In Hindu mythology, nagas are semi-divine creatures with a snake body and one or more human heads, the children of Kadru are the wives of the sage Kashyapa. The nagas were constantly at odds with the birds and their king Garuda, born of another wife of Kasyapa - Vinata. They were also the lords of the underworld of Patala, where their capital Bhogavati was located and where the untold treasures of the earth were kept. The nagas were revered as sages and magicians who could revive the dead and change their appearance. Taking human form, these creatures could live among people, and their women, famous for their beauty, often became the wives of mortal kings and heroes. Among the kings of the naga, the most famous is the thousand-headed serpent Shesha, which supports the earth.
The very word "nag" comes from Sanskrit, an ancient language, the echoes of which can be found in many modern dialects, including Russian. This word is polysemantic and denotes a semi-divine creature capable of taking the form of a snake, a person, or an intermediate form of a snake-man, as well as just a snake, but not any, but, for example, a king cobra. A male creature is called naked or naked, and a female name sounds like a nagina.
The sonorous word "nagaina" echoed to us through the environment of the English language. Nag and Nagaina - this is the name of a married couple of cobras in the translation of the story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. Voldemort's huge snake was also named Nagay by the translators in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
By the way, there is a hypothesis tempting for cryptohistorians that Sanskrit itself is the language of the Nagas, which the wise snakes taught the Aryans who came to India. The name of the Sanskrit alphabet - Devanagari - clearly reads the root - nag -, and the name itself can be translated as "divine nag language." In Devanagari, unlike other alphabets, there is not a single tooth sound, but for the pronunciation of some sounds, a long tongue is required - longer than a human and, possibly, forked at the end. In Sanskrit, there are many aspirated sounds with an exhalation through the nose.
All this paints a portrait of a naga - a toothless creature with serpentine fangs, with inactive lips, but a long and forked tongue. There are even yoga exercises that help lengthen the tongue, and in some places in India people still trim the base of the tongue. Perhaps these are echoes of ancient customs designed to help a person master an alien speech, in which the teachers of the ancient race expressed themselves. Most of all they know about them in India and its surroundings. Nagas are mentioned in many episodes of the Mahabharata epic, and as positive characters, and as negative, and as completely neutral.
The king of birds, the giant eagle (or man-eagle) Garuda was constantly at war with the nagas. The history of hostile relationship, oddly enough, began with a close relationship. Once the sage Kashyapa promised his two wives the fulfillment of desires. Kadru's wife wished for herself a thousand strong sons-snakes, and Vinata's wife wished for a son who took the name Garuda. The women argued about something, Vinata lost the argument, and Garuda was forced to serve the snakes. To free himself from onerous duties, he promised to bring the nagas amrita, the drink of immortality.
Having brought a vessel with amrita, Garuda put it on the grass, but the clever god Indra immediately carried it away. And yet a few drops of amrita spilled onto the bedding. In attempts to lick at least one drop, the nagas cut their tongues on the grass, and since then they have been forked. The naga did not become immortal, but they gained the ability to shed their skin and renew themselves. And Garuda, in revenge for the days of service, became the eternal enemy of the naga snakes.
Since then, the image of the naga has been captured in countless frescoes and temple sculptures in all Asian countries where Hinduism and Buddhism were professed. There are a great many statues of Buddha with a nude protecting him. A snake can have from one to nine heads, but the number must always be odd. However, not all nagas are capable of turning into a human with the help of magic, but only the most sophisticated. But how true such a transformation is - a question from the point of view of Eastern religions and philosophies is completely idle in view of the general illusory nature of our existence.
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Thus, the thousand-headed serpent, the king of the nagas Ananta-Shesha, floats in the waters of the cosmic ocean, and the god Vishnu is reclining on the rings of his serpentine body. When kalpas change (kalpa is a unit of time measurement) and the world is destroyed, Shesha remains unchanged. The image of the ancient Indian world serpent is similar to the ancient Egyptian Mehenta, the ancient Ouroboros, biting its own tail, and the Scandinavian Jormungand, winding around the Earth. The snake rings symbolize the endless cyclical rebirth of the world.
In India, nagas are revered as keepers of rivers and other bodies of water. They are believed to cause rain, which means they serve the fertility of the earth; however, they can also cause floods and deluges. But, despite the fact that these snakes have a dual nature, they are almost indifferent to people and respond with evil only to evil. In addition, they guard treasures and treasures. There are tribes that consider themselves to be the descendants of the Nagas, and in the names of these tribes, as well as the areas where they live, the root - nag - clearly sounds. Rituals and festivals are held in honor of the Nagas, such as the Indian festival of Naga Panchami.
In Buddhism, nagas are believed to dwell directly under the base of the divine Mount Meru. By the way, when the gods and demons initially mined amrita, the king of the nagas, Vasuki, turned around Mount Meru, and the higher beings dragged the snake by the head and tail for 100 years - "whipping up" the primordial ocean.
There were nagas living on land or underground, but most often they are associated with the aquatic environment: both with rivers and with the sea. According to Cambodian legend, this is a race of reptiles, a large state of which was located somewhere in the Pacific region. The daughter of the king of the Nagas married an Indian brahmana, and from their union came the Cambodians. To this day, they call themselves born of the nagas. On the bas-reliefs of the famous complex of Angkor temples, there are many images of them.
From the point of view of Hinduism, the nagas inhabit the seventh of the underground worlds, which is called Patala, or Nagaloka. This place is even more beautiful than the heavenly world of Indra. Patala sparkles with gold and precious stones, in the middle of the capital rises completely adorned with jewels, the palace of the king of the nagas Vasuki, and all the inhabitants of this world wear the rarest precious stones on their heads, illuminating both their native Nagaloka and the rest of the underground worlds, since there is no sunlight there. The Nagamani stone, worn by King Vasuki himself, cures all diseases.
It is noteworthy that among all living things, it is snakes that are most often two-headed. The main thing for two heads is not to attack each other and not fight for prey. Sometimes they have one stomach for two, but sometimes they each have their own. But the main thing is that nagas are able to take on human and serpent forms. Their true appearance is a cross between these two extremes: the lower half of the naga's body is serpentine, and the upper half is human. According to various sources, the number of hands also varies - from three pairs to their absence. In principle, given their Indian roots, multi-armed is not surprising: in those parts, all are multi-armed - gods, demons, and statues. Sometimes nagas also get a pair of wings in addition to their hands.
Sea nagas are overgrown with membranes and fins, and only their tails are invariably serpentine. As for the faces, the ancient sources emphasize the beauty of the naginas who became the wives of people. It can be assumed that the female faces of the nagas are closer to the human faces, and the physiognomy of the male nagas is rougher and more like lizards or dragons. But even the similarity of the facial features of nagas with reptiles and the presence of snake tails does not negate the main thing: the fundamentally different structure of the body and limbs of nagas and dragons. Nagas are in their true form of legless, and the dragon has legs - usually four, rarely two. Even the Chinese dragons - moons - have paws, which are distinguished by a long and serpentine flexible body.
In addition to the extensive evidence of the nagas that permeate the mythology of India, there are descriptions and images of similar creatures in other cultures and civilizations. For example, the Chinese goddess Nuiwa and her husband-husband Fu Xi are depicted with the head and hands of a man and with the body of a snake. Nuwa created people and saved the Earth from the flood, and Fu Xi taught people to fish, tame animals and cook food on fire, invented music, writing and measuring instruments. In this case, the people-snakes act as mentors of young humanity.
It is unclear whether the Gorgon sisters Medusa, Euryale and Sfeno should be attributed to the race of serpent-people with poisonous snakes instead of hair and a gaze that turns to stone. Other features include wings, snake fangs, and scaly skin. Poisonous breath and deadly gaze are common to the nagas, and the gorgon is just a nickname that means "terrible."
Pre-Columbian civilizations of America have also left us with evidence of contact with strange serpentine creatures. In classical Mayan art, the sky is depicted as a two-headed snake with stars painted on its body. The goddess Ish-Chel, the wife of the supreme god of the Mayan pantheon, has a snake in her hair. One of the main gods of the Aztec pantheon Quetzalcoatl is the Feathered Serpent. He created people, and then, as expected, also served as a mentor for them - he gave maize, taught to follow the movement of stars, process precious stones, cure diseases, smelt metal and create mosaics from feathers. Zihuacoatl (snake woman) is the goddess of the earth, war and childbirth, the patroness of women who died during the first childbirth. And instead of a human head, the goddess of corn has seven snakes growing out of her neck, and her name is Chicomecoatl, which means "seven-headed snake."
It is known that ancient nagas were not warlike creatures. For all their abilities, they could only defend themselves, but not attack, and in general they preferred to act with words, persuasion, and only in extreme cases - hypnosis. They are sages, magicians and scribes, keepers of knowledge, and not at all stern fighters. Perhaps the nagas simply spared their younger human brothers, treating them like unreasonable children. In relation to people, they allowed themselves only a mild punishment for violating the rules of the established world order. But having moved to the virtual worlds, the nagas, apparently, realized that humanity would not leave them alone and it was time to take up arms. Of course, in numerous game conflicts, they immediately proved themselves to be excellent warriors.
There is also a parallel with Russian folklore. As we know, Koschey the Immortal from Russian fairy tales kept his death in an egg. Most likely, it was not a serpentine, but a bird's egg. The prototype for Koschei was the mythological Serpent, the keeper of the World Egg. When the hero kills the Snake, the end of the primordial chaos comes, the world unfolds from the egg and a new order of things comes. (As an example, we can recall how the Mesopotamian god Marduk defeated the serpent goddess Tiamat and created the world from her dissected body.)