India can be called as the land of snakes as there are highly venomous species like King Cobra. Further, there is a tradition regarding snakes to glorify them as Gods. This tradition began from the Naga race of ancient India. “Naga” is a Sanskrit word that refers to a deity or a class of entity or being. This term is ambiguous in nature since there exists a tribe named Nagas. It refers to certain snakes like the King Cobra and the Indian cobra which is called so since it is seen in India. An Indian Cobra is usually called “nag” in Hindi and a female is called Nagi or Nagini. In Sanskrit, Naga means a hooded snake and it is also commonly called a “sarpah”.
These Nagas were talked about in the great epic Mahabaratha who many in number are in which some of them hold positive roles and some of them acting negatively. The epic calls them ‘the persecutors of all creatures’. They were said to have lived in ancient India with the traces that were found during the Indus Valley Civilisation in 3000 B.C. They had a custom of serpent worship which is claimed to have been in the pre-Aryan period.
Nagas are the mythical semi-divine beings because of their half-human and half-serpent like appearance. Their origin is from their parents Sage Kasyapa and mother Kadru. They are also called as Kadreveyas from the name of their mother. The King of the Nagas is Varuna, the Vedic God of storms, whom they worship. They are the object of reverence in the southern parts of India where people believe that the Nagas are the symbols of fertility and believed to bring prosperity into families. Hence grand festivals like Naga Panchami and Nagamandala are celebrated as an honour to them.
Snake worship has been one of the most prominent religious practices that are found in the customs of India. The Cobra or a Naga is the second most worshipped deity next to the cow all over India. The Cobra which is curdled around Lord Shiva is worshipped by almost all people. The rituals and worship differ from each state, though all the motives are the same. This kind of worship is very famous in Hindu mythology and in Buddhism.
In Kerala, many famous temples are built exclusively for snakes. The two main temples are Mannarsala and Pampummaikatu. Seals that bear the symbols of snakes are found in the ancient sites of Harappa and Mohanjadaro. There are Jain temples in Rajasthan and Gujarat for Lord Mahavira, whose sculpture-like performing penance with serpents gliding all over his body is seen.
A tiny Maharashtrian village Battis Shirala is said to be an area populated with an infinite number of snakes and hence the festivities there are more colourful. People of Punjab celebrate Guha Naumi in September and October. They make snakes with dough and take them around the village, offer flour and butter and they bury them.
In Bengal, Goddess Manasadevi, ‘the remover of venom’ is worshipped. It is believed that the denial of her worship results in a person’s death but a snake bite in a family. One of her sisters Jagat Gauri too has powers over snakes. People of Orissa believe Manasadevi’s brother Ananta to be the King of snakes. According to the Himalayan regions, even before the use of urban culture, the tribes identified as austric people were nomads. O.C.Handa observes that the place where these people roamed were full of deadly snakes. They used to sting them whenever they happened to pass by marshy lands. Such horror has alarmed people to save their lives.
They wanted to relieve themselves from such horror and fear of death. He says, “He represented that fear-psychosis in the form of a snake and started propitiating it with sacrifice”. He further says that such incidents might also have happened in other parts of the world. These bitter experiences might have made the primitive men believe that snake-propitiation would bring them relief. These fears gradually brought within them the thought of worship. Thus, the snake worshipping tradition came into being which is more common in the Hindu religion.
A census taken in 1891 to know the various serpent worships, though it was not very successful since different types of animal worships were found. It has been noted in the Indian Encyclopaedia, “In the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh 35,366 persons were recorded as worshippers of the Naga, and 122,991 as worshippers of the snake hero, Guga Pir with other groups less numerically important; in Punjab, 35,344 persons were said to worship Guga.”
Naga Panchami is a festival that is common among Indians. On the day of Naga Panchami, certain rituals are practiced by offering eggs and milk to snakes, which is more prominent in Karnataka. In Shetphal, which is basically a village in Maharashtra, people have given a resting place for a cobra in their houses in a raft of the ceiling. They have also adorned a temple with the image of a seven hooded Cobra, on the idol of Lord Shiva.
Serpent worship differs in different states, which is prominent to be noted. Though they are Nagas, there are eight pre-eminent snakes in Hindu mythology. They are Sesha or Adisesha or Sheshnaag, Vasugi, Ananta, Astika, Padmaka, Kulika, Manasadevi, and Kaliya. All these creations are the children of sage Kasyapa and Kadru. They had thousands of snakes as children and among them, these eight have their own position as deities in mythology. Apart from them, there is a serpent named Kundalini who rests on the body of a man.
The myths about the snakes start from their mother Kadru. Kasyapa married the sisters, Kadru Vinata. Kadru got a thousand snakes as her children and Vinata had two, in which one is Garuda, the vehicle lord Vishnu. There had been a bet between the sisters about which Kadru was worried to win. Because it was decided that the loser would be enslaved to the winner. Hence, she had to seek the favour of her offsprings to win the bet. Some of them denied her wish to fix the bet by making her angry to the core.
She cursed them to face a fierce death through a snake sacrifice that would be done by the King Janamejeya, the son of Parikshit, who was the grandson of Arjuna, the Pandava brother. Parikshit was cursed to be killed by a snake since he had disturbed and killed a sage during his penance by throwing a dead snake on his neck. On the verge of his death, the sage cursed the King to die by a snake bite and in a week’s time, a snake named Takshaka killed Parikshit.
In accordance with his father’s death, Janamejeya arranged a snake sacrifice through which he could also kill Takshaka who had been hidden by the God Indra. Here comes the two-good spirited Nagas of the above mentioned eight snakes. They are Vasuki and Astika who play the major roles acting as the saviours of the Naga race. The curse of his mother Kaduru is well known to King Vasuki who tried to save his siblings. So, he decided to get one of his sisters named Jaratkaru married to a sage named Jakartu too.
Vasuki believed that through their son, he could stop the destroyal of his race. The sage accepted the proposal of getting a half-snake and half-human bride. In due course, he left his wife and son named Astika. Astika the nephew of Vasuki was guarded by him who became a great philosopher and a minister in the court of King Janamejeya. The sacrifice began and the scream of the serpents seemed to have terrorised the whole universe.
“Takshaka is the friend of Indra. Under Indra’s protection, he feels safe from retribution, so his conceit has grown boundless. However, there is a great sacrifice mentioned in the Puranas. It is the snake sacrifice. When this sacrifice is conducted, the snakes that are named by the Mantras (incantations) will be rendered powerless and be impelled to fall into the sacrificial fire. ‘Make arrangements to conduct this sacrifice. I shall assist you, for Takshaka has caused trouble for me also’. (1)
When the sacrifice was halfway through, Astika came to the rescue of the surviving snakes including Takshaka. He talked sense to the King and stopped him from killing his race immediately. This made his uncle Vasuki happy. Astika said: “I am a Brahamana, but my mother Jaratkaru, is the sister of Vasuki, the foremost of the serpents. She sent me here to stop your sacrifice and to save her kinsmen. Even Lord Brahma desires that you should remain content with slaying so many snakes. The snakes, that are left still (excluding of course, this vain Takshaka), are virtuous and not deserving to be destroyed. Your glory will only increase if you spare their lives.” (4)
Vasuki also has a great part in creating the elixir of immortality. He was used as a rope to churn the elixir from heaven, with Devas holding his head and the asuras at the other. At that time, he secreted his venom in tiredness and that venom was drunk by Lord Shiva whose wife Shakthi stopped the venom in his throat itself. This gave the Lord the name, Neelakanda. In the words of Friedhelm Hardy, a reader in Indian Religions, In his The Religious Culture of India; Power , Love and Wisdom says that “The two classes of non-human beings, the Devas and asuras, churned it and produced the essence of all good and bad things in the cosmos; the ‘nectar’ – drink of immortality and pure being – and a world destructive poison (41 )”.
Then comes the story of Shesha or Sheshnaag, a snake with thousand heads. Hence, he is also called as Sahashrashirsha forming a massive hood. He has been one of the sons of Kadru who was fed up seeing his siblings fighting among themselves out of enmity. So he decided to separate himself from them and did penance and meditations devoted to Lord Brahma. Once Lord Brahma appeared and blessed him with the duty of holding the earth which has become populated with many people.
Shesha said, “They hate each other as if they were enemies and are jealous of each other. They also hate Garuda and our stepmother Vinatha. After all, Garuda is our brother and they should not cause so many unnecessary troubles to him. Therefore, tired of them I am praying to you to grant me the wish that at least after my death I shouldn’t have to live with them.” (6569)
He was also blessed with eternity. Sheshnaag has been loyal to whatever he did. He involved himself completely in meditation and prayed for the welfare of the world and the people. He told Brahma that he disliked the behaviour of his brothers who were evil natured. Thus, he wanted to save the lives of Brahma’s creations in the world and was in course blessed with what he wished for. Puranas say that Shesha is still holding the earth, bearing its heaviness and about his loyalty in holding the burden till date.
“O Father of this world grant me this wish that my intelligence may be used for the pursuit of goodness, prayers, and strength. “As instructed, Sheshnaag went through the earth, held her from all sides, and placed her on his head. From that time Sheshnaag has been still and patiently carrying the Earth on his head.”(6569). He is also believed to be the couch of Lord Vishnu. He is further believed to spew venomous fire which destroys all creations at the end of each kalpa and is also worshipped as a manifestation of Vishnu.
Manasadevi, the sister of other Nagas and the Goddess of Nagas is worshipped by people, especially women. She is the Goddess of fertility and is believed to fulfil one’s wishes. She is the protector of people who suffer snakebites. She possesses some special powers of counteracting snake venom and protects the mortals from snakebite. She is further associated with higher knowledge and is mostly worshipped in the eastern part of India.
She blesses a person with wealth and property as well. She is worshipped more often during the rainy season since it is an active season for all snakes to come out of their hiding places. It is also said that Manasadevi has once requested her father Lord Shiva to include her in the pantheon to be worshipped by all people.
For which Shiva has replied that if King Chand of Anga Kingdom agrees to worship her, then he would satisfy her wish. After a long struggle, Chand accepted to worship her but only with his left hand. Her temples are found in Haridwar and Chandigarh. Like Gods, Goddesses were also created giving prominence to the female gender. In the same way, every Goddess is till now worshipped by both men and women. Apart from Goddess Manasadevi, Indian movies regarding snakes, visualise them as either Nagins or only as Goddesses, giving prominence to women generally. Women assume most of the cobras to be Goddesses and worship them by decorating the anthills.
Unlike the above mentioned Nagas, Kaliya or Kalinga is a five-hooded serpent who lived in the depths of the river Yamuna. He has troubled the people thereby denying them to pass by his area. The air was poisoned through his venom which killed many people. Lord Krishna, who was a young mischievous boy then, heard of him and went there to teach him a lesson. Krishna and his friends went there and started playing. Hearing noises, Kaliya came to the surface to destroy all of them. Lord Krishna at that moment stood on his hoods and danced by stamping his feet on all the five hoods. King Kaliya started bleeding and realised his mistake. He became weaker and weaker. Then he was left free.
Since his wives begged Krishna to spare his life. From then he became devote to Lord Krishna. Great Indian Epics says that: Kundalini is different from the above-mentioned snakes but plays a very essential role in every human’s life. It is found in the “muladhara chakra (4145)” of a man. It means “coiled” which is an energy and is symbolised by a serpent having three and a half coils, sleeping with its tail in its mouth. Kundalini is often referred to as a Goddess who resides in a human body, occupying the base of the spine “muladhara chakra”. The exact place is a little above the rectum.
Usually, Kundalini lies in deep sleep without being disturbed and it is often unnoticed. If it is disturbed from its sleep, it leads to serving consequences and it symbolises the art of spiritual awakening, which has to be done with a guru’s guidance alone, Kundalini is a Sanskrit word meaning either “coiled up” or “coiling like a snake”. The Editor of The Indian Encyclopaedia quotes: When aroused and let loose without control and direction it rages like a vicious serpent so that it becomes impossible for a man to resist its force. Whatever supernatural powers he acquires through it will only bring him in contact with the lower orders of evolution and diabolical forces. (4135)
This coiling acts as an ancient symbolic representation of Kundalini’s philosophy. Its origin must have been from Hermes and Greek Mythology. Legends say that Goddess Kundalini travels up the spine to meet her Divine mate which has been considered as the divine union of spirit and matter. She is also named as Shakthi. It is further said that when Shakthi or Kundalini is awakened, she sweeps people up from muladhara chakra in her wildest passion to reunite herself with Lord Shiva in the Crown Chakra.
This is called a mystical Marriage which metamorphically symbolises the union of the male and female energies within their bodies. This is a kind of technique that awakens the conscience mind to the presence of the seven energetic chakras in the body. Thus, “the individual self merges in the universal self and attains the state of self- realization (4137)” The Goddess is not meant for curiosity or selfish reasons. Her force can be compared to a forest fire burning a huge forest. And hence a person must be careful before trying to awaken it.
The editor of The Indian Encyclopaedia explains Kundalini as an old Sanskrit term. It is from the origin of the Hindu meditative tradition. These yoga techniques lead to a spiritual path through the chanting of certain sounds and words. He says, “Kundalini meditation was considered the highest form of this ancient yogic tradition of spiritual development. Kundalini energy is infinite, but it is mostly blocked in our bodies. Hence, Lord Shiva is believed to have overcome all the desires and passions. It is further believed that a snake is a fearful creature and by wearing it on Him, Shiva seems to save people from snakes. It reflects that He could even control such a dangerous creature.
In contrast to the beliefs of Lord Shiva being garlanded by a snake, Lord Vishnu is being canopied by Adisesha who blesses people in the form of a snake. Lord Shiva is a destroyer of the universe whereas Lord Vishnu is a protector of it. Both Gods are contrasting in their attitudes, yet they both have snakes as their symbols which prove that snakes are both good and evil. At the same time, these two Lords represent the protector of the good and the destroyer of evil. Along with Hinduism, Naga plays a major role even in Buddhism. There are traditions that talk about Nagas playing a vital role in Buddhism, seen in all Buddhist countries of Asia. In Tibet, Naga has been equated with Klu that are the spirits dwelling in lakes and rivers guarding treasures. Chinese considers Naga with the Chinese dragon.
The Buddhist Naga is usually a large cobra-like snake, mostly with a single head and at times with many heads. They have magical powers in them to change their forms into human beings. Mucalinda who sheltered Buddha also possesses these powers. Hence in some of the Buddhist paintings, a Naga is portrayed as a human being.
Buddhists believe that one such Nagas wished to become a monk and tried attempting it. For which Buddha blessed him to have a rebirth to become a real monk. These Nagas are believed to have lived in Mount Sameru, whereas some are water dwellers and earth-dwellers. They occupied rivers, oceans, and undergrounds. There exists a belief that the Nagas survive in the underworld, Patala. They provide human beings with all kinds of pleasure. Friedhelm Hardy says: Underground caves and serpents can easily be accommodated in our picture of the earth; Patala and Nagas are their mythical expansion. And how they were expanded: We hear of palaces and parks, beautiful (Naga) Queen, of golden gates and ‘pleasures eight times greater than those found in the heavens.’ (33)
For this reason, Lord Shiva’s perspective on snakes represents the symbol of desires and passions. Hence, He keeps such a temper under His control. They are the servants of one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Virupaksa, who is the guardian of the western part. They are further believed to protect the Devas from the dangerous Asuras. These are the stories found in Indian cultures. Some of them are even now worshipped with temples built for them. There are several snake shrines found for King Vasuki all over India. Further, there are places where people worship even real living snakes. In Calicut, a snake temple feeds and protects several real cobras by the priests and worshippers. These snakes allow themselves to be garlanded by people who feed them, who are the ancestors in the form of snakes. This kind of worship is found even in Mysore.
Not only the snakes are treated with importance, but the charmers are also given equal treatment. In Moribund, a village twenty kilometers away from Delhi, there are many snake charmers living with their families. And there is an association for them named All India snake Charmers Association. “These people who are expertise in catching snakes are basically the tribes named ‘Irular’”. Romulas Whitaker, a herpetologist and the founder of the Madras Snake Park brought them and rehabilitated them to protect the park. He was responsible for the development of the All India Snake Charmers Association, “says Theodore Baskaran in an article for the magazine Uyirmai “There are several snake worship temples found even in south India. In Vyasarpadi, Chennai, there is a temple where people are up to snake worship. Nagerkoil is also famous for it. There is a temple where a number of snakes’ images are carved on the stones. Sometimes the worship is done at the anthill which is the home of snakes. Recently, there has been serpent worship conducted in Rajarajeshwari Temple, Karumandapam, Tiruchirappalli for “Adi Velli”. This has been photographed in “Dhinamalar” on 18 July 2009. Since snakes are symbols of fertility, the Dhangars of Central Provinces believes that worshipping anthills at the time of marriages will bring lucky earth into the families. They follow this as a custom too. Apart from these are festivals like Nagapanchami and Nagamandala. Nagamandala is celebrated in coastal Karnataka which is an all-night ritual performed from December to April.
Naga Panchami is celebrated on the fifth day of the light half of the month Sravana. It occurs during the rainy season, which means between July and August. In the month sravan, which falls in the rainy season, the Nagpanchami festival occurs, on which Hindus go in search of snakes, or have them brought to their houses by the Sampeli snake-charmers (6511)”. People are keen about fasting which they call ‘vrata’. They avoid salt in their food and take an oil bath early in the mornings. It is further believed that the spinsters who undertake this ‘vrata’ along with the pooja by feeding snakes would get good husbands.
Manasadevi is worshipped on this day and these idols are bathed with milk, flowers, ghee, and so on. The worshippers used to eat neem leaves which act as a guard against snake bites. The neem leaves have the power of curing snake bites and hence considered sacred and many snake shrines are kept under these neem trees which possess the powers of Goddess Manasadevi.
Such are the powers of Indian snakes and hence they are worshipped as deities and many idols have been made with respect to them. These eight prominent snakes and several others are the ones that hold a strong place in support for the welfare of their devotees.
Sachindra Kumar Meity points out in his Cultural Heritage of Ancient India that Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha are the aims of life. Dharma covers not only ethics but also religion and politics. Artha covers occupations, professional activity, and wealth. The Kama covers the relationship between male and a female through the medium of marriage and the last is Moksha which is the aim of obtaining eternity. He further says: The above four are closely associated with the four stages of life (Asramas): they are Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha, and Sanyasa. Brahmacharya or the first Asrama is the period of study and character building. Grahastharama is the life of a householder, a family man with his social and other obligations. It covers a major part of man’s life. He must see that his children are married and settled in life and to pay-off the religious and social debts of father and forefathers (Pitri-rinas). After that, he can go for Vanapratha and renounce his worldly life and live in a forest as a sanyasi for meditating at the feet of God for his final liberation. (13)
All these are taught to the people through the stories that have Gods and animals playing the major roles in leading a moral life. He further points out the words of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who says: It is not some secret doctrine or esoteric knowledge that has kept India vital and going through these long ages, but tender humanity, varied and tolerant culture and a deep understanding of life and its mysterious ways. Her abundant vitality floes out from age to age in her magnificent literature and art, though we have only a small part of it with us and many lies hidden or has been destroyed by nature or man’s Vandalism. (11)
Thus, these concepts are seen in Hindu mythology which shape the lives of the people in all ways. For this reason, primitive men have created certain norms in the form of mythological beliefs that would be appealing and exciting. In this way, Indians are molded and shaped to lead a peaceful life.