Who is Sarama and why did she cursed Janamejaya, son of Parikshit?

After narrating the story of Samanata Panchaya, Sauti starts sharing the story Sarama who is a celestial bitch (a female dog of gods) and Janamejaya who was performing some sacrificial rites on the plains of Kurukshetra. Accompanying him were his three brothers, Srutasena, Ugrasena and Bhimasena.

While performing the sacrifice, a baby dog appeared which was an offspring of Sarama. Noticing him, the three brothers hit him so that the baby dog don’t disturb their sacrifice practices. With this heavy beating taken, the baby dog went back to his mother crying.

As any mother would be, Sarama got very worried as to why is her son crying. She asked him who beat you up so badly. The baby replied, that it was the 3 brothers of King Janamejaya. She asked him, why did you eat his sacrificial butter or disturbed their practices. To which he replied, I did nothing of that sorts and neither did I watched them performing their sacrificial practices. After hearing this Sarama really got angry, and directly left to confront King Janamejaya.

Once Sarama reached the court in a fierce manner she asked why was her child beaten by King Janamejaya’s brothers. There was a complete silence because apparently there was no strong reason. Listening to the deafening silence, she cursed King Janamejaya that just like her son was beaten for no reason at all, an evil befall on him for no reason at all.

This story acts as a trigger point to many other stories and is crucial reason for why King Janamejaya eventually ended with the snake sacrifice.

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