the power of my asceticism! Directed by my words, the snake Takshaka of powerful energy and virulent poison, shall, within seven nights hence, burn with his poison, the 