' And Takshaka, thus addressed, then spake unto the high-souled
Kasyapa in these soft words, 'O sinless one, take from me more wealth than
what thou expectest from that monarch, and go back!' And Kasyapa, that
foremost of men, thus addressed by the snake, and receiving from him as
much wealth as he desired, wended his way back.
"And Kasyapa going back, Takshaka, approaching in disguise, blasted, with
the fire of his poison, thy virtuous father, the first of kings, then
staying in his mansion with all precautions. And after that, thou hast, O
tiger among men, been installed (on the throne). And, O best of monarchs,
we have thus told thee all that we have seen and heard, cruel though the
account is. And hearing all about the discomfiture of thy royal father,
and of the insult to the Rishi Utanka, decide thou that which should
follow!'
'Sauti continued, 'King Janamejaya, that chastiser of enemies, then spake
upto all his ministers. And he said, 'When did ye learn all that happened
upon that, banian reduced to ashes by Takshaka, and which, wonderful as it
is, was afterwards revived by Kasyapa? Assuredly, my father could not have
died, for the poison could have been neutralised by Kasyapa with his
mantras. That worst of snakes, of sinful soul, thought within his mind
that if Kasyapa resuscitated the king bit by him, he, Takshaka, would be
an object of ridicule in the world owing to the neutralisation of his
poison. Assuredly, having thought so, he pacified the Brahmana.
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