[1] Along with his son and successor, Janamejaya, he played a decisive role in the consolidation of the Kuru state, the arrangement of Vedic hymns into collections, and the development of the orthodox srauta ritual, transforming the Kuru realm into the dominant political and cultural center of northern Iron Age India.

According to the legendary accounts in Mahabharata and the Puranas, he succeeded his grand uncle Yudhishthira to the throne of Hastinapur.

[9] According to the Mahabharata, Parikshit married princess Madravati of the Madra Kingdom, reigned for 60 years, and died.

He suggests that the doubling was eventually "invented by genealogists to account for anachronisms" in the later parts of the Mahabharata, as "a bardic duplication of the same original individual regarding whose exact place in the Kuru genealogy no unanimous tradition had survived," and therefore there "is an intrusion into the genealogical texts" of the late, post-Vedic tradition, which also has two of Parikshit's son Janamejaya.

[17] His bodily existence ended due to the curse of the sage Shringi, who used the Nāga king, Takshaka, the ruler of Taxila as the instrument of death.

The Bhagavata Purana (1.8.9) states that the son of Drona, Ashwatthama had prepared a Brahmastra (a powerful weapon summoned to Brahma) to kill the Pandavas heir (King Parikshit), while he was in his mother's (Uttarā) womb, as a revenge against the Pandavas for killing his relatives and friends (in particular his father Drona and friend Duryodhan) in the Kurukshetra war.

Krishna pacified her and protected the child in the womb from the deadly weapon and thus saved his life.

Satisfied, the cow revealed herself as the Prithvi, who was grief-stricken for Krishna had returned to his abode (Vaikuntha) and had left earth.

[22] Once while hunting, King Parikshit encountered Kali Purush who asked him for a new shelter other than his places of gambling, prostitution, vice and immoral relationship.

Though he asked him to reside in illicitly obtained gold, the crown of King happened to be of illicitly obtained gold (the crown originally belonged to Jarasandha, was taken by Bhima after killing him and wasn't returned to Jarasandha's successors), eventually Kali Purush entered King's mind.

As the king crossed paths he saw sage Shamika meditating and asked him the whereabouts of a deer which he was hunting.

Angry at this, Parikshit tossed a dead snake around the sage's neck due to the ill effects of Kali Purush in his mind.

When Parikshit heard about the curse he accepted his fate, but the ministers created a mansion that would stand on a solitary column and remain well guarded.

Takshaka came to the king in form of a worm in fruits and bit Parikshit, which instantly led to his death.

The vow of Takshaka and the curse of Rishi Shamika's son Shringi gave the ultimate destiny of Parikshit that he will be killed by a snakebite.