NagaYakshini.

over the last 30yrs, I have heard astrologers time and again talk of ‘nagadosha’ and going to kukke Subramanya etc. etc.

the cult of Naga always fascinated me. If one thought about it, the story of Mahabharata is sandwiched between two rituals that were to happen to destroy the Nagas. Janamejay wanted revenge for the death of Parikshit by a snake, we won’t go into the entitled Parikshit garlanding the rishi with a dead snake. But the crux of the matter was the wife of Shura the grandfather of Krishna was a Naga princess.

This motif of Naga keeps coming up in the oriental myths, and generally refer to the Nagas as being of the underworld, and keepers of wealth.

The Khmer people actually consider themselves as the descendants of a human Prince Kaundinya and a Naga princess Soma( daughter of the moon) the belief is they will reappear and bring prosperity with them.

This Naga Panchami I decided to look at the worship of Nagamma of the east coast and NagaYakshni of the west.  Ideally Yaksha and Yakshini are pleasure loving tree and forest spirit. So, would NagaYakshi be a tree snake?  Scourging the Devi Bhagavatam what I did get was the legend of Manasa devi the mind born daughter of Maharshi Kashyap. She finds pleasure in herself…she is a devotee of Vishnu, a siddha yogini. She goes by the name Jagad Gauri, she is called Saiva because she is the disciple of Shiva, she is Vaishnavi because she is devoted Vishnu, she saved the Nagas from Parikshit’s yagna so she is Nageshwari or NagaBhagini she is capable of nullifying poisons so she is vishahari that’s a lot of name but somewhere her snake form is erased and she becomes human.

However, there are scholars who suggest that the non-Vedic non-Aryan goddess, related to the Kannada folk snake goddess Manchamma was morphed to Manasa. Which meant she was originally a tribal goddess.

Kerala has the tradition of Kalam Puja offered to Nagayakshi amma and the Ashtanagas. The NagayakshiDevi is invited from the shrine to the Sarpa Kalam, using Thalappoli and Panchavadhyam. A ritualistic dance called the Thiruuzhichil is performed round the Kalam is performed by a male dancer who is also an oracle. This danced holding a torch. At the end of the performance people present can offer prayers, pradakshina and Dakshina to the dancer.  The ritualistic dance has the stories known as charitams of the Naga devata. Somewhere during the ritual two girls are called to venue they dance with singara flowers that is the arecanut flowers. The girls referred to Kanya sit in the Kalam and enter into a trance state it is as if the serpent gods drawn in the Kalam come alive. Once the ritual is over Kalam is erased.

The perception is that it is the dance of the Nagaraja the snake king and the Naga Yakshi the snake goddess. Once the oracles inform that Naga Yakshi and Nagas have accepted the ritual and are contended the ritual is over.

Interestingly in the Tibetan Pantheon Naga or the snakes are associated with water and cleanliness. Which is again interesting as I remember one geologist mentioning that in those altitudes snakes are not found.