A sitting
Why This Story Is Being Told
Who is listening, who is speaking, and what bite started it? A king is killing snakes. A boy walks in. The recitation can begin.
Parikshit, Abhimanyu’s son, lays a dead snake on a silent muni. The muni’s son curses him. Takshaka takes the king. Janamejaya, hearing how his father died, lights a snake-sacrifice. Nagas fall into the fire by the thousand.
Astika, a boy born to stop this, walks into the hall and asks for the sacrifice to end. Janamejaya has promised him a boon. The pouring stops. In that pause the king asks to hear the Bharata. Vyasa is there. He tells Vaishampayana to speak.
Further out, Vyasa has already recited to Ganesha under a bargain: the pen will not stop, and the verse will sometimes be too tightly knit to follow. We are sitting in nested halls. The war is inside a family; the family is inside a sacrifice; the sacrifice is inside a telling.
Ordered cast
Source notes
Mahabharata, Adi Parva (Anukramanika, Astika), Ganguli. Last reviewed 12 September 2026.