Suta said: “Seeing him thus wrapped in the serpent's coils, the councillors, their faces all drained of colour, wept in deep sorrow. But hearing that roar, the councillors fled; and they saw the wondrous serpent going through the sky -- Takshaka, best of serpents, lotus-hued, as if tracing a parting through the heavens -- and they gave themselves over to great grief. That palace, wrapped in the fire born of poison, burst into flame; and the people, abandoning it in fear, fled in every direction, and it collapsed as though struck by a thunderbolt. Then, when the king had perished from Takshaka's fiery power, the pure twice-born royal priest, and likewise the councillors of that king, performed all the rites owed to the departed (paraloka-kriya). Then all the townsfolk, gathering together, made his young son king -- him whom people call the slayer of foes, the hero of the Kurus, Janamejaya.”