Worshipping Serpent God In Nepal

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

On the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Sravan (July-August) in the Nepalese calendar, every Nepalese household pastes a printed-multi-color portrait of Serpent God called Naaga on the lintel of the main entrance to the house believing the portrait of Naaga protects the house from lightning and other evil elements. This day is called ‘Naaga Pancami’ means the fifth day of Naaga. On this day, Nepalis visit various ponds where Serpent God Naaga believed to be residing in Kathmandu and elsewhere in Nepal, and make offerings of milk, holy grass ‘dubo’ and other items Serpent God Naaga believed to like. Serpent God called Basuki Naaga had played a crucial role in bringing a deity called Matsyandranath or Karunamaya from Kamarupa to Nepal. Naaga also plays a significant role in holding a religious festival in Panauti.

On the early morning of this day, the senior male member of every household takes a purification bath in a nearby river and goes around the deities there, and then comes home to perform the rituals of pasting a portrait of Naaga on the lintel of a main entrance to the house. He remains fasting until he completes the pasting of a portrait of the Naaga god.

One female member of the household puts together all the items required for pasting a portrait of Naaga. She puts together some grains of buckwheat, a small bunch of holy grass called ‘dubo’, vermilion, cow milk and a coin on one copper platter, a pot of holy water, and a lump of fresh cow dung on a leaf.

A lady brings all the items of offerings on a platter, a holy water pot, and a lump of cow dung on one hand, and a stepstool on another to the main entrance for the patriarch to paste a Naaga portrait on the lintel of the main entrance to the house. She holds all those items on a platter and a holy water pot. One of the senior male members or a patriarch or a priest (some households use the service of a priest) climbs up the stepstool, and cleans the middle part of the lintel, then takes the holy water pot from the lady, and purify the spot with the holy water, takes one lump of cow dung after another and sets four small lumps one each on four corners and another at the center of the spot making an enough space for the portrait of Naaga to be pasted on. Then, he takes the paper portrait of Naaga from the platter a lady has been holding on, and carefully pastes it on the five lumps of cow dung on the lintel. He takes the holy grass ‘dubo’ and sets them on the top of the Naaga god portrait, and applies vermillion on the forehead of the Naaga god on the portrait, offers a few grains of buckwheat, offers a coin and finally pours the cow milk on the head of the Naaga god on the portrait. Then, he reads out the prayer hymn to the Naaga god written on the portrait. That completes the pasting of a portrait of the Naaga god on the lintel of a house done once a year.

The man pasting a Naaga portrait needs to keep fasting until he completes the rituals of pasting a Naaga portrait, as none of the Hindu deities accepts the offerings made by devotees after eating a meal or even drinking a tea. Eating any food or drinking any beverage except water defiles a human body according to the Hindu belief. So, Hindus keep fasting until they complete performing any religious rituals.

Hindus consider cow dung as the holiest item. So, Hindus use cow dung for making any spot a holy for any deity to set on and make offerings. Thus, cow dung being the holy item serves as the glue for pasting a portrait of the Naaga god on the lintel of every Hindus house in Nepal.

A few days before this day called ‘Naaga Pancami’, the Nevah art painters called chitrakars sell printed portraits of Naaga in various paper sizes, print qualities and so on in the Kathmandu Valley market to suit everyone’s pocket. So, not a single entrance has an identical Naaga portrait pasted on.

A religious festival is held at the pond called Nagpokhari in Kathmandu to revere the Naaga god on this day for the whole day. On the early morning of the day, a priest climbing up a ladder reaches the bronze head of the Naaga god standing at the middle of the pond. He cleans the metal idol of Naaga. Then, the priest offers holy water to the bronze Naaga head, then holy grass ‘dubo’, vermillion, grains of buckwheat and finally cow milk, thus completes the rituals of making offerings to the Naga. Thereafter, any devotee may make offerings to the Naaga but not climbing the ladder. So, devotees simply toss all items of offerings on the pond, and then go around the pond in reverence for the Naaga god.

Thousands of devotees visit a small lake called Taudaha about ten kilometers south of Kathmandu to revere a Naaga King called Karkot on this day. He has been living there with his subjects since Manjushree drained the water from the Kathmandu Valley lake cutting a small channel at Cobar with his divine sword and making the Kathmandu Valley livable for the land creatures.

Finding Lord Manjushree drained his kingdom of lake; Naaga King Karkot made an emotional appeal to Lord Manjushree for making room for his subjects and him to stay on. Showing empathy to Naaga King Karkot, Lord Manjushree left the small area with water that became known as Taudaha and the abode of Naaga King Karkot. Thus, Manjushree has preserved a special small pond for Karkot and his subjects to live there.

Similar festivities are held at Naag Bahal in Patan, and at Basukithan in Pashupatinath, at the Changunarayan Temple in Bhaktapur and elsewhere across Nepal from the early morning today to mark the Naaga pancami festival.

A legend has it that once Lord Gorkhanath lost a bet on drinking a pot full of rice beer, as the rice beer in the pot never ended no matter how much beer he had already drunk. So, he used his transcendental vision to see why he could not empty the pot even after drinking so much of the rice beer from it. He found that the pot was sitting on a serpent god that had been continuously refilling the pot. Lord Gorkhanath in anger seized the serpent god and rolled it into a cushion and sat on it mediating on his guru Matsyandranath.

Sitting on the cushion of the serpent god, Lord Gorkhanath had disabled the serpent god to bring any rains causing the drought for twelve years. Then, the people started off starving, as they could not grow any crop. One of the kings ruling the Kathmandu Valley went to the renowned Tantric priest and requested him for finding out the reasons for the protracted drought. The Tantric priest found that Lord Gorkhanath had been sitting on the serpent god and meditating on his guru Matsyandranath. The Serpent god would be freed only when Lord Gorkhanath would get up from the seat. He would do so if he were to see his guru Matsyandranath: born as a son of the demon queen in Kamarupa.

Narendradeva the King of Bhaktapur, Bandhudatta Vajracharya the priest of Kathmandu and Rathan Cakra the porter of Lalitpur set off for Kamarupa for bringing Matsyandranath to Nepal and then getting Lord Gorkhanath up from his seat for releasing the serpent god so that the serpent god could bring rains to end the severe protracted drought.

Another Naaga god called Basuki played a significant role in bringing Lord Matsyandranath from Kamarupa. First, Naaga god Basuki played the role of a bridge. He lay over any river making himself a bridge for the king of Bhaktapur Narendradeva, Bandhudatta Vajracharya of Kathmandu and Rathan Cakra of Lalitpur to cross over rivers on the way to Kamarupa. Then, Tantric priest Bandhudatta Vajracharya sent Basuki to reside in the bowel of the demon king and cause an ailment. Basuki transforming himself into a tiny creature entered into the bowel of the king causing chronic stomach pain.  At the same time, the three guys from Nepal spread word of mouth that they were able to resolve the chronic problem of the stomach pain of the king. Thus, they made an access to the court of the king, and ultimately to Lord Matsyandranath and transformed Lord Matsyandranath into a bumblebee and got it into a holy water pot and brought it to Nepal. Lord Gorkhanath got up to visit his guru as soon as Lord Matsyandranath reached Nepal causing heavy rains immediately thus, ending the 12-year drought in Nepal.

Serpent god Basuki also played a significant role in the religious festival held in Panauti every year on the full moon day of Jestha (May-June). A priest, a porter and a lady assistant needed to cross a river to reach the temple to Goddess Mahalaxmi for making Tantric offerings. Once it so happened that on this very day a storm and rains caused a heavy flood on the river making it impossible for the three humans to cross it but they needed to make Tantric offerings to Goddess Mahalaxmi on that night.

So, the Tantric priest invoked the help of the Serpent God Basuki. Responding to the request of the Tantric priest, Basuki came to assist them in crossing the river and lay over the river making a bridge for the three humans to cross over the river. Then, taking with them all necessary items required for making tantric offerings to the Goddess Mahalaxmi, the three humans one after another crossed over the river walking slowly and very carefully on the slippery body of Basuki. On the occasion of the Panauti Jatra, this act of ‘Crossing River’ is replayed every year on the full moon day of the Jestha (May-June) in the Nepalese calendar. This act became the part of the festival.

Another myth links the Bhoto Jatra in Patan with a Naaga king. Once, a Naaga queen suffered from the eye ailment. None of the Naaga healers could provide her with the relief of the pain not to mention healing her ailment. So, the king sent the royal Naaga guards to the human world to bring someone that could heal the eye ailment of his queen. The guards grabbed a farmer plowing his field, and took him to the Naaga royal court as a healer. At that time, every human knew the tantric technique of healing any ailment.

The guards presented the farmer to the Naaga queen that had been suffering from the intense burning of her eyes. After checking the eyes of the queen, the farmer collected some dirt from behind his right ear and uttered some tantric mantra on it and applied it on the eyes of the queen. It reduced the burning of the queen’s eyes and after a few days her eyes were completely free of burning. As the fee for healing the eye ailment of the queen, the Naaga king presented the farmer: the healer with a vest encrusted with jewels. The royal guards escorted him back to the human world.

The farmer wore the vest every day even for working in the field. One summer day, he took off the vest and placed it on one of the furrows he had freshly dug. A ghost happened to pass by, saw the vest encrusted with jewels and picked it up and disappeared. Thus, the farmer lost the vest.

On the last day of the one-month long chariot-puling festival of Lord Matsyandranath held at Jawalakhel every year, both the farmer and the ghost came to watch the festival. The farmer saw the ghost wearing his vest and immediately grabbed the vest claiming it as his. The ghost fought back saying it was his. The fight between them drew the attention of the guards. The state guards took over the vest from them, and tried to find out the real owner of the vest but both of them could not produce any evidence of their ownership. So, the head of state attending the festival ceremony decided to keep the vest in the custody of Lord Matsyandranath, and display it on this day every year for anybody to claim it as his or her. Thus, the festival itself became known as the festival of displaying the Bhoto means the vest.

Naaga had been the tutelary deity of the Licchavi kings of Nepal. Licchavis had ruled Nepal for four hundred years from 400 to 800 A.D. They had revered Naaga so much that they carved Naaga almost everywhere at that time. So, we find stone images of serpents decorating every ancient stone waterspout, pond, and other stone statues in Nepal even today. Since then Naaga has played a significant role in the lives of Nepalis.

A legend has it that a half-human mythical bird called Garuda was a half brother of Naaga. The mother of Naaga tricked the mother of Garuda to be her slave. When Garuda found out his mother was tricked to be the slave of the mother of Naga, he fought with Naga. The fighting went on for several years. Seeing the half brotherly fight between Garuda and Naga, Lord Vishnu settled their dispute freeing Vinata: mother of Garuda from the bondage of Kadru: mother of Naga, and making Garuda wear Naaga around his neck. Lord Vishnu uses Garuda as an aircraft to fly, and Naaga as a bed for lying.

Lord Shiva wears Naagas around his wig, his neck and his upper arms. His son Ganesh also wears a Naga, as a sacred thread making the loop of a Naaga passing through the left neck and under the armpit of the right hand. Living Goddess Kumari also wears a silver Naaga around her neck as one of the ornaments.

Lord Vishnu loves to lie on the plaited body of the five-headed Naaga called Sesha and float on the cosmic ocean. The plaited body becomes the bed whereas the five heads together forms a hood over the head of Lord Vishnu.

Deities and demons used Sesha Naaga as a rope and Mount Mandara as a churning stick to churn the ocean for skimming off the elixir of life. Deities held the tail and demons the head of the Naaga. While churning the ocean, demons suffered from the heavy breathing of Naaga caused by the churning of the ocean.

Naaga has been the part of religious life in Nepal. So, Nepalis dedicate a day to Naaga and mark the day pasting a paper Naaga on the lintel of the main entrance to every house for whatever reason it might be.

July 22, 2012