Abhimanyu's son, Parikshit became the king of Hastinapur after the Pandav brothers renounced the world and left for the Himalayan mountains along with their wife Draupadi.
Parikshit was a vitreous king. One he went to the forest for hunting. It was a dry hot day and after hours of roaming in the forest, Parikshit felt thirsty. He went ahead looking for some human traces and eventually saw a hut. The hut belonged to a sage.
Parikshit went ahead in hope of getting some water to quench his thirst when he saw that the sage sat under a free meditating. Parikshit asked the sage for water, but the sage was in deep meditation and did not hear him.
Troubled by thirst and heat, Parikshit lost his temper. He saw a dead snake lying near the grass tuft. He lifted the dead snake with an arrow and hung it around the sage's shoulders like a garland. Just then, the sage's son returned. He caught the king hanging the dead snake around his father's shoulder. He was infuriated to see someone insulting his divinely and venerated father. He cursed Parikshit - 'You shall die from a snakebite within seven days!'
When the sage came to know about his son's curse to King Parikshit, he scolded his son. He send a word to king, informing him about the curse. The king was stunned to hear about it. Soon as possible, a palace was constructed where the king cod be safe from snakes.
However, curses have power and do come true. Thus, on the seventh day Takshaka, the king of serpents disguised as a miniature worm and cling to the fruits which were taken to King Parikshit.
The king's fate was inevitable. When the king took the fruit for eating, the worm gained its real snake form. It looped around the king, killing it by wrath of its intense venom. Thus, the king died due to the snake's bite as he was cursed to.
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