The world stands on snakes
For Indians, intentionally or accidentally killing a snake is a grave sin. In the south of the country, mourning mantras are necessarily recited over a killed snake. Its remains are covered with silk fabric embroidered with a ritual pattern, placed on sandalwood logs and burned on a funeral pyre.
The cult of the snake dates back more than five thousand years in India. Majestic temples have been erected in its honor. Carved images of reptiles on stones are found near villages, under sacred trees, by wells and reservoirs. The roots of this cult go deep into the pre-Aryan culture. According to the ancient cosmogonic ideas of Indians, the support of the Universe is the many heads of the snake Shesha floating in the waters of the World Ocean. Another great snake, Ananta, wraps the earth with its dark blue body. Another powerful snake, Vasuki, is constantly worn by the formidable destroyer Shiva as a sacred cord. Shesha, Ananta and Vasuki are recognized kings of the nagas, semi-divine beings with snake bodies and one or several human heads.
In general, countless legends and tales have been composed about snakes in India, and the most unexpected omens are associated with them. It is believed, for example, that the snake embodies eternal movement, acts as the incarnation of an ancestor's soul and the keeper of the home. For this reason, Hindus like to put a snake sign on both sides of the front door. For the same protective purpose, peasants keep small serpentariums in their yards where sacred cobras live. If an Indian family moves to a new place, they necessarily take all the snakes with them. In turn, they somehow sense their owners and never bite them.
Finding an old snake skin is considered a good omen in India. The owner of such a trophy necessarily puts a piece of snake skin in his wallet, believing that it will bring him wealth. Many Indians believe that a cobra keeps precious stones in its hood. It is also believed that snakes possess the secrets of healing herbs, but carefully guard them and reveal them only to a select few – snake charmers.
The inability of an Indian woman to bear a child is often explained by an offense the woman inflicted on a reptile in this life or one of her past lives. To earn forgiveness, Tamils – representatives of a people living in southern India and northern Sri Lanka – pray to a stone image of a snake. It is said that in the town of Rajahmundry (near Madras) there once was a half-destroyed termite mound where an old cobra lived. Women in need came in crowds to the lonely mound. They sat for long hours near the termite mound hoping to see the sacred animal.
Sometimes a cobra crawled out of its lair to bask in the sun or taste the eggs, pieces of meat and rice balls brought to it. Those who managed to see the snake returned home happy, confident that their prayer had finally been heard and the gods would grant them a child. Along with adult women, quite little girls sometimes went to the cherished termite mound, praying in advance for happy motherhood.
An amazing story happened in the village of Irinchayam. A correspondent for Itogi met a woman named Kiskhakumkara Omana. Snakes bit her exactly twenty times – eighteen times cobras and twice vipers. This first happened when Omana was 14 and she was bathing in a river. Snakes attacked the woman in her house, on the road to the market, at the nut processing factory where she works, and even in the village Hindu temple. At the same time, Omana did not step on the snakes and did not provoke them into decisive actions in any way.
After the last bite, the unfortunate woman turned to a local astrologer. He gave the following explanation of what had happened. According to him, in one of her past lives the woman caused the death of the snake king. And before breathing his last, the “high-ranking” snake cursed the woman. He promised that in the next life the god of death Yama would come for her on a black buffalo, when twenty-one snakes poison her blood with their venom. Since then, Omana and her family have lived in constant fear. The wooden window frames of the rickety hut are tightly closed. A lamp always burns in the room. Every evening Omana's sons carefully inspect the roof of the house, plug the cracks, and once a week cut down the bushes around the yard. In case the visitor appears, they always have sticks at hand...
To be continued.
Dmitry SERKOV,
Valery KASHIN.