How the last King Janamejaya of Kuruvansh died ?
Janamejaya was the son of King Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna and last King of Kuruvansh. King Parikshit was the son of Abhimanyu. When Janmejaya came to know that his father had died due to the bite of a snake named Takshak, he performed the Nagdah Yagya to kill all the snakes in the world.
Nagdah yagya
Snakes were thrown into the fire of those sacrifices. The snakes themselves used to reach near the yagya by a special mantra. Places called Nagdah will be found all over the country. However, where did he perform this Yajna is a matter of research.
Curse on King Janamejaya
At the beginning of Kali Yuga. Once Janamejaya was cursed by Mahamuni Suta “O proud king you have disrespected the Yagya and Yagya will lead to your death. You will go to the forest of the south, and marry a forest girl, that girl will insult a Brahmin and the Brahmin’s curse will kill you in the next 7 days”. The young king was shocked and scared. He decided that he would never visit the southern forest again.
The curse started to become reality
Days are passing by. One day Daru, the grandson of Lord Krishna came to visit his nephew King Janamejaya and urged him to come for hunting in the southern forest. Janamejaya was put off but later he said yes to his uncle but deep inside he decided that he would never go hunting and it would be better to stay in the camp.
On the day of hunting people started shouting that Maharathi Janamejaya, the noble grandson of Arjuna and the supreme ruler of Aryavarta is here for hunting, Janamejaya thought that now it was a question of his prestige so he had to go. But I will never go to any pound but to get there I have to have some stock of water with me.
King Takshak sent a girl
He deposited some water bags behind the horses, meanwhile, Janamejaya got separated from his men and fell from the army near a huge pound. He thought oh my god what the hell is this, well I will never drink a drop of a pound. There was little time left for sunset, he was so thirsty that he decided that “Okay, I’ll drink water but never look anywhere, but Janamejaya as a matter of man’s curiosity looks straight at the pound.
And you wouldn’t believe a very beautiful girl was coming from the pound and she was bathing in the pound. From dawn to sunset no one was there and of course, a girl from inside comes. She has been sent by Nagraj Takshak. Janmejaya married her and came back to Hastinapura and lived happily. 20 years passed when Janamejaya decided on the Ahaswamedha yagya and on the day of the yagya he called all the sages and deities.
The girl become cause of death of King
Sure enough, Mahamuni Ashtavakra entered the palace and the girl who had become queen started laughing at him and the sage smiled, meanwhile, Mahamuni Durvasa stood up and started shouting at the queen, Janamejaya rudely told him that no one can insult his beautiful queen, so Durvasa cursed him that you love with beauty so all your charm and beauty will convert into leprosy and you will die in next 7 days.
The last day of Janmejaya
The queen started laughing at Janamejaya and turned into smoke and the king thought oh god what have I done? He went to Lord Shukdev to save himself and the Lord promised him that he could save him very easily but he heard Lord Krishna’s story continuously and in that period he had to close his mouth and he could utter a word, can’t even speak. On the 7th day, Lord Shukdev finished the story of Lord Krishna and the story of Mahabharata meanwhile, everyone is standing for Shri Bhagwat Aarti.
And the king said, “O Lord I doubt how a 10-year-old boy can lift the Govardhan mountain on his finger, and how is it possible that a man can marry 16108 queens in a single life”. The Lord replied “O Janamejaya what I said was to keep your mouth shut but you not only spoke but also doubted the almighty so even I could not save you. And Janamejaya Falls on the ground. It was the downfall of Hastinapura and Kuruvansh and Janamejaya passed away.
But there was a boy at that place who was listening to the whole story and seeing how the brave and majestic king of Hastinapur died. The boy starts telling everyone the stories of Shri Krishna and Mahabharata. And the boy was none other than Shri Mahamuni Vaishampayan.