Snakes carry a lot of religious significance (not just in Hinduism but in other religions, too), and in the Mahabharata they specifically symbolize death. The most famous snake in the poem is the serpent king Takshka, who kills the king Parikshit, motivating his son Janamejaya to hold a snake sacrifice (where Vaiśampayana tells Janamejaya the story of his ancestors, including the Kurukshetra war). By holding the snake ceremony, Janamejaya seems to be trying to overcome death itself, killing many snakes to punish them for what they did to his father. The snake goddess Astika, however, intervenes to save some of the snakes, including Takshka.
The interruption of the snake sacrifice suggests that it is futile and perhaps against dharma to oppose death. This theme aligns with Vaiśampayana’s story of the Kurukshetra War, which also suggests that death—while tragic—is inevitable and perhaps even a necessary force to balance the universe. Fittingly, then, when Krishna sees a snake coming out of the mouth of his dead brother Balarama, he doesn’t recoil or grieve but simply accepts it and continues on his journey. The setting of the poem at a snake sacrifice foregrounds the theme of mortality, representing the fact that death is always lurking somewhere—even for great heroes—while also hinting that death is simply a part of nature.
Snakes Quotes in Mahabharata
Hear, lord of the earth, how those heroes, the Kauravas, Pandavas and Somakas, fought on Kurukshetra, that place of asceticism. The mighty Pandavas came to Kurukshetra with the Somakas and advanced against the Kauravas, for they were eager for victory. Accomplished Vedic scholars all, they revelled in warfare, hoping for victory in combat but prepared for death on the battlefield.
‘Karna, if you challenge Arjuna to battle, you are a hare challenging a mighty elephant with tusks like plough-shafts, its temporal glands bursting with rut. If you want to fight the son of Kunti, you are a silly child poking with a stick a deadly poisonous king cobra in its hole, its hood expanded.’
Thinking that he had committed a dreadful crime, he touched his head to Krishna’s feet in distress; but noble Krishna reassured him, even as he soared aloft, filling all heaven and earth with his glory.
Snakes Symbol Timeline in Mahabharata
