The Snake Gods of Hinduism

The Snake Gods are adorned and celebrated in all the Hindu temples of the world. From many centuries the Snake Gods have been given prominence in the life of most of the Hindu people. The Female Snake God is called as Nagarani and the Male God as Nagarajan.and idols of both Gods are placed in all the major Hindu temples of India. In some villages of South India, they have been adorned in the live form and their shelter, termite nest, is also kept in many temples of the country. Pariticularly on Fridays they are given raw eggs and milk. The devotees of them put the raw eggs and the cup of milk nearby their shelter and if the snakes are really living there, they will come out in night times to drink the eggs and milk.

Lord Shiva , The Great God of Hinduism, is wearing the God Nagarajan on his neck and Lord Krishna has made the Snake God Adhisheshan as His bed in His home.

The Hindu people are believing that Snake Gods are associated with wealth and healthy life and they will act as great securities when the people meet difficulties in their life. It is also believed that Snake Gods are having separate world and Shri Nagarajan and Shri Nagarani are ruling that world. However The Snake Gods and other Holy Snakes are under the control of major Gods like Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna.

Lord Rahu

Lord Ketu

Shri Rahu and Shri Ketu are also the Great Snake Gods as well as planetry deities of Hinduism. They both get prominence next to Lord Vinayaka in all the Hindu temples. They are described as malefic planets as they are giving great tribulations to the people in case of unfavorable horoscopic positions. They are also associated with many misevents and accidents in the life of Hindu people. This is believed by the devotees that Shri Rahu is the both averter and creator of misevents and accidents in a life. So the people are fearing to face His associated time period of Rahu Kalam, Kalam means certain hours of a day. Faithful worshipping of Shri Rahu would avert any obstacle and accident in the life of the Hindu people. Shri Ketu is associated with Gnan ( Knowledge ) and gives extreme tribulations to whom found lack of Gnan and sense. It is believed in Hindu's life that Shri Rahu is immediately killing by creating undesirable misevents and accidents and whereas the Ketu is giving great difficulties when He is not in favorable horoscopic position. But both Shri Rahu and Ketu are giving all the desirable things and events in ones life when they are in a favorable horoscopic positions.

Though these Gods are wicked and giving tribulations to the people, they are given significance and celebrated by the Hindu people as almost equal to Lord Krishna and Lord Shiva. To get peaceful and happy life the most of the Hindu people adorn them with great bhakthi. But some people are blaming that these Gods are the root causes for their difficulties in their life. The main thing to understand here is that these Gods are not mere responsible for the ill fate of the people. Lack of knowledge and lack of carefulness are the big reasons to the most of misevents and accidents. We have to make correct decisions in each and every part of our life to lead a happy life. When we lead a proper life, we need not blame the Gods to our misfortunes. Faithful worshipping of Shri Rahu and Shri Ketuand well planned life are showing success in all parts of our life.

Nāgas form an important part of Hindu mythology. They play prominent roles in various legends:

1. Shesha (Adisesha, Sheshnaga, or the 1,000 headed snake) upholds the world on his many heads and is said to be used by Lord Vishnu to rest. Shesha also shelteredLord Krishna from a thunderstorm during his birth.
2. Vasuki allowed himself to be coiled around Mount Mandara by the Devas and Asurasto churn the milky ocean creating the ambrosia of immortality.
3. Kaliya poisoned the Yamuna / Jamuna river where he lived. Krishna (Balakrishna / infant Krishna) subdued Kaliya by dancing on him and compelled him to leave the river.
4. Manasa is the queen of the snakes. She is also referred to as Manasha or "Ma Manasha". "Ma" being the universal mother.
5. Ananta is the endless snake who circles the world.
6. Padmanabha (or Padmaka) is the guardian snake of the south.
7. Astika is half Brahmin and half naga.
8. Kulika

Lord Shiva also wears a snake around his neck

Nag panchami is an important Hindu festival associated with snake worship which takes place of the fifth day of Shravana. Snake idols are offered gifts of milk and incense to help the worshipper to gain knowledge, wealth, and fame.

Different districts of Bengal celebrated the serpent in various ways. In the Bengal districts of East Mymensing, West Syhlet, and North Tippera, serpent-worship rituals were very similar, however (Bhattacharyya 1965, p. 5). On the very last day of the Bengali month Sravana (July–August), all of these districts celebrated serpent-worship each year (Bhattacharyya 1965, p. 5). Regardless of their class and station, every family during this time created a clay model of the serpent-deity – usually the serpent-goddess with two snakes spreading their hoods on her shoulders. The people worshipped this model at their homes and sacrificed a goat or a pigeon for the deity’s honor (Bhattacharyya 1965, p. 5). Before the clay goddess was submerged in water at the end of the festival, the clay snakes were taken from her shoulders. The people believed that the earth these snakes were made from cured illnesses, especially children’s diseases (Bhattacharyya 1965, p. 6).

These districts also worshipped an object known as a Karandi (Bhattacharyya 1965, p. 6).Resembling a small house made of cork, the Karandi is decorated with images of snakes, the snake goddess, and snake legends on its walls and roof (Bhattacharyya 1965, p. 6). The blood of the sacrificed animals was sprinkled on the Karandi and it also was submerged in the river at the end of the festival (Bhattacharyya 1965, p. 6).There are several more interesting examples of serpent-worship in India, see "The Serpent as the Folk-Deity in Bengal" for more information.

Hindus in India celebratd "Nagpanchami" on 30th of July as dated by Hindu religious calendar, enthusiastically with great significance. In this auspicious day they celebrate and perform religious ritual for Snake God specially "King Cobra" as this particular reptile in the Hindu mythology is the king of all snakes. King Cobra, or Snake God, symbolises our relation with eternal circle of life and death. His vicious toxin reminds us the silence of danger and deepens in our soul the avoidance of dark.

We pray to him for our protection from all wilderness around. Hindus believe that our souls take several times birth on this earth or we can say re-incarnated several times unless and until we are all truthfully perform our worldly duties and our soul becomes as pure as the holy water of the river Ganga, then only we can leave this physical world forever to meet in heaven our God almighty. So, in this whole process, the first life we get in this world is in the form of snakes and after that a human life and then it goes on. But,the life in the form of human is the precious of all. So, it is obvious that we don`t want to get in the circulation of re-birth again and for that we pray to God to take our souls after death to heaven and promises that the beautiful human life he had given to us will be away from all sins. But,this human life is so hypnotic that our souls got entangled in the worst only in this precious span of life.
King Cobra also symbolises an association as a soul mate with Lord Shiva, the creator of this world in Hindu religion, reminds us that Death is also one face of God almighty and his eternal power and we should be very afraid of his anger. With the spreading of beautiful monsoon, thus started the celebration of Lord Shiva also. In the big temples of Lord Shiva,we can worship both of them,The God and his soul mate. Also,the snake charmers roam about in every street of every city, especially this day, and also throughout this month, goes door-to-door with one or two King Cobras with each of them. So, if not in big temples, in our homes with our prayer for protection offers the snake God fruits,milk and many gifts to the charmers as they wait the whole year for this only day and by offering all these,we make our soul satisfaction.
Religious rituals including bathing of Lord Shiva with his soul mate King Cobra around his neck or the Shivlinga which also resembles Lord Shiva, with milk and pure holy water of the river Ganga by the devotees from all over India in different temples, especially "The Kawaridias" who are a special group of devotees who gather in the temples from all over India, mostly from the rural areas as they come from their places only by walking or sometimes run for days with pure water for Ganga in big earthen pots hanging from thier shoulders with a help of a rope and a small bamboo stick and, thus, making the event spectacular and magical with a feeling that this time the Creator will be really pleased and change something in this world for our good. So,in India, the celebration of "Nagpanchami," the worship of Lord Shiva and the spreading of monsoon brings a start forward to a marvalous and relgious living.