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Festival of Nag Panchami
Nag Panchami - West Bengal, Maharashtra and South India
Hinduism as a religion is many-sided yet bound by a common search for Truth and to Hindus it means a way of life and a fellowship of faiths. With the advent of the Aryans, it originated as a simple form of worship of the forces of Nature, drawing in its system action in social organisations, local cults, deities’ diverse beliefs and modes of worship.
Nag-Panchami is an important all-India festival and is celebrated on the fifth day of the moonlit-fortnight in the month of Shravan (July /August). This is the time when serpents invariably come out of their holes that get inundated with rain-water to seek shelter in gardens and many times in houses. As such they pose a great danger to man.
May be therefore, snakes are worshiped on this day. Right
from the times when mankind started acquiring some sort of culture, Sun and
Snake have been invoked with prayers and ritual worship in most of the
countries. In India even before the Vedic times, the tradition of
snake-worship was in vogue.
The Legend
In ancient India, there lived a clan by the name of "NAGAS" whose culture
was highly developed. The Indus Valley civilisation of 3000 B.C. gives ample
proof of the popularity of snake-worship amongst the Nagas, whose culture
was fairly wide-spread in India even before the Aryans came. After the Naga
culture got incorporated into Hinduism, the Indo-Aryans themselves accepted
many of the snake deities of the Nagas in their pantheon and some of them
even enjoyed a pride of place in the Puranic Hinduism.
The prominent Cobra snakes mentioned in the Puranas are Anant, Vasuki, Shesh,
Padma, Kanwal, Karkotak, Kalia, Aswatar, Takshak, Sankhpal, Dhritarashtra
and Pingal. Some historians state that these were not snakes but Naga Kings
of various regions with immerse power.
The thousand-headed Shesh Nag who symbolises Eternity is the couch of Lord
Vishnu. It is on this couch that the Lord reclines between the time of the
dissolution of one Universe and creation of another. Hindus believe in the
immortality of the snake because of its habit of sloughing its skin. As such
Eternity in Hinduism is often represented by a serpent eating its own tail.
In Jainism and Buddhism snake is regarded as sacred having divine qualities.
It is believed that a Cobra snake saved the life of Buddha and another
protected the Jain Muni Parshwanath. To-day as an evidence of this belief,
we find a huge serpent carved above the head of the statue of Muni
Parshwanath. In medieval India figures of snakes were carved or painted on
the walls of many Hindu temples. In the carves at Ajanta images of the
rituals of snake worship are found. Kautilya, in his "Arthashastra" has
given detailed description of the cobra snakes.
Fascinating, frightening, sleek and virtually death-less, the cobra snake
has always held a peculiar charm of its own since the time when man and
snake confronted each other. As the cobra unfolded its qualities,
extra-ordinary legends grew around it enveloping it in the garble of
divinity. Most of these legends are in relation with Lord Vishnu, Shiv and
Subramanyam.
The most popular legend is about Lord Krishna when he was just a young boy.
When playing the game of throwing the ball with his cowherd friends, the
legend goes to tell how the ball fell into Yamuna River and how Krishna
vanquished Kalia Serpent and saved the people from drinking the poisonous
water by forcing Kalia to go away.
It is an age-old religious belief that serpents are loved and blessed by
Lord Shiv. May be therefore, he always wears them as ornamentation around
his neck. Most of the festivals that fall in the month of Shravan are
celebrated in honour of Lord Shiv, whose blessings are sought by devotees,
and along with the Lord, snakes are also worshiped. Particularly on the Nag-Panchami
day live cobras or their pictures are revered and religious rights are
performed to seek their good will. To seek immunity from snake bites, they
are bathed with milk, haldi-kumkum is sprinkled on their heads and milk and
rice are offered as "naivedya". The Brahmin who is called to do the
religious ritual is given "dakshina" in silver or gold coins some times,
even a cow is given away as gift.
Celebrations
During this time, snakes often seek refuge in houses as their holes in the
ground become flooded with rainwater. Due to the danger they pose to humans,
snakes are worshiped during this period to protect villagers from harm.
Nag Panchami is celebrated throughout India; however, more festivities are
seen in the south than in the north.
The village of Baltis Shirale, which is situated approximately 400
kilometers (approximately 250 miles) from Mumbai, conducts the most
outstanding of all the celebrations.
Reportedly, the largest collection of snakes in the world can be found in
Baltis Shirale. Visitors from all over the world gather in the village to
worship live snakes. Interestingly, despite no venom being removed from the
snakes, no one has ever been bitten.
Other popular areas of worship during the Nag Panchami include:
Adiesha Temple in Andhra Pradesh
Nagaraja Temple in Kerala
Nagathamman Temple in Chennai
Hardevja Temple in Jaipur.
In Bengal and parts of Assam and Orissa the blessings of Mansa, the queen of
serpents are sought by offering her all the religious adoration. Protection
from the harmful influence of snakes is sought through the worship of Mansa
who rules supreme over the entire clan of serpents. On this occasion
snake-charmers are also requisitioned to invoke the Snake Queen by playing
lilting and melodious tunes on their flutes.
In Punjab Nag-Panchami is known by the name of "Guga-Navami". A huge snake
is shaped from dough, which is kneaded from the contribution of flour and
butter from every household. The dough-snake is then placed on a winnowing
basket and taken round the village in a colourful procession in which women
and children sing and dance and onlookers shower flowers. When the
procession reaches the main square of the village all the religious rites
are performed to invoke the blessings of the snake god and then the dough
snake is ceremoniously buried.
In Maharashtra, Hindu women take an early bath wear their "nav-vari" - nine
yards-sarees, put on ornaments and get ready for the "puja" of Nag-Devata.
Snake charmers are seen sitting by the roadsides or moving about from one
place to another with their baskets that hold dangerous snakes that are
their pets. While playing the lingering melodious notes on their flutes,
they beckon devotees with their calls -"Nagoba-la dudh de Mayi" (give milk
to the Cobra Oh Mother!) On hearing that call, women come out of their
houses and then the snake-charmers take out of the snakes from their
baskets. Women sprinkle haldi-kumkum and flowers on the heads of the snakes
and offer sweetened milk to the snakes and pray. Cash and old clothes are
also given to the snake-charmers. Bowls of milk are also placed at the
places which are likely haunts of the snakes.
Elderly women draw pictures of five-headed cobras on wooden planks, recite
mantras and pray. The daughters wash the eyes of their fathers with rose
flowers dipped in milk and then receive gifts from their fathers. In Hindu
homes frying any thing on this day is forbidden by tradition.
The most fantastic celebrations of Nag-Panchami are seen in the village of
Baltis Shirale which is 70 Kilometres from Sangli and 400 Kilometres from
Mumbai. There people pray to live cobras that they catch on the eve of this
pre-harvest festival. About a week before this festival, dig out live snakes
from holes and keep those in covered earthen pots and these snakes are fed
with rats and milk. Their poison-containing fangs are not removed because
the people of this village believe that to hurt the snakes is sacrilegious.
Yet it is amazing that these venomous cobras do not bite instead protect
their prospective worshipers.
On the day of the actual festival the people accompanied by youngsters,
dancing to the tune of musical band carry the pots on their heads in a long
procession to the sacred-temple of goddess Amba and after the ritual worship
the snakes are taken out from the pots and set free in the temple courtyard.
Then every cobra is made to raise its head by swinging a white-painted bowl,
filled with pebbles in front. The Pandit sprinkles haldi-kumkum and flowers
on their raised heads. After the puja they are offered plenty of milk and
honey.
The Rituals
After all the obeisance is rendered to the goddess and the ritual puja is
over, the snakes are put back in the pots and carried in bullock-carts in
procession through the 32 hamlets of Shirala village where women eagerly
await outside their houses for "darshan" of the sacred cobras. One or two
cobras are let loose in front of each house where men and women offer
prayers, sprinkle puffed rice, flowers and coins over them, burn camphor and
agarbattis and perform "aarti”. Girls of marriageable age regard the cobras
as blessings of good luck in marriage. Some courageous girls even put their
faces near the cobra's dangerous fangs. Behold the wonder the cobras do not
bite them!
Director of the Madras Snake Park thoroughly examined these cobras and
confirmed that neither the fangs nor the poison had been extracted. This
truly is something so wonderful that it cannot be possibly explained by
man's rational thinking.
In the evening the open space adjoining the temple of Amba holds a popular
fair. Pots containing the cobras are placed on an erected platform and the
lids are removed. The cobras raise their heads and spectators look on
spell-bound. Vast crowds arrive from Kolhapur, Sanghli, Poona and even from
foreign lands to see this wonderful spectacle and enjoy in the fair. The
following day the snakes are released in the jungle.
There is one popular legend telling how this festival started. Once Guru
Gorakhnath while passing through his village saw a woman praying before a
clay-cobra idol. He turned it into a living snake and told her not to be
afraid of snakes. Since then this Baltis Shirale and its neighbouring
regions worship snakes. Guru Gorakhnath's temple is on a nearby hillock.
Tribals in the interior parts of Maharashtra perform acrobatics and magic
shows on the streets. Crowds collect around them to see and touch the snakes
which the tribals bring in their baskets to show them off.
There are snake-temples in our country with idols of snake-gods. In these
temples cobras are also reared and live snakes are worshipped on Nag-Panchami
day.
Important Aspects of Nag Panchami
This so called "snake day" has several important components. In addition to
offerings made to the snakes throughout the country during worship and
celebration, men and women celebrate the day in these ways:
Cobras are bathed in milk and offered rice as this is thought to offer
immunity from their bites.
Women often partake in early baths of milk and wear colourful saris.
Pots of milk and flowers are placed next to holes that are believed to
contain snakes as an offering of devotion. If a snake actually drinks the
milk it is thought to be the ultimate sign of good luck.
Mansa, the Queen of Snakes, is worshiped in most parts of Bengal during Nag
Panchami.
In the Punjabi region, a large dough snake is created and then paraded
around the village. The parade is colourful with plenty of singing and
dancing; at the end of the parade the snake is buried. Nag Panchami is
referred to as "Guga-Navami" in Punjab.
Snake charmers sit alongside the roads of Maharashtra and encourage women to
offer milk, flowers and haldi-kumkum (a powdered offering of tumeric and
vermillion) to the dangerous snakes the snake charmers carry.
In many villages, snake charmers carry pots containing cobras to a central
temple where they are released and then worshiped with offerings of milk and
rice.
Mainly in the south of India, people worship figures of snakes made of clay
or sandalwood as alternatives to the real-life versions.
No Hindu home may fry anything on the day of Nag Panchami.
Girls who are hoping to marry believe that the cobra offers good luck in
their quest for eternal happiness.