Valery Kashin, Candidate of Historical Sciences. Photo by Valery Kashin and Lyudmila Sinitsina.
India, or Bharat, is one of the largest states in the world, a country of ancient civilization. Studying India since the late seventies of the last century, I saw firsthand what profound changes have taken place in the country in recent decades. Today it is one of the top ten states with a dynamically developing economy looking to the future. Just one example: over the years mentioned, a powerful, efficient middle class of 300 million has emerged in India. At the same time, this country is the greatest treasury of a vibrant, original culture. The power of tradition is stronger here than anywhere else in the world. It is tradition that ensures the eternal connection of times and generations.
One of the supreme deities, Vishnu, rests on the bed of the rings of the Shesha serpent. Bronze figurine
A pictorial depiction of the god Krishna defeating the naga Kaliya
Like this snake charmer from Jaipur, all representatives of such an ancient profession are able to subdue even the most dangerous cobra with the help of a musical pipe.
Promotional video:
Stone nagas guarding the pond
The most dangerous snakes in India: Russell's viper (top), krait (bottom) and cobra (right)
It is not immediately possible to see a hidden snake on a tree or on a stone.
The pattern at the doorstep of the house, depicting a cobra, is a kind of protective talisman. Chennai city
Following an ancient tradition, every housewife draws similar patterns at home in the morning and in the evening, in accordance with her favorite motives. State of Tamil Nadu
On the opposite shore of the lake lies a completely modern snow-white city of Pushkar
There are few places in the world where creeping reptiles feel as at ease as in South Asia. Here snakes are considered sacred, they are surrounded by respect and care. In their honor, temples were erected, images of reptiles carved from stone are often found on roads, reservoirs and villages.
The cult of the snake in India is more than five thousand years old. Its roots go back to the deep layers of the pre-Aryan culture. For example, the legends of Kashmir tell how the reptiles ruled over the valley when it was still an endless swamp. With the spread of Buddhism, myths began to ascribe to the snake the salvation of the Buddha, and this salvation took place on the banks of the Nairanjana River under an old fig tree. To prevent the Buddha from reaching enlightenment, the demon Mara created a terrible storm. But a huge cobra upset the demon's schemes. She wrapped the body of Buddha seven times and protected him from rain and wind.
SNAKE AND NAGI
According to the ancient cosmogonic ideas of the Hindus, the numerous heads of the snake Shesha, lying on the waters of the World Ocean, serve as the support of the Universe, and the guardian of life Vishnu rests on the bed of its rings. At the end of each cosmic day, equal to 2160 million earth years, the fire-breathing mouths of Shesha destroy the worlds, and the creator Brahma then rebuilds them.
Another powerful snake, the seven-headed Vasuki, is constantly worn by the formidable destroyer Shiva as a sacred thread. With the help of Vasuki, the gods obtained the drink of immortality, amrita, churning, that is, knocking down the ocean: the celestials used a snake as a rope to rotate a giant whorl - Mandara Mountain.
Sesha and Vasuki are recognized kings of the nagas. This is the name in myths for semi-divine beings with snake bodies and one or more human heads. Nagas live in the underworld - in Patala. Its capital - Bhogavati - is surrounded by a wall of precious stones and enjoys the fame of the richest city in the fourteen worlds, which, according to legend, constitute the basis of the universe.
Nagas, according to myths, possess the secrets of magic and witchcraft, are able to revive the dead and change their appearance. Their women are especially beautiful and often marry earthly rulers and sages. It is from the nagas, according to legend, that many dynasties of maharajas originate. Among them are the kings of Pallava, the rulers of Kashmir, Manipur and other principalities. Warriors who died heroically on the battlefields also find themselves in the care of naginas.
The queen of the nagas, Manasa, the sister of Vasuki, is considered a reliable protector from snake bites. Crowded celebrations are held in her honor in Bengal.
And at the same time, the legend says, the five-headed naked Kalia once seriously angered the gods. Its poison was so strong that it poisoned the water of a large lake. Even the birds that flew over this lake fell dead. In addition, the cunning snake stole cows from local shepherds and devoured them. Then the famous Krishna, the eighth earthly incarnation of the supreme god Vishnu, came to the aid of people. He climbed a kadamba tree and jumped into the water. Kaliya immediately rushed at him and wrapped his mighty rings around him. But Krishna, freed from the embrace of the snake, turned into a giant and drove the evil naga to the ocean.
SNAKE AND FAITH
There are countless legends and tales about snakes in India, but the most unexpected signs are also associated with them. It is believed that the snake personifies eternal movement, is the embodiment of the soul of the ancestor and the guardian of the house. That is why the Hindus put the sign of the snake on both sides of the front door. For the same protective purpose, the peasants of the South Indian state of Kerala keep small serpentariums in their yards where sacred cobras live. If the family moves to a new place, then they will certainly take all the snakes with them. In turn, they somehow distinguish the owners by some instinct and never bite them.
Deliberately or accidentally killing a snake is a grave sin. In the south of the country, over a killed snake, a brahmana recites mantras (in Hinduism, this is what prayer formulas and spells are called). Her body is covered with a silk cloth embroidered with a ritual pattern, laid on sandalwood logs and burned on a funeral pyre.
The inability of a woman to give birth to a child is explained by the offense that the woman inflicted on the reptiles in this or one of the previous births. To earn the forgiveness of the snake, Tamil women pray to her stone image. Not far from Chennai, in the town of Rajahmandi, there was once a dilapidated termite mound where an old cobra lived. Sometimes she crawled out of the den to bask in the sun and taste the eggs, pieces of meat and rice balls brought to her. Suffering women came to the lonely mound in droves (it was in the late 19th - early 20th centuries). They sat for long hours near the termite mound, hoping to contemplate the sacred animal. If they succeeded, they returned home happy, confident that their prayer was finally heard and the gods would grant them a child. Together with adult women, very little girls went to the cherished termite mound,praying in advance for a happy motherhood.
A favorable omen is the discovery of a snake crawl - an old skin dropped by a reptile during molting. The owner of the coveted skin will certainly put a piece of it in his wallet, believing that it will bring him wealth. According to signs, the cobra keeps gems in the hood.
There is a belief that snakes sometimes fall in love with beautiful girls and secretly enter into an affair with them. After this, the snake begins to jealously follow the beloved and pursue her while bathing, eating and in other matters, and in the end both the girl and the snake begin to suffer, wither and soon die.
In one of the sacred books of Hinduism, Atharvaveda, snakes are mentioned among animals that possess the secrets of medicinal herbs. They also know how to cure snakebites, but they carefully guard these secrets and reveal them only to severe ascetics.
FESTIVAL OF SNAKES
On the fifth day of the new moon of the month of Shravan (July - August), the festival of snakes is solemnly celebrated in India - nagapanchas. Nobody works that day. The first rays of the sun begin to celebrate. Above the main entrance to the house, Hindus stick images of reptiles and perform puja - the main form of worship of the gods in Hinduism. Many people gather in the central square. Trumpets and drums are thundering. The procession goes to the temple, where ritual ablution is performed. Then the snakes caught the day before are released into the street and courtyards. They are greeted, showered with flower petals, generously presented with money and thanked for the harvest saved from rodents. People pray to the eight chief nagas and treat live snakes with milk, ghee, honey, turmeric (yellow ginger) and fried rice. Flowers of oleander, jasmine and red lotus are placed in their holes. The ceremonies are directed by the brahmanas.
One old legend is connected with this holiday. It tells of a brahmana who went to the field in the morning, ignoring the day with nagapanchami. While paving a furrow, he accidentally crushed the baby cobra. Finding the snake cubs dead, the snake mother decided to take revenge on the brahmana. Following the trail of blood that followed the plow, she found the abuser's home. The owner and his family slept peacefully. Cobra killed everyone who was in the house, and then suddenly remembered that one of the daughters of the brahmana had recently got married. The cobra crawled into the neighboring village. There she saw that the young woman had made all the preparations for the holiday with nagapanchas and put milk, sweets and flowers for the snakes. And then the snake changed from anger to mercy. Feeling a favorable moment, the woman begged the cobra to resurrect her father and other relatives. The snake turned out to be a nude and willingly fulfilled the request of the well-behaved woman.
The festival of snakes continues until late at night. In the midst of it, not only spellcasters, but also Indians are braver in taking reptiles in their hands and even throwing them around their necks. Surprisingly, snakes on such a day for some reason do not bite. At least I've never heard of anything like it.
THE CURSE OF THE SNAKE KING
Creeping reptiles in India can be found not only in the twilight of the jungle, by the river or an artificial reservoir, but even in the middle of the motorway or in the room of a multi-star hotel. I will never forget my first visit to Delhi. I stayed in a cozy mansion of the Russian Cultural Center. Located within the boundaries of the new city, it is surrounded by sprawling tropical trees. At night I was awakened by an incomprehensible rustle. I confess: goose bumps ran through my skin. With the thought of the cobra, I got up and turned on the light. The air conditioner worked in the room. A stream of air drove a plastic bag across the floor.
In the morning I decided to take a walk. Walking around the territory of the cultural center, I stretched out with pleasure on the emerald green grass. An Indian gardener passed by. He looked at me with horror: “Sahib! Don't you know it's full of snake holes here. Where you are resting, you saw krait today! I jumped like a scalded one, knowing that krait's venom is extremely toxic and is considered the strongest in Asian snakes. Up to half of those bitten die from this poison; not a single modern vaccine helps them.
From time to time in India one can hear or read about amazing stories. One of these occurred in the village of Irinchayam, which is located near the capital of the South Indian state of Kerala. There lives a woman named Omana. The snakes bit her exactly twenty times - eighteen times by cobras and twice by vipers. This first happened when fourteen-year-old Omana was swimming in the river. Then the snakes attacked the woman in the house, on the road to the market, in the cashew nut factory where she works, and even in the village temple.
After the last bite, the unfortunate woman turned to the local astrologer. He gave such an explanation for what happened: a woman in one of her previous lives caused the death of the snake king. And before giving up the spirit, the "high-ranking" serpent cursed the woman. He promised that in the next life the god of death Yama will come for her on a black buffalo when twenty-one snakes poison her blood with their poison. Since then, Oman and her family have lived in constant fear. The wooden window frames of the dilapidated hut are tightly closed. The lamp is always on in the room. Every evening, the sons of Omani carefully inspect the roof of the house, plug up the cracks and cut down the bushes around the yard every two weeks.
The Omani phenomenon has attracted scientific attention. Thus, K. Srikumari, a professor of medicine from Thiruvananthapuram, for example, relying on the works of Freud, writes: “As a young girl, her parents married Oman to a man who was 25 years older than her. After the death of her husband, the woman's unrealized sexual feelings began to attract the attention of reptiles: snakes symbolize sex, and Omana subconsciously expects meetings with them. As you can see, mythology is present even in the words of the doctor.
SNAKE CHARMERS CHANGE THE PROFESSION
Many Indians told me that there are more poisonous snakes. Uncontrolled deforestation and replacing them with rice fields led to the massive spread of rodents. Hordes of rats and mice flooded cities and villages. Reptiles rushed after the rodents. During the period of monsoon rains, when streams of water flood their burrows, reptiles find refuge in people's homes. At this time of the year, they become quite aggressive.
Having found a reptile under the roof of his house, a pious Hindu will never raise a stick at it, but will try to persuade him to leave his home in peace or turn to wandering snake charmers for help. A couple of years ago they could be found on every street. Wearing turbans and homemade pipes, with a large resonator of dried pumpkin, they sat for a long time over wicker baskets, waiting for tourists. To the beat of a simple melody, trained snakes raised their heads from their baskets, hissed menacingly and swung their hoods.
The craft of the snake charmer is considered hereditary. In the village of Saperagaon (it is located ten kilometers from the city of Lucknow, the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh) about five hundred inhabitants. Translated from Hindi, "Saperagaon" means "Village of snake charmers." Almost the entire adult male population is engaged in this craft.
Deadly creatures in Saperagaon can be found literally at every turn. For example, a young housewife waters the floors from a copper jug, and a two-meter cobra, curled up in a ring, lies at her feet. In the hut, an elderly woman prepares dinner and, with a grunt, shakes a tangled viper out of her sari. Village children, going to bed, take a cobra with them to bed, preferring live snakes to teddy bears and the American beauty Barbie. Each courtyard has its own serpentarium. It contains four or five snakes of several types.
However, the new Wildlife Protection Act, which has come into force, now prohibits capturing snakes “for profit”. And the snake charmers are forced to look for another job. Many of them entered the service of companies that are engaged in catching reptiles in settlements. The caught reptiles are taken out of the city limits and released into their characteristic habitats.
TRUTH OF THE LIFE
Legends, myths and beliefs are one thing. Meanwhile, the death rate from snake venom in India is the highest in the world. Every year, according to official statistics, more than a quarter of a million people suffer from snake bites in the country, of which 50 thousand die - this is thirty times more than the number of victims of tigers, leopards, panthers and other predatory animals combined. The states of West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu hold a sad record for the number of deaths. Over the past eight years, Delhi has alone recorded 220 cases of human bites from venomous snakes. This occurs most often during the monsoons in July, August and September, when the water drives reptiles out of their burrows. Not only Indians, but also foreign tourists seek medical help.
The most dangerous of the snakes is, of course, the cobra. Its venom begins to act immediately after being bitten. A person is suddenly overcome by sleep, then speech is upset, consciousness becomes cloudy, the transmission of nerve impulses is disturbed, paralysis of the heart and respiratory muscles occurs, and after 20-25 minutes death occurs.
Cobra is a large brown snake up to two meters long, widespread in India, loves dense thickets and moisture. The king cobra, unlike the common one, is much longer, sometimes more than five meters, and is found mainly in Assam. Her body shimmers with silver. She feeds on other snakes. The cobra's hood is decorated with a peculiar pattern that resembles glasses. Hindus interpret it as a truncated swastika - an ancient symbol of the sun, fire and eternal movement.
Very often fatal bites from krait, Russell's viper and sand feld. The krait lurks its victims at the reservoirs. He hunts at night. The dark skin makes this two-meter snake invisible even on the pavement. On cold nights, krait crawls into the houses of the peasants. His bite does not hurt. People sleeping on the floor do not feel it and die in their sleep.
Russell's viper reaches a length of one and a half meters. Her favorite hunting area is rice fields. The snake is almost invisible among the grass. She is very aggressive. When faced with danger, the snake does not crawl away like others, but fights to the end. Even the cobra prefers not to fight her. Russell's viper bite is extremely painful and causes internal bleeding.
Sandy Efa hides in quarries and under stones. Its length is less than a meter, but the poison is deadly. Those bitten by an efoy die from hemorrhage and heart and kidney failure.
A corresponding vaccine has been developed against the venom of each of the snakes, but, unfortunately, it is not always possible to apply it in a timely manner. In addition, of the 230 species of snakes found in India, 55 are poisonous, and even the most prudent inhabitant of India does not carry such a number of vaccine options. Therefore, it often remains to rely only on the mercy of the gods, one's own discretion and to observe the precepts of dharma, that is, morality and religious duty, - after all, snakes, as they believe in India, more often bite those who violate traditions.
