More on Nag Panchami
compiled by Nimisha Khatri
Naga Panchami On 6th August 2008 (and Small Nag Panchami on 21st August 2008 on the krishna Panchami)
Nag 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) and is held in honour of Nags or snakes. (Nag is a Cobra and panchami is the fifth tithi) 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. Both the waxing (the main) and waning (the smaller) Nag Panchami’s. However it is usually only the waxing panchami that is celebrated throughout India.
Hindus worship snakes and regard them with the same veneration given to other dieties. This may be due to their association with the Gods. Shesha / Ananta, the thousand hooded king of serpents symbolizes eternity and forms the bed of Lord Vishnu. The King of serpents Vasuki adorns the neck of Lord Shiva forming a crest over the Lord. It is on Shesha Nag that the Lord reclines between the time of the dissolution of one universe and creation of another.
There are snake-temples in India with idols of snake-gods where cobras are being reared and worshipped as living snakes not only on Nag Panchami, but throughout the year. This day is dedicated to snakes and they are worshipped with milk and fruits. Snake worship is quite common especially in South India where there are shrines in many houses where the householders feed the serpents. The prominent Cobra snakes mentioned in the Puranas are Ananta Vasuki, Shesha, Padma, Kanwal, Karkotak, Kalia, Aswatar, Takshak, Sankhpal, Dhritarashtra and Pingal. Some historians state that these were not snakes but Nag Kings of various regions with immense power. Hindus believe in the immortality of the snake because of its ability to shed its skin. Eternity in Hinduism is sometimes represented as a serpent eating its own tail.
In Jainism and Buddhism a snake is regarded as sacred and having divine qualities. It is believed that a Cobra snake saved the life of Buddha and another protected the Jain Muni Parshwanath. To date 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 caves 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 related to Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva and Lord Subramanyam/Kartikeya.
A popular legend is about Lord Krishna as a young boy, whilst playing a ball game with his cowherd friends the ball fell into Yamuna River. The river had become poisonous from the venom of the Serpent King Kalia moving to the Yamuna River. Lord Krishna vanquished the Kalia Serpent by dancing on his head, 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, and are worn by Lord Shiva around his hair, neck and arms. Most of the festivals that fall in the month of Shravana are celebrated in honour of Lord Shiva. (See article on Shravana for more details.) On Nag-Panchami 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 (mixture of Tumeric - Vermillion) 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 a "dakshina" (a gift) in silver or gold coins some times, even a cow is given away as gift.
Celebrations

Reportedly, the largest collection of snakes in the world can be found in Baltis Shirale in Maharashtra. 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. Popular areas of worship during the Nag Panchami include are at the Adiesha Temple in Andhra Pradesh, the Nagraja Temple in Kerala, the Nagthamman Temple in Chennai and the 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 Festival is celebrated on Shukla Navami tithi in Shravana and is known as i 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 (mixture of Tumeric - Vermillion) 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. Their 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, they 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 dancing to musical bands, 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 Priest sprinkles haldi-kumkum (mixture of Tumeric - Vermillion) 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, incense 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 and 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.) 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 on how this festival started. Guru Gorakhnath whilst 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 hill.
Summary of Nag Panchami:

This "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.
? Frying food in Hindu homes is banned on Nag Panchami.
? Girls who are hoping to marry believe that the cobra offers good luck in their quest for eternal happiness.