A venomous serpent-king that bites King Parikshit and kills him in Hindu legend.
Parikshit is doomed to die of a snakebite within seven days
after disrespecting a powerful sage.
Parikshit takes whatever measure he can to avert his fate:
He constructs a home on a large plot of land, has all items entering the house
thoroughly checked, and surrounds himself with snakebite doctors.
Six days pass without incident, but as the seventh day
approaches, people begin to unwind and bring some fruit into the office to eat.
Takshaka had disguised himself as a little worm in one of
the fruit pieces and, when the fruit is split open, transforms into his true
form, bites the monarch, and kills him.
Despite his terrifying part in this narrative, Takshaka
isn't wholly wicked, as shown by a previous story.
Takshaka's mother, Kadru, bets her sister Vinata that the
tail of a specific heavenly horse is black, while Vinata believes it is white;
the sister agrees that the loser would serve the winner as a servant.
Kadru invites her snake offspring to hang from the horse's
back to make it seem black, and thereby gains an unfair advantage.
Some of her offspring, notably Takshaka, refuse to
participate in such deception, and Kadru curses Janamjeya, King Parikshit's
son, to murder them.
Takshaka manages to avoid the curse—one of the rare
occasions in Hindu mythology that this happens—but his brothers are not so
fortunate.
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