Janamejaya said: ‘There has never been a king in this line who was not a benefactor and favorite of his subjects — especially when one looks at the great deeds of [my] forefathers, devoted to a righteous way of life. How then did my father, so righteous, perish? Tell me as it should be told; I wish to hear it in full truth.’ Suta said: ‘Thus urged by the king, all those counselors, devoted to the king’s welfare and benefit, told the lord of men how it was: “Your father, O king, was always devoted to hunting, like the most fortunate Pandu, the finest of archers in battle — having entrusted all the royal affairs, without exception, to us. Once, [wandering] through the forest, he wounded a deer with a feathered [arrow], and having wounded it, swiftly pursued that deer into the dense forest. On foot, girded with a sword, [carrying] a quiver of weapons, he did not overtake in the thicket the vanished deer, your father. Exhausted, [though] in [vigorous] years, [yet already] sixty years old, [touched] by age, hungry, he saw in the great forest a sage nearby. That king of kings questioned the sage, [who was keeping] a vow of silence; but that sage said nothing to him, [though he was] questioned. Then the king, tormented by hunger and weariness, at once fell under the power of anger at that sage, who stood motionless as a post, [keeping] his vow of silence, peaceful. For the king did not recognize that sage, [keeping] his vow of silence; and, overcome by anger, your father gave him offense. Lifting a dead serpent from the ground with the tip of his bow, he placed [it] upon the shoulder of that pure-souled [sage], O best of the Bharatas. But that wise one said to him neither good nor ill; [thus] he stood, without anger, bearing the serpent on his shoulder.”’