Serpents worship
(Naga Worship) has been in vague since pre historic and puranic times in many
parts of world and therefore worship of serpents as God is not new phenomenon
in India. Worship of Serpents had existed even in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece,
Korea, Japan, China and many of the African countries besides Rome etc even
during ancient times. Serpents have been worshipped as deity by Hindus,
Buddhist and Jains and few temples giving importance for snakes exist in some
parts of our land.
Snakes are the only
creature whose body is not affected by any object even though they move
around on sand and dust though they live in sand pits even if the pits
are wet. This is the gift of nature. In a way their body
remains unaffected from surrounding
objects under any circumstances. This is why the Puranas cite the example of
snakes whose body remains detached from the surrounding
objects, to preach the
sadhanatviks that like snakes one should remain free of attachments and
influences in life if they want to remain independent in thought and mind to attain wisdom.
As per puranic tales
the Serpents were given birth by twelve wives of Saint Kashyaba who was son of greatest
Sage on earth Maharishi Marichi and attained divinity. While all serpents are not
considered to be divine, however some of them were divine to name a few Raghu
and Kethu who are revered as two important deities in the fleet of nine
Navagrahas. In puranic times followed by worship of divine Cow, the Serpents
were also worshipped especially for expiation of sins (Dosha) borne out of various acts committed besides to beget
children and cured of skin diseases.
In the clan of
Serpents the Ashta Naga, a group of eight serpents were considered important in
divine world. They were:- Thousand headed Adi Shesha or Ananta Nag, Padma,
Mahapadma five headed green serpent, Kuligan with the symbol of Moon on her
head, Vasuki the King of Serpents, Shankapala, Thakshak and Gharkoda. King of
Serpents Vasuki is believed to reside in Pathaal under the basin of now extinct
River Saraswathi while in a huge lake called Dundak in Nepal, Serpent Gharkoda
live in the midst of several crores of diamonds and other ornaments and
therefore she is worshipped in Nepal as divine Serpent. The other important
serpents worshipped are, Asthika with half human body and blue in colour,
Shangalpala, Jwalamukhi, Kalian who reportedly lives in Yamuna river, Gadak and
Vasuki’s sister Manasa etc. The entire entrances to the Nag Log are reportedly
studded with several rare gems, diamonds, gold and other jewels. Puranas states
that the Naga Log is filled with countless rare gems, pearls,diamonds etc. Such ennobled snakes have few temple in India,
especially one in Kerala and the other in Kanyakumari in Tamilnadu. However
amongst the two theoldest and highly revered temple is the Nagaraja Temple in Kanyakumari.
Neither the origin,
nor the history or other details of this ancient temple Nagaraja is known.
However the story of this temple is based on two puranic folklores told through
word of mouth for decades. It is stated that during 16th century most of the
land in this region were filled with full of bushes and forest trees. Due to
adverse poverty and unpleasant upper and lower caste divisions, the locals had
to go to nearby forest jungles to fetch wood for selling and cooking, while
others worked as labourers in the Paddy fields owned by rich landlords. There
used to be lots of snakes moving around the jungles as well as paddy fields,
they being jungle terrain. Therefore the poor began treating the Serpents as
guardian deities of forest lands and farms and prayed to them not to harm them
while working in fields and forests. Some open spaces were also created and
stones with images of snakes were placed there and worshipped before going to
the fields and jungles. Thus emerged worship places for serpents in scattered
manner. What is the puranic lores on Temple Nagaraja ?
The first folklore
mentions that in the place where the temple exists, one day a female
laborer was clearing the bushes and thrones and was shocked to find blood
struck in the sickle while cutting the plants in a bush. Terrified
lady hurriedly cleared the bush and found the dead body of a five headed
serpent lying in pool of blood. She ran into the Village and brought
people to show them the scene and the villagers. They feared that it spelt bad
omen to the Village and began discussing further course of action when one of the villagers got divine energized (trance) and revealed
that he was Vasuki and the serpent killed was her aspect and therefore to atone
the sin they have to
construct a small temple and worship her there. After consulting elderly people
in the Village, the Villagers erected a small thatched hut with Palmyra leaves
roof as ordered by the Serpent deity and began worshiping the Serpent God as
Nagaraja in the same place
where the snake was killed. Thus emerged the temple for the chief of
Serpents in the place where the present temple stands. The small thatched hut
was converted into a big temple sometime in later centuries by the King who was
ruling that region then.
As per another
mythological lore, a laborer who was cutting grass in this area tried to
sharpen his sickle on a rocky stone slab. He was surprised to find blood oozing
from the stone and ran into the village and brought the Villagers. They brought
a Nambudiri Brahmin, an astrologer who was accidentally travelling by that side for advice. The
Nambudiri Brahmin carefully studied all aspects and predicted through
Prasannam, an astrological reading, that the stone was divine energized with that of God of Serpents Vasuki, and the
Serpent King desired to have a temple constructed for him in the same place.
When it reached the ears of the King , he verified the facts from the Nambudiri
Brahmin and decided to construct a temple for the divine energized stone as
advised by the Brahmin. He established the present temple for the worship of
Serpents in the same place where the divine energized stone was found. The temple
was named Temple of Nargaraja, meaning temple for the King Serpent or King of
Snakes.
Generally one may
find importance and prominence given to the Serpents only in the temples of
female deities belonging to Mariamman or shortly called Amman temples, but
contrary to them, in Nagaraja temple the Serpents have been given more
prominence than other deities as the Lord of Serpents (Nagaraja) reportedly
manifested on its own in a Paddy field as an aspect of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna revealed through Bhagavath Gita (10.28) that
‘amongst Nag I am Vasuki’. The snake around the
neck of Lord Siva is Vasuki. While the entire
temple has been built in concrete structure, only the roof over the sanctum
sanctum of Nagaraja is thatched with Palmyra leaves which is also replaced
every year with newer one. the reason for it is not known. Every year when the
roof is changed a big serpent visits the sanctum sanctum without fail and it
hurts none and vanishes of its own after remaining there for some time. It is a
miracle that happens even to this day say the villagers.
The presiding Serpent
God Nagaraja graces from the sanctum sanctum with five heads. The entrance of
the sanctum has two Serpent deities namely Darnendran, a male and Padmavathi,
female. They are considered to be the Dwarakapalakas for the sanctum. The
presiding deity Nagaraja in the sanctum is enshrined on a wet sand surface
instead of on cemented floor. Since the deity was found in the midst of wet
sand in the paddy field, the wet sand scooped out from the ground around the
deity is given as Prasad to the devotees instead of vermillion or ash as given
in other temples. Even after scooping out the sand to distribute to devotees as
Prasad, no crater is formed there and the place is always found to have same
level of sand which is another miracle noticed here. The temple has innumerable
statues of serpents. It is stated that the temple tree is Oda Valli which has
medicinal qualities to cure dreaded disease leprosy.
One can also see the
engraved images of Lord Muruga, Lord Krishna, Lord Padmanabaswami (Lord Vishnu)
besides Goddess Parvathi on the pillars in this temple. The principle deity is
called Nagarajaswami and his consort as Goddess Nagaramman. Two separate
sanctum for Lords Ananthakrishna (Lord Krishna) and Kasi Vishwanatha (Lord
Siva) are found here. After performing puja to the presiding deity Nagaraja,
pujas are also performed to these two deities in their sanctum. However, as a
custom the last puja of the day (called Arthajama puja) is performed to Lord
Krishna because he is manifesting in the temple as
Vasuki. Goddess Durga is also considered to be important deity in this temple.
Unlike in other
temples, another interesting feature which can be seen here is the flag post of
the temple which is dedicated to Lord Krishna only. Traditionally in all the
temples a Garuda will be found on the Flag post but deviating from the
tradition, a tortoise has been installed in the Flag post of this temple. Since
Purana says that both Garuda and Snakes are enemies, this being a temple for
Snakes, instead of Garuda, the tortoise has been enshrined in this shrine. The
legend says that since Lord Vishnu sent as his aspect a Tortoise on which
the the churning stick was placed, tied with Vasuki as rope while
churning the ocean for collecting nectar. Since both the Tortoise and Vasuki jointly engaged themselves in the divine act to getnectar, as a mark of honour
Tortoise has been given prominence and placed in the Flag post of this Vasuki
temple called Nagaraja Temple.
During 15th century
it is claimed that one of the rulers of this area namely Sree Veera Udaya Marthanda
Verma who was suffering from acute Leprosy got cured of it miraculously on the
same day after he visited the temple. It was Sunday when he visited the temple
to worship God Nagaraja seeking relief from the ailment. From then on it became
custom for the devotees to visit this temple on Sundays to get cured of their
diseases. It is claimed that the main priests of this temple is always from one
of the Nambudiri families of Kerala whose family worshiped Nagaraja for
generations.
Nagaraja Temple of Kanyakumari
is visited by pilgrims mostly between August and September to offer prayer to
the Serpent God to get cured of their skin diseases and expiation of sins
accrued on account of several events. They offer milk to the presiding deity in
fulfilment of the prayer.
It is also claimed by
some that the Nagaraja Temple was earlier a Jain temple which is evident from
the images and inscriptions of Jain Tirthankaras, Mahavira and Parswanatha
found on the pillars of the temple. The entrance to the Nagaraja Temple is
constructed on the model of Buddha Vihara. Though documentary proofs or other
evidences are available to authenticate the claims, the scholars opine that the
inscriptions and images in temple make one believe that it could belong to 10th
century.
Whatever is said and
done what becomes clear from this temple is that the Serpents have been
worshipped as an important deity for generations even from the period of
puranic times. Several varieties of snakes have been reportedly seen visiting
this temple, but interestingly there has been not even one case of someone died
of snake bite in this temple or surrounding this area.
The extent of
importance given the Serpents can be gauged by the fact that Serpents form part
of the objects portrayed by several Gods and Goddesses. Lord Siva has
Vasuki around his neck, Lord Vishnu’s bed in Milk Ocean is a Serpent, The
umbrella above the head of Lord Krishna is a Serpent and several female deities
called Ammans have Serpents over their head to give shade and protection from
rain and sun rays. Most importantly Serpents Raghu and Kethu are important
amongst the nine planet deities called Navagrahas and are possessed with divine
powers to remove the adverse effects of certain planets. In order to get
protection from serpents during harvest season, the farmers perform Naga
panchami festival to appease the Snake Gods so that the serpents stay away from
biting those working in the Paddy fields. In Lord Siva’s temples while
performing Abishekam the Milk is poured over the Serpent giving shade over the
head. Thus Lord Siva is said to ensure that the Serpent on his body is also
respected. Snake statues in the temples are offered milk and incense stick to
gain knowledge, wealth, and fame.
There is a general
belief that when Serpent God Ananda is worshipped to beget male child, Serpent
God Vasuki to beget female child, Serpent God Daksha to gain physical strength,
Serpent God Padma to beget good character, Serpent God Shangalpala to cure skin
diseases, Serpent God Akalakesha to wipe out sins of previous birth, Serpent
God Kuligan to cure cold related diseases and Serpent God Mahapadma to attain
Moksha after death. The address of the temple is :-
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