PURPORT

The king thus treated with the sage in a manner of tit for tat although he was never accustomed to such sily action. By the will of the Lord the king while going away found a dead snake in front of him and he thought that the sage had coldly received him and thus he might be rewarded also coldly by offering him a garland of dead snake. In the ordinary course of dealing like that it was not very unnatural but in case of Maharaj Parikshit and also his dealing with a Brahmin sage like this was certainly unprecedential and it so happened by the will of the Lord.