Janamejaya is the son of the King Parikshith. King Parikshith was killed by snake bite as he was cursed to die that way by sage Mandavya. Janamejaya becomes angry with all snakes and vows to kill all snakes as they killed his father.
To do this, he does a Sarpa Yaagam where a sacrificial fire is started and hyms (slokas) are recited. While the slokas are being recited, the snakes would just go into the fire by themselves. The setting up of the sacrificial fire is called ‘Homam’ (in Telugu).
When this ritual was going on sage Vyasa comes there an and asks his disciple Vaysampayana to recite the story of Mahabharata to the people gathered around the sacrificial fire. Sage Vyasa wrote the epic Mahabhaarata. With many small and big stories, this epic gives us the details of how to live our life and how to lead a life based on Dharma.
In the following stories, let’s hear about the various characters in this epic and the funny little stories about our favorite heroes – the Pandavas and the Kauravas!