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The Tales in Mahabharata
Many of these details are mentioned in the beginning of the MBh. The three brothers are mentioned by name.39 The very manner of mentioning the name of the king as Janamejayah Päriksitaḥ40 reminds one of the king mentioned in the Brähmana. His search for a proper priest is described in these words: 'purohitam anurupam anvicchamanah.... yo me päpakṛtyām samayed iti'41 which are reminiscent of the relevant Brahmana passage. After the sarpa-satra is completed, he promises the sage Astika to call him as a priest in his (i.e. Janamejaya's) Vajimedha sacrifice42 which again reminds one of the Brahmaṇical Janamejaya who is a performer of Asvamedha sacrifice. The Pausya-parvan43 itself is almost entirely in prose which is reminiscent of the Brahmanical prose. All these factors clearly indicate that the author of this portion intends to pass the supposed performer of this snakesacrifice as the Janamejaya Pärikṣita, the king famous in the Brahmanas; and for that purpose he brackets the entire group of story-cycles connected with the snakesacrifice within the two references of the Papakṛtyä and the Aśvamedha which are both mentioned in the Brahmana passage quoted above. The actual occurrence of the Sarpa-satra of Janamejaya Pärikşita, therefore, becomes rather doubtful.
It is said in the epic that, while searching for a proper priest, Janamejaya came upon one Soma-śravas, son of Śrutašravas44 and born of a sarpi45 (a female-snake), and chose him as his priest. Now, the affinity of the two names with that of Ugra-iravas, the Suta Puriņi narrator of the MBh in its final stage, and particularly with Caksu-Eravas, one of the many synonyms meaning 'a serpent' is obvious. This Soma-ravas is said to be able to appease all papa-kṛtyäs except that of Mahadeva,45 and the relation of serpents with Lord Mahadeva is too well-known to be reiterated here. The priest is also said to be born of a sarpī, as we noted above. Thus, the three factors viz. the names ending in -śravas', the fact of his being born of a sarpi, and his inability to appease the kṛtya of Mahadeva go to prove that Soma-śravas must be a so-called serpent himself, i.e. a priest of the Naga tribe.
Having chosen this Soma-iravas as his priest, and having instructed his brothers to do exactly as this priest said, Janamejaya went to Takṣaśila and conqured it. The snake-sacrifice is supposed to have been performed at Takṣasilä, but the name of the city is very likely chosen for its apparent similarity with that of Taksaka. More significant, however, is the contradiction that on the one hand, Janamejaya is shown to choose a Naga as his priest; and on the other hand, on the other hand, immediately after, he is
39 AdiP. 3.2.
40 AdiP. 3.1.
41 AdiP. 3.10.
42 Cf. AdiP. 53.15. bhavisyasi sadasyo me vajimedhe mahakratau //
43 AdiP.3.
97
44 AdiP. 3.12.
45 AdiP. 3.15.
S. T. 13
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