Hindu Festivals No 16.

[Guest guest]

Dear friends and devotees,

 

Bhakti is eternal.

 

 

16. Naga-Panchami.

(Sravanasuddha panchami - July-August)

 

Naga-Panchami is an important all-India festival and is celebrated on the

fifth day of the moonlit-fortnight in the month of Shravana (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.

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 Ananta, Vasuki, Shesha, Padma, Kanwala, Karkotaka, Kalia,

Aswatara, Takshaka, Sankhpala, Dhritarashtra and Pingala. Some historians state

that these were not snakes but Naga Kings of various regions with immerse power.

The thousand-headed Shesha 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 Parshwanatha. To-day as an evidence of this belief, we find a huge

serpent carved above the head of the statue of Muni Parshwanatha. 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, Shiva and Subramanya.

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

Shiva. May be therefore, he always wears them as ornamentation around his neck.

Most of the festivals that fall in the month of Shravana are celebrated in

honour of Lord Shiva, 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.

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 lingering 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 Nagadevata.

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 them 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.

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 " aarati " . 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 after thoroughly examining these cobras

confirmed that neither the fangs nor the poison had been extracted. This fact 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, and 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.

( A collection )

 

With Love and regards,

 

Sastry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Mail. See how.