The Mahabharata
Book 1: Adi Parva
Kisari Mohan Ganguli, tr.
[1883-1896]
SECTION X
(Pauloma Parva continued)
Sauti said, 'And Ruru, on hearing those words, replied, 'My wife, dear to me
as life, was bit by a snake; upon which, I took, O snake, a dreadful vow, viz.,
that I would kill every snake that I might come across. Therefore shall I smite
thee and thou shalt be deprived of life.'
"And the Dundubha replied, 'O Brahmana, the snakes that bite man are quite
different in type. It behoveth thee not to slay Dundubhas who are serpents only
in name. Subject like other serpents to the same calamities but not sharing their
good fortune, in woe the same but in joy different, the Dundubhas should not be
slain by thee under any misconception.'
"Sauti continued, 'And the Rishi Ruru hearing these words of the serpent, and
seeing that it was bewildered with fear, albeit a snake of the Dundubha species,
killed it not. And Ruru, the possessor of the six attributes, comforting the snake
addressed it, saying, 'Tell me fully, O snake, who art thou thus metamorphosed?'
And the Dundubha replied, 'O Ruru! I was formerly a Rishi by name Sahasrapat.
And it is by the curse of a Brahmana that I have been transformed into a snake.
And Ruru asked, 'O thou best of snakes, for what wast thou cursed by a Brahmana
in wrath? And how long also will thy form continue so?'"
And so ends the tenth section of the Pauloma Parva of the Adi Parva.
