Śṛṅgi
Śṛṅgi, simply known as Shringi, Sanskrit: शृङ्गि, Telugu: శృంగి, Hindi: शृंगी.
Gauramukha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Gauramukha.
Śṛṅgi was the young son of Śamīka Maharshi. Śamīka was a brahmarshi with great brahmateja (spiritual power). Śṛṅgi learned that King Parīkshit had put a dead serpent around his father’s neck while his father was in samādhi (deep meditation). In anger he laid a śāpa (a curse) on the king, saying that the serpent Takshaka would kill him within seven days.
Śṛṅgi acted from righteous anger for his father’s honour, and he did not wait to hear his father’s advice. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa records that Śamīka himself called the śāpa a mahāpāpa (a great wrong) and grieved over it.
The śāpa
Śṛṅgi had gone to play with his young brāhmaṇa friends. They told him that King Parīkshit, apparently in anger, had hung a dead serpent around his father’s neck while Śamīka was in samādhi. Full of anger for his father, Śṛṅgi called out loudly to his companions:
“Look at these kings who grow fat on the offerings thrown by the people they are supposed to serve, like crows on leftovers! Such a king, appointed guardian of the gates, has entered the inner sanctum and eaten from the vessel he was meant to guard.”
He then went to the Kauśikī river and did ācamana (the sipping of water for purity). He sent out his śāpa like a vajra (thunderbolt) in the form of speech:
“He who has done this dishonour to my father, insulting his own vaṃśa (line) by this wrongful act, shall be slain on the seventh day from today by the serpent Takshaka, sent by my word!”
After the śāpa, Śṛṅgi came to the āśrama (hermitage). He saw the dead serpent on his father’s neck with his own eyes and wept bitterly. This is told in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 1st Skanda, Chapter 18.
Śamīka’s response
When Śamīka Maharshi learned of his son’s śāpa, he at once blamed himself and his son. He called the act a “great wrong”. His reasons were these:
- The punishment was far too great for the offence.
- Parīkshit was a rājarshi (a royal ṛshi), a devoted bhagavad-bhakta (devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu), and a protector of dharma. In his tiredness and hunger he had lost his balance for a moment. He had not acted from lasting adharma.
- The śāstras teach that the king, as the upholder of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s order, is Vishṇu himself in essence. To curse such a person is a grave matter.
Śamīka sent a disciple to warn Parīkshit. The warning was not meant to help the king escape the śāpa, which could not be undone. It was so that the king could use the seven days for the highest purpose. That is exactly what Parīkshit did. This is told in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 1st Skanda, Chapter 18.
What followed
The śāpa gave Parīkshit the reason to give up everything and sit in prāyopaveśa (a fast until death). This in turn led to the arrival of Śuka Maharshi and the telling of the Bhāgavatam. Parīkshit himself said:
“The snakebite that is coming is the grace of Bhagavān Hari himself, making vairāgya (detachment) arise in me.”
This is told in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 1st Skanda, Chapters 18–19.
The Ādi Parva account
In the Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Śṛṅgi does a brief tapas (austerity) at the Kauśikī river and then speaks the śāpa. The Ādi Parva says that Śṛṅgi’s anger came in an instant. He did not stop to think whether the insult was an accident or meant, and he did not wait for his father’s answer. The śāpa in the Ādi Parva is also exact: Takshaka would kill the king within seven days.
The Ādi Parva tells more plainly about Śamīka’s response and about Gaurumukha, whom Śamīka sent to warn the king. There Śamīka calls the śāpa “a great wrong” (mahāpāpa) and grieves over his son’s hastiness. It shows Śṛṅgi as gifted, but still young in holding back his brahmateja.
Āśramavāsika Parva: at Janamejaya’s vision of Parīkshit
In the Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 35, Śṛṅgi appears beside his father Śamīka. Vyāsa gave Janamejaya a vision of his father Parīkshit at the avabhṛtha bath (the closing bath) that ended the sarpa-yajña (the snake sacrifice). Janamejaya had begun that yajña in answer to the death that Śṛṅgi’s own śāpa had set in motion.
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 1st Skanda, Chapters 18–19
- Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Āstīka Parva, Chapters 40–42
- Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 35