Naga Panchami, though not one of the major festivals of Hinduism, is celebrated in most parts of the country. There are several tales and folklore connected with the festival. The Nagas or the serpents are also an important part of Hindu Mythology and literature.
1) The Sarpasattra of Janamejaya
The Mahabharata, one of the two great Indian epics is structured as layers of stories that are set, one inside the other. The outermost layer of the epic which is the latest layer chronologically is the narration of the epic by the bard, Ugrashrava Suta to the sages at a hermitage by the name of Naimisharanya. Suta narrates the story as he heard it at the great snake sacrifice of Janamejaya, the great-grandson of the Pandavas, who are the protagonists of the epic. The story of Janamejaya and his father Parikshit, forms the second layer of the epic. After Parikshit is killed by the snake, Takshaka, Janamejaya performs a great sacrifice that lasts many years in which all the snakes or Nagas as they are known are sacrificed. As the sages utter the mantras, the snakes are drawn to the sacrificial fire. However, Takshaka, known for his cunning, is difficult to catch. As the sacrifice continues, Janamejaya requests the aging seer, Vyasa to narrate his creation, the Mahabharata, the tale of the Pandavas and Dhartarashtras, cousins and descendants of Bharata, during the intervals in the sacrifice. Vyasa nominates his disciple, Vaishampayana to narrate the epic in his stead and it this narration that Suta hears and reproduces. As the narration ends, Takshaka is finally trapped and as he is drawn to the fire, a young sage named Astika requests or demands, depending on the version of the story, that the sacrifice be stopped. Takshaka is thus saved from total destruction. The day on which this incident happens is the fifth day of the waxing moon in the month of Shravana. This day is celebrated in many parts of India as Naga Panchami.
2) The Farmer's Daughter and the Snake
Once, there was a farmer, the story goes, who had two sons and a daughter. One day as the sons were plowing the field, they inadvertently killed three baby snakes. The mother snake, discovering her dead children, was filled with the fire of revenge. That night as the farmer and his family slept, the snake slid into his house and killed all of them except the daughter with her poisonous bite. The daughter somehow escaped with her life. The next day, the snake returned for the daughter, but this time, the daughter prayed to the snake with utmost devotion, offering her apologies and explaining her brothers' inadvertent mistake. To pacify the snake, she fed it milk and so the snake, satisfied by her efforts, not only let her live, but revived her family as well.
This tale seems to be at the base of customs and traditions followed in several parts of the country, where the sister prays for her brother's safety. On the this day, an image of a snake is made either with rice flour or some other kind of flour or with rangoli, and it is symbolically fed milk, again placed in a small bowl of rice flour. An image of the snake, in earth, wood or auspicious metal, is also bathed in an abhisheka ritual and given offerings and fed. Another symbol of the snake maybe a part of an anthill or even mud from an anthill as anthills are common snake lairs. In many parts of the country, women pour milk directly into the anthills. There is also custom where siblings touch a drop of milk to the front and back of other siblings as a symbol of protection. Symbolically this is the same milk that the snake deity has had and thus marks the person as being protected from snakes.
3) Krishna and Kalinga
Most Hindu's are familiar with the tale of Krishna and the serpent, Kalinga. Kalinga is a snake that has poisoned the watering holes of Brindavan and the boy, Krishna defeats the serpent and banishes him to the netherworld making the waters safe for consumption. This tale lends itself to an oft repeated motif of Hindu art and sculpture, the image of a young Krishna dancing on the wide spread hood of Kalinga. This event is supposed to have happened on the same day as the Naga Panchami.
4) Snakes and Milk
While traditionally Indians celebrate the festival by symbolically offering milk to snakes, snakes themselves being reptiles, do not drink milk unless they are severely dehydrated. Reptiles unlike mammals neither produce milk, nor are capable of digesting milk or dairy products and these may actually be harmful to them.
Nevertheless snakes drinking milk is a common motif not just in mythology, folklore and art, but is also an image that found its way into several movies, especially in stories connected to snakes.
5) Nagas, the mythical snake creatures
Nagas are one of the several tribes or races that occur commonly in Hindu mythology and literature. Said to possess magical powers such as shape shifting the Nagas are portrayed often in both positive and negative light.
The Nagas are sons of Kashyapa and Kadru and half-brothers to the great eagles, Garuda and Aruna. Garuda who serves as the vehicle of Vishnu is also known as the great serpent eater, whereas his elder brother Aruna is said to drive the chariot of Surya. Aruna is none other than the planet of Mercury.
Adi Shesha, the eldest of the Nagas performs penance and becomes a disciple of Vishnu. He makes himself the bed on which Vishnu rests and he fans out his hood to shade the god. Balarama, Krishna's elder brother is also said to be an incarnation of Adi Shesha.
Other famous or powerful Nagas are Vasuki, who is used as a churning rope during the churning of the milk ocean; Nahusha, a great Naga king; Karkotaka who plays a part in the grand story of Nala and Damayanti; and the two Naga chieftains, Kauravya and Dhritarashtra. Another Naga who is connected to the epics is Iravan, the son of Arjuna, the Pandava and Ulupi, the sister of the Naga, Vasuki.
6) Snakes in other forms
The snake apart from being synonymous with the shape-shifting magical Naga people is also connected with other Hindu gods. While Vishnu rests on Adi Sesha, Shiva uses the cobra as an ornament tying it to his neck and is always portrayed with a cobra, hood raised, around his neck. Ganesha wears a snake around his expansive waist like a belt. Indra, the king of the gods is said to have destroyed the great snake king Vritra, who had held the rivers captive in his coils. Subrahmanya, a son of Shiva is said to personify the snakes in many parts of South India. Interestingly and paradoxically, his mount, the peacock is often portrayed as holding a snake in its talons.
These motifs of the snake traveled with the Hindu and Buddhist religions to several parts of the world such as Sri Lanka, Tibet, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines, where they are a commonly occurring figure in art and sculpture.
7) The Nagas in History
Several tribes and castes of India connect themselves with the mythical Nagas of Hindu epics. At least two powerful dynasties who called themselves Nagas have ruled parts of ancient India. They are the Nagas of Vidisha in Central India who probably ruled during the first century BCE and the Nagas of Padmavati, who ruled during the third and fourth century in areas that today straddle the borders between the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
There are several castes which identify themselves with the Nagas or with servant worship, such as the Naga Rajputs of North-western India and the Nairs and Ezhavas of Kerala.
Nagas are also an ethnic group of Sino-tibetan descent, in northeastern India, who today have their own state of Nagaland.
8) Snakes in India
There are more than a hundred species of snakes found in India, but the most famous among those are the cobras. Of the cobras, the Spectacled or Indian Cobra, whose scientific name is Naja naja, is the most depicted with its distinctive hood markings. Other cobras are the monocled cobra, the black cobra and the snake-eating King cobra.
There are other snake species in India which are as poisonous if not more, than the feared cobras. These are the kraits and the vipers; the Russell's viper is one of the most venomous and feared snakes of India.
No comments:
Post a Comment