Serpent Worship and Origin of Nairs
And
An In depth study into the
Realities of Mythical Devas, Asuras, Nagas etc.
By Swami Medhatithi Agneya
This article is a detailed study on the captioned subject.
While Nagas are found to be the ancestors of
Nair community and when the history of
Nagas were examined, it has been observed that along with
Nagas, the celestial attributes given to entities like Devas, Asuras, Dhaityas etc.
are all resultants of the same non-conceiving or misconceiving of historicities.
Therefore this article happened to be an inseparable
one, of the two seemingly distant subjects.
The serpent or snake worship, prevalent in certain parts of this country, that is Bharat, is one of the most confusing aspects of religiosity of modern day Hindu religion. While the serpent worship is a general Hindu religious practice in various parts of the country, it has a prominent place in states like Kerala, where it is generally known as ‘Sarparadhana’ or ‘Sarpabali’ or ‘Sarpa pooja’. The serpent worship of Kerala involves a lot of intricate practices and is generally celebrated as an annual affair, while lighting an oil wick, every evening, before the deities is considered as an unmissable daily routine. The annual celebration in its detailed format involves making of vast images of serpent gods on specially prepared ground, in different colors using powders of grains, turmeric etc. Usually adolescent girls sit before these drawn out images of serpents mentioned above, holding areca palm flower bunches in their hands. In this section of worship, the process by and large is controlled by a community of people of ‘Pulluva’ caste. They have typical instruments to provide music for songs sung by them.
2. Their songs, the way it is sung etc. are all unique and have no parallel in any other modes of religious worships. In accordance with the rhythmic songs and music of instruments of Pulluvas, the ones sitting before the drawn up images of the serpents, usually girls as mentioned earlier, enters in to stage of trance and imitates the movements of snakes and finally wipe out the images before them, with the help of the areca palm flower bunches, they hold. Thereafter, in a fit of rage and total trance, some of these girls move towards the supposedly sacred abode of the serpent gods, maintained in the compound, called ‘Sarpakav’. The sarpakav is generally a mini forest like place, with trees, bushes and large creepers. Sometimes the girls on intense trance, followed with the songs and music by the Pulluvas attempt to climb on the creepers or trees of the sarpakav.
3. Above pictured is one method of serpent worship which was prevalent in certain parts of Kerala. There are different methods with slight, moderate and total difference, prevalent even now in different parts of Kerala. Again, apart from Pulluva communities, Brahmins too take part in worships at certain stages, in certain places. While serpents were and are worshiped generally by almost all Hindus of Kerala, Nairs are the prominent community who ardently believe in it and carry on with it as an inseparable part of their religious life. Again, serpent was considered as one of their, that is Nairs’, Dharma Dhaiva (the god of a gotra or caste by default or origin) from time immemorial. Apart from Serpents, Bhadra Kali, Ganda Karnan (Kandaran), Yakshi, Ghandharvan etc. were also included in the group of Dharma Dhaivas. Subsequently, many similar demigods like Chamundi, etc. which possibly originated elsewhere, were also included to the list. Leaving aside the central deities of Dharma Dhaiva concept viz. the serpents and Bhadra kali, mentioned above, which are the core deities of routine practices, all others are, by and large, the contributions of the astrologers or adoptions from elsewhere, at various periods of time.
4. In a sense, the astrologer community of the state needs to be considered as the chief patrons and well-wishers of dharma dhaivas, as it is they who caution about the importance of such worships and decide the mode of worship etc. As per earlier customs, when a Nair house was built, its south-west corner or side was reserved to build a Sarpa- thara (A slightly raised platform) for installing the idols of serpent gods. In front of these idols, regularly oil wicks were lighted in the evenings. This was a custom strictly followed by the households in ancient periods. Again, this routine was by and large a duty entrusted to the eldest lady member of the house. They had to bath or adhere to requisite cleanliness, before performing this ritual. Further, every year there were ritualistic festivals celebrated in the Tharavadus (larger family houses – ancestral homes) or on even at village levels, for the appeasements of serpent gods. The worship systems followed here were generally non-satvik type – that is other than the systems known as purely Brahmanical. This was a ritual followed by almost every ancient Nair houses in the past periods, till the advent of the current temple based worship system, got upper hand in the society. In the villages, when the temple based worship system got prominence in the society, many of the idols worshiped by many ancient homes (tharavadus), were shifted to said temples and included as deities deserving daily or monthly or annual poojas. While this was the general trend taken place in the state, there were many individual tharavadus that followed the older system – though in almost all cases, other than the daily ritual of lighting an oil wick, all other rituals, yearly or otherwise, became brahmanical.
5. Incidentally, it needs to be stated here that, the satvik or brahmanical worship system mentioned above, in general, is more suitable for the society as a whole, for purification of minds etc., in comparison with the earlier system followed by Nair community, as those primarily were non-satvik in nature, though had a lot of tantric relevance.
Evolution in the Serpent worship – a delve into history
6. While the origin of serpent worship being followed by Nair community is shrouded in mystery, it seems that it conceals more logical proposition, than the normal logical posture being observed behind every sort of worships, seen around the globe, that it all originated as a measure to pay obeisance to nature, to have a peaceful life for the people. To have a broader picture related to the origin of serpent worship and its historicity, it is essential to look in to the possible details of ancestors of Nair community, from the available sets of leads. The ancestral details of Nair community are still a point of debate. There are any numbers of theories available on this matter. And some are totally illogical and contradictory in nature, while comparing with the systems and customs the Nair community followed hitherto, as well as the ones they still follow. If one is to examine these theories or studies logically, it can well be seen that the driving force behind many a study or theory was not to find out the factuality of the matter, that is the origin of Nairs and related matters, but to mainly establish the position of Nairs in the social strata, as an inferior or superior caste, or to snatch the aura of a scholar for the person who conduct the study. This is because, almost all the studies preferred to ignore certain pivotal and directly perceivable aspects of the community, like that of the customs being followed by them in worships, idols they worship, possible leads the very name viz. Nair may provide etc. – which actually are the live pointers to the past of any community, as the evolution of any community is not an overnight affair.
7. On a detailed analysis of the facts and circumstances concerning Nair caste, available as on date, anyone with reasonable level of enlightened rationale can easily get convinced that, this community, that is Nair Community, belong to the Naga caste of the pre-Vedic castes of ancient Bharatvarsha, that is present Bharat or India. The people of Naga caste was spread across the country and outside, in the ancient past. Some texts explain them, that is, Naga caste as Naga clan of Asura caste, though their ancestral lineage is a standalone one, as in the case of Devas, Dhanavas etc. and its equivalent in the varna system (work-wise) can be generally stated as Brahmin or Kshatriya, as they were priests and kings of own communities. (Asuras, Nagas, Devas etc. are pre–Vedic castes and this subject had also been explained in detail, in author’s book viz. SanHind Philosophy and Life, Book 1).
8. Elaboration of a bit more on Asura caste may be relevant at this stage, to eradicate the misconceptions, the word Asura carries. Majority of these misconceptions were the contributions of certain mythological texts, its later day interpretations, as well as subsequent translation of the word Asura into English etc. Certain sections of Epics also contributed immensely in this matter. Asura is translated as demon in English, which in other word means an evil spirit. In real sense, Asura by word, mean to express only the ones, other than Suras (Devas). Further, it means to express the name of just another pre-Vedic caste, like Gandharvas, Vanaras, Suras, Yakshas, Nagas and the likes and no aspects of inferiority or superiority or inhuman appearances are attached or attributed with the word. And, no such aspects are attached with any other pre-Vedic caste names too, hinted above. It simply means to express a different human lineage or group of men, with a separate linguistic or sub-racial features and that is all. Srikrishna and Pandavas belong to Asura caste. Both are descendants of Devayani, daughter of Asura Guru Shukra Aacharya and Sharmishta daughter of Vrishaparva, an Asura King, respectively. Now like the Yadhava clan of Asura caste, Nagas were another clan (of Asura caste) and were close to another prominent caste of the times viz. Devas. If one examines the history, it can well be seen that the Nagas and Devas worked or lived closely.
9. In Ramayana there is a mention of a grand Naga lady with name Surasa. She appears in the context of verifying the capabilities of Hanuman, to accomplish the tasks entrusted to him, when set out to Lanka. She was entrusted this work by Devas and others, and she performed it to their satisfaction (Verse 155, Sarga 1, Sundara Kandha, Valmiki Ramayana). Srikrishna’s brother, Balarama reportedly belonged to Naga clan, through his mother Rohini. Again, Arjun’s one wife Ulupi belonged to Naga clan. They had a son in that marriage calledIravan. If to quote the relevance of Naga clan in the history of Bharat, it is countless. In most of the occasions the line that segregates Devas and Asuras – in general, which includes many clans – blurs into almost an unrecognizable one, as marital relations were such rampant between these castes. These two examples of Indra, who was the king and leader of Devas, shall prove this point beyond any doubts. Indra’s wife Sachi Devi was the daughter of Puloma, an Asura King. Again, Sachi Devi’s daughter Jayanti was Asura Guru, Shukrachaary’s wife.
10. Nagas were a powerful group that ruled many parts of India and the continent. The origin of Nagas is stated to be from Sage Kashyapa and his wife Kadhru. Sage or Maharshi Kashyapa, as per mythology, had a number of wives. These wives were mainly daughters of Daksha prajapathi (various mythological, epical and other related texts give different number of wives and children for Rishi Kashyapa).
11. Following are some of the names of wives of rishi Kashyapa and few details of their descendants, as available from the texts:
1. Aditi daughter of Daksha Mother of Devas (12 Aadityas – who included Indra and Vishnu)
2. Diti -do- Mother of Dhaityas ( Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashapu)
3.Dhanu -do – Mother of Dhanavas (40 Dhanavas)
4. Kadhru – do – Mother of Nagas (1000 Nagas)
5.Vinata – do – Mother of Garuda and Aruna
12. Anyone with a tinge of rationale, if trying to elicit the true meaning of the massages and historicities that the Mythological texts, Epics etc. of Hindu Religion trying to convey, he or she can easily note an unmissable gap in many of the communication they try to make.For any sincere reader, there appears to be something amiss or sees as the case of a sort of communication gap. This is because, in many a place, wherever a serious story is explained, invariably there shall be an occasion of a monkey or a bird or a snake like creatures become the central characters of the story and always they act somewhat better than any humans (The stories with such creatures for explaining a moral story are not the ones intended here). For clarity, it is explained that the contexts hinted here are the ones like that of Sugriva, of Ramayana, mentioned as a monkey but behaves in a manner, which is much better than a human; Jadayu mentioned as a bird, again in Ramayana fight with Ravana for saving Sita devi, much in the same way of a human soldier does etc. etc. Again, Kashyapa the sage explained above, created various types of creatures like snakes, birds, giants, celestial beings etc. on his wives, who were all human ladies. These contexts make any rational individual to think that these are just something like cock and bull stories.
13. Now, the problem is that these all cannot be neglected or ignored as trivial or illogical issues, or just as some cock and bull stories as stated, as it is a cent per cent confirmed matter that our early ancestors were not such unintelligent people to project animals or birds or snakes etc. as our guides or gods or predecessors. Therefore, it is extremely essential to find out, as to what actually they intended through all these. Is it our incapability to digest these matters in the right perspective that makes us suspicious of it? Or is it that somebody who wrote it into books in the recent past had committed some mistakes due to their inadequate grasping of the subject in the right time frame and perspective? Since it is a confirmed matter, as mentioned earlier, that our ancestors were serious about what they stated, let us make every earnest effort to dissect these matters, to the maximum possible extent, so as to find out the crux of the case.
14. On a detailed examination of these matters, spread over volumes of our religious literatures, like Mythological and Epical texts etc., it has to said with due respect to all those, who have interpreted and still interprets such texts, that they, almost all, have miserably failed to understand the crux of certain statements made therein, including about the genesis mentioned from Kashyapa and his wives. And the same mistakes were and are repeated by many religious orators, while explaining stories about genesis etc. to the commoners or Hindus at large.
15. Let us examine some of these mistakes one by one. Let us start with the case of Nagas. Let us start it by explaining as to how Nairs, belonging to Naga clan, have been confused with serpents due to misconceptions of certain writers of books, and reduced a grand historical brief into the level of children’s story books. Let us verify the root reason of all these, as in normal situations, nobody shall deliberately attempt to distort the historical briefs to such an extent, by any stretch of imagination. It is extremely explicit that a grand misconception of a very ancient historical brief has occurred with all puranic and epic writers, who composed it to the currently available format, in the recent past, as the resonance of this erred conceiving is seen across almost all texts.
16. While Naga is indicative of Naga clan of Asura caste, it is also a synonym word of serpent. In short, it is solely dependent on the rationale of the writers or interpreters or story tellers to rightly understand the context of these words and deduce right meaning accordingly, before making statements or transmitting the concepts to books. A vast majority of the writers used the word Naga out of context. By and large they mistook the Naga clan to be serpents, as, as said, Naga and serpent are synonym words. Likewise, in translations too, instead of Naga clan the word used were serpents or snakes or reptiles. In this way every book or every context related to Naga clan was confused to be of serpents or snakes’ or reptiles’. With these sort of stories and interpretations, present day Hindus – as well as others who deal with such books or stories – are forced to carry such inexplicably illogical concepts in their imagination that Nagas were human like serpents, and again they had kings, kingdoms, dynasties and what not – they had everything that humans had, they did everything that humans do but even in the face of all those, they were not humans but ‘human like creatures’, in the sense they were either with human head and serpent body or with serpent head and human body or with any other combination of human and serpent, which was left to individual’s imagination.
17. At this juncture, we have to move a bit more out, to have an enlarged vision of factualities, so as to know whether this confusion has happened only in the case of Naga clan or in the case of other pre-Vedic castes or clans too. Here, if one is prepared to use his or her rationale, can well see that this misrepresentation of facts has happened in the case of various entities like Asuras, Rakshasas, Devas, Vanaras etc. in general. And, it is this misunderstanding that occurred to later day mythology writers and their interpreters that became a fatal blow to Hindu Religion in general, and reduced its mythological and related texts just to the level of silly children’s story books, which a child alone can enjoy seriously – leaving aside totally the vital historical narrations it dealt about. Which rational man or woman can take seriously the stories of Nagas, Asuras and Devas etc. explained in the said texts or observe seriously the rites based on them, being explained currently day in and out, by various great men, concerning the spirituality? Can any enlightened human just gulp these spiritual exhortations and remain contented the way they are expected of? How many are aware that these are certain vital parts of the evolution of Hindu religion in which almost the entire continent took part and it is the sheer ignorance of a handful few that made these bundle of illogical contradictions ?
18. Let us now attempt to find out the root reasons that lead to the present day confusion pictured above. While Brahma is stated to be the creator of beings in the Hindu Religion, the lineages of various entities or sections like Devas, Asuras, Nagas etc. are attributed to his son’s son Kashyapa and his various wives, as indicated earlier. Sage Kashyapa is stated to be the son of Marichi, the conceptual son (Maanasa-putra) of Brahma, who again is one among the seven great rishis (Saptarishies). These details are provided with little to considerable variations in different epical and mythological texts. Also, certain details of it are traceable from Vedas and related texts too. Whatever may be the variations that different texts provide, it is an accepted view that the genesis as hinted above started with Rishi Kashyapa and his wives. However, it must be distinctly understood that along with Devas, Dhaityas, Dhanavas, Nagas, Garudas etc., the descendants of Kashyapa in various wives, there had been another caste in existence with them, whose name itself was ‘Manav’ (Humans). While some suggest the origin of Manav from Kashyapa, some suggest it to the Swayambhuva Manu, who was conceptual son of Brahma. And again Manu, that is the current Manu viz. Vaivaswata Manu, is the grandson of Kashyapa. (Kashyap’s son’s son, that is sun or Aditya or Vivaswan’s son).
The Great Twist
19. In the pre-Mahabharat and pre mythological periods, instead of Varnas, people were described and identified on the basis of their castes, to be specific on the basis of the pre-Vedic castes. In short, instead of identifying the people as Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras, people were identified as Devas, Asuras, Nagas, Manavas, Gandharvas, Yakshas etc. etc. In replacement of the old caste names as mentioned, the new Varna names were brought to practice. However, it should be understood that the new systems did not take over the old caste names fully, for a long period of time. While the intellectuals and others from old Pre-Vedic castes formed in to the new Brahmanical and other classes, the earlier caste names were also in use, for a greater period of time, probably, mainly, on account of their disagreement with the new system, or, to explain the roots of people – as it was important in those social systems. Again Devas, Asuras, Dhanavas etc. are called pre-Vedic castes, because, it is from Mandala 10 of Rig Veda only the concept of Varnas, as Chtur-Varnya appears – though the system must have been in practice from a much earlier period. Also, though the chatur-varnya concept must have taken stable roots among the human caste from an ancient period, it might not have been accepted evenly by the Asura caste etc. An example for this is available in Garga Samhita. In this book, sage Garga explains a context in which Kamsa confronted Parasurama. Furious Parasurama attempted to kill Kamsa, presuming him to be a Kshatriya. On this point Kamsa requests Parasurama to absolve him of his fury, as he is not a Kshatriya but only an Asura. Here Parasurama pardoned him and blessed him with a special bow and arrow (1/6/30-42, Garga Samhita). What does this story indicate? It only means that in Asura caste, Varna system was not evenly accepted or yet being accepted only. It also has to be remembered in this context that, though Pandavas and Srikrishna were also Asuras – being them coming in the lineage of Sharmishta and Devayani, as explained in the initial part of this article – they still had accepted the Varna system.
20. Incidentally, it needs to be stated here that there are instances in the Hindu religious texts, where the lineage of an individual is decided at times on the basis of mother’s caste and at another times on the basis father’s caste. However, it appears that lineage on the basis of mother’s caste is more appropriate, as the very basis of deciding the basic castes like Deva, Asura, Naga etc. is mother only, as father in all those cases was one and the same person, that is sage Kashyapa.
21. With the advent of the new system, that is Varna system, it has to be presumed that all pre-Vedic caste people gradually came to the prominent classification of Manavas (Humans) and their Varna system and other pre-Vedic caste names started disappearing slowly from the general community.
22. While the earlier system was in prevalence, no communities had any ill will or wrong notions about others, as somebody belonging to a totally different group of living beings like lions, tigers, cows and so on. They all, that is, the Asuras, Devas, Humans etc. all appreciated the other one just as another one, belonging to another family or caste – not as somebody belonging to another set of living beings, as is explained earlier. This situation underwent a sea change with the total prevalence of Varna system – the basis of which was a homogenous human group.
23. When generations progressed in this way, people started looking at the names viz. Devas, Asuras, Gandharvas etc. with suspicion as they started feeling that they were not humans like ‘us’. And they cannot be blamed totally for this situation, too. Because, apart from various pre-Vedic castes like Devas, Asuras etc., they have been told that Humans (Manav) were, descended down from Manu, as explained earlier. When generations progressed over centuries and millenniums, they suspected the Devas, Asuras etc. were not humans at all. However they were not prepared to segregate them as sets of different creatures like elephants and lions etc., as historically, they had learnt that they all had mutual marital relations. Like Bhim married Hidumbi and Ghadorgaj was their son out of this relation. Again, as already said, Arjun was married to Ulupi and they had a son in it. All these line of information made the later day people who embraced the Varna system from the previous pre-Vedic caste system to think that the Devas, Asuras etc., were not complete Humans and may be ‘Human like creatures’.
24. It may perhaps be a matter of common sense which needs no explanation that the epical and mythological texts in the current format were written by a recent generation, based on the information or seeds of stories passed on to them from the ancient past. The seeds of all this historical stories were passed on from ancient times, through various Vedic and other spiritual recensions, chiefly through memory, as writing books, as is seen now, had yet not been in practice until recently. While all these mythological and epical texts were written in the last about 2000 years or so, its seeds belonged to a period of about 5000 years or 10,000 years or more of a prior period. Like the Mahabharata period is more than 5000 years earlier, Ramayana and other Vedic stories belonged to a much earlier period. While the authorship of all Mythological and related texts have been rightly vested with Maharshi Veda Vyasa (Krishna Dwaipayana), it must be distinctly understood that he only passed on all these seeds or essence or briefs of all the texts and they were written or transmitted to written records on later periods, as mentioned, by later generations of various recensions. In this process, if the actual writers failed to grasp the crux of the information or story, passed on to them, in the context of the time frame in which it was enacted, they were to surely miss many vital aspects. In such a situation the resultant story shall become illogical to human grasping or become a monumental work of blind belief. And this was what exactly happened.
25. Let us now come to the point straight. In simple words, it has to be admitted that, to a certain extent, the mythology writers and subsequently their interpreters, including the spiritualists currently propagating it, could not conceive the essence of the information passed on to them, in the context it was told or enacted. Our early ancestors passed on information or stories of their period, which as said, was probably of a period of Mahabharat or Vedic, or ones prior to that, for our knowledge and guidance. Our immediate ancestors inscribed those in to epical and mythological stories. For the purpose of clarity in grasping the facts, let us call the ancestors who wrote the mythological and epical texts as immediate ancestors and the ones passed on the seeds of it from a period of 5000 or 10000 or more years prior to it, that is from a far distant past, be called ancient ancestors, for the purpose of these discussions. Now the problem was that, our immediate ancestors, who wrote it into books, could not digest the original viewpoints passed on to them by ancient ancestors. And our current day’s confusions are the resultants of these missing or mistaken concepts.
26. While amplifying this point little more, it can be observed that the crux of the whole misunderstanding of the immediate ancestors started with their failure to rightly understand or grasp the proper concept of word ‘Manav,’ that it indicated only one caste among the various pre-Vedic castes like Devas, Asuras etc. and it therefore did not represent all humans of that time, as is it now. In short, it represented only the descendants of Manu – like Kauravas the descendants of Kuru and Pandavas the descendants of Pandu or Yadavas the descendants of Yadu. In other words, the word Manav did not possess a meaning of Human, as is attributed to it now, when it existed with other pre-Vedic castes.
27. In a nut shell, the mistake of the immediate ancestors who wrote the mythological and epical texts etc. of the current format was that they could not differentiate the meaning of the word ‘Manav’ in the pre-Vedic context and at the time of their writing the texts. They could not grasp that, in the seeds of stories they got from early ancestors, the word ‘Manav’ meant only one human caste (like Devas, Asuras, Nagas etc.) and it did not stand for entire human groups as is now. It is this fatal mistake that made many narrations of those texts totally preposterous.
28. Now on the basis of the detailed explanation brought out above, every Hindu need to bring extreme clarity on his or her thought process that the Asuras, Devas, Nagas etc., on whom they entertain thoughts that they are not humans but ‘Human like creatures’ are actual humans only like their parents and known grandparents. And it is the immediate ancestors, who wrote the Mythological and related texts and its subsequent interpretations, are the ones responsible for the current mess – though in no way it was a deliberate action at all. Understand it well: Devas, Asuras, Dhanavas, Nagas, Vanaras, Garudas etc. etc. are not human like creatures but humans only.
29. An important mistake occurred in introducing Vali (Bali), Hanuman, Sugriva etc. as tailed monkeys in the Ramayana deserves a special mention here. How this happened to Maharshi Valmiki, when he was told to be an actor in the Ramayan story himself? While the story unfolds in Ramayana, Valmiki happened to be an actor of it and therefore he has to be considered a contemporary to Bhagwan Sriram. But in reality, as per the contents of Ramayana itself, he was not a contemporary of Bhagwan Sriramachandra and therefore he was not an actor of Ramayana. Its proof is lying in the initial part of Ramayana itself (Balkhand beginning), wherein it is stated that the Ramayana story was told to him by Rishi Naradha – and the occasion or intense feeling for writing the story as Ramayana was derived from the disheartening sight of a krouncha bird of a pair being killed by a hunter. Maharshi Valmiki was expanding the seed story of Ramayana he got from Rishi Naradha. In essence, if Hanuman or Sugriva or Vali etc. were all introduced by him as tailed monkeys, it must be most probably for the reasons that he mistook the humans of pre-Vedic caste of Vanaras for monkeys – in line with the confusion occurred in the case of other castes like Asuras, Nagas etc. He must have taken the meaning of the word Vanara, as it existed, when he wrote it. It is also not confirmed as to whether the presently available Valmiki Ramayana was written by him or anybody in his lineage, on a later date, as per the seed story passed on from him, which he originally got from rishi Naradha. This is particularly relevant as the Ramayana in its present format was believed to have been written 2000 to 2500 years before – which in fact should have been at least 7000 years earlier, that is the period tentatively suggested as Bhagwan Sriram’s period, if Valmiki was his contemporary.
30. While Devas, Asuras, Nagas etc. were all humans, they were all group of people with various levels of physical and mental abilities not common with the ‘Manav’ caste of those times. Each caste or group had its own ways to attain immortality, shape shifting, control on basic elements, knowledge about cosmos, giant strength, magical powers, sorcery and black magic, regenerative abilities, mastery over dark energies, abilities to manipulate reality, abilities to heal and protect etc. etc. Each group or caste had its own gurus to teach their deserving people and it was kept as secret from others. In essence, it can be concluded that they were experts of various spiritual abilities currently known as Ashtaiswaryas, Siddhis, other yogic feats etc. plus a lot, unknown to this generation. In comparison with others, Manav’s (humans group’s) ability to such exclusive knowledge was less, though they too had people of mastery over such matters like Parasurama, Bhishmaacharya, Dhronaacharya etc. It was in such a context Ravana did not give adequate weightage to humans while asking a boon from Brahma – and that ended in his death by a Manav. While he asked the boon for not getting killed by Devas, Nagas, Dhaityas etc. he made it clear to Brahma that he is not at all bothered about humans as he ignores them like (a blade of) grass. (Valmiki Ramayana, Uttara Khanda, 10th Sarga, 18th and 19th Verses). The human groups in general were more timid, compassionate and principled. From these explanations, it must be clear that though the Devas, Asuras etc. were all humans only basically, their abilities of those times were much beyond the imaginations of current human generations, and to that extent, whatever are stated in the texts as their powers, are all need to be accepted as absolute facts. In short, what has been corrected here is only their status as human and no denial of any sort is made on their supernatural powers, explained in the ancient texts.
31. As already hinted, while evaluating or eliciting factualities from the epical or mythological or other similar texts, one has to exercise utmost care, as those were written mostly with the objective of providing moral advices to the readers, to have a contended spiritual life. The historicity elaborated there has become almost insignificant due to the overtone of illogicalities of players, as the ones explained hitherto, contained in it. Apart from these, a reader of these texts also has to bear certain basic aspects of the evolution of a normal society in mind, for imbibing its essence. As one can see, the Hindu society is consisted of various castes and sub-castes which were formed from various races and sub-races like Australoids, Negroids, Dravidians, Mongoloids, Indo Aryans etc. who might have been natives to this subcontinent or later day settlers. Whatever that may be, the religiosity of this nation is not decided on the basis of any racial or sub-racial features of any particular set of people, but on the basis of the monolithic nature of the resultant Hinduism or Sanathana Dharma, to which all races and sub-races merged and made it an indivisible entity. The inspiration for formation of such a homogenous society from such divergent groups of people was the greatness of the Sanathana Dharma concept, which created an ambience for inter marital relations between all basic pre-Vedic castes, underlining the concept of oneness of Humanity, that this religion upholds. One can see on reading through the puranas and epical texts etc. that, there had been marital relations between Devas, Asuras, Nagas, Rakshasas, Yakshas, Gandharvas, Vidhyadharas etc., mutually, as explained and exemplified in the initial part of this article. The present day Hindu society is an inseparably combined mixture of the pre-Vedic castes. It is an indivisible block of a monolithic religiosity, and it cannot be split on the basis of any races or sub-races or regions or languages etc. by anyone. Again, the castes, that is the pre-Vedic castes, have to be considered as the organic or functional or interactional form of the racial human and from the period he formed into the Sanathana dharma, his racial or sub-racial identity got fully dissolved in to the Hindu religiosity or tenets of Sanathana Dharma.
32. Incidentally, it needs to be added here that while the society may still continue to use the vocabulary like Rakshasa, Asura etc. in accordance with the common practice of earlier periods, to explain certain inhuman or wicked personality, it has to be born in mind with clarity that beyond the attributes concepted with these words, they were all perfect humans – and not any special beings.
33. Now a brief insight into the concept of sons (Maanasa-putras etc.) of Brahma, explained in various epical, mythological and related texts etc. under mention. It has to be understood that in Hindu literature, the pupils of a preceptor were also called sons or daughters. Therefore, wherever the word son is used, in relation to a preceptor (Guru), including Brahma, it can be a son as well as pupil (Shishya) too. Now, when a rishi is mentioned as a progenitor of a caste, it equally means that he or she is the most prominent person (Pravara) of the group, known since the advent of rational human and who happened to be the pupil (Shishya) of Brahma, in the instant cases of Pre-Vedic castes. The genesis being explained can be rightly assessed, if only viewed through these rational view points, maintained by the ancestors. The concept of Brahma’s Maanasa-putras, various Prajapathies, Saptarshies etc. have to be viewed through this logic, to rightly understand the viewpoints they convey.
34. Having concluded that the various Pre-Vedic castes like Devas, Asuras, Nagas etc. were humans only, let us now concentrate on Nagas and Nairs, which was the initial point in the current discussions. As explained above, since the latter generations could not conceive the difference between various pre-Vedic castes like Devas, Asuras etc. and Humans, they (the Devas, Asuras etc.) were being projected as the symbols of positivities and negativities in accordance with the stories they appear, through generations, in various texts. Accordingly, while Devas were projected as beautiful humans with added hands etc. to indicate extra strength and so on, Asuras were shown as terrible creatures in the human format with protruding teeth and horns etc. While it came to the case of Nagas, the story writers (immediate ancestors) got it easy to attribute them a definite shape. This shape was nothing but that of a serpent (with body or head that of human or snake) as primarily serpent, that is ‘Sarpa’, was a synonym of Naga. Added to this was the fact that Nairs worshiped serpents and considered serpent as the symbol of ‘kundalini’ force that they were aware of and practiced. With all these, people of Naga clan was portrayed as snakes in human form – as in the cases of Devas, Asuras etc. in certain peculiar formats, as explained above. These lead to the misunderstanding of portraying the great Naga kings like Ananda (shesha), Takshaka etc., as peculiar snake like creatures, when in reality they ruled great parts of this country or continent as emperors. Thus the great Ashta Nagas (Eight great Nagas) etc. became funny creatures before the eyes of their own descendants. Even the fact that the very name of Takshasila stemmed up from Takshaka did not arouse any sense of curiosity with the subsequent generations to look in to the etymology of the word at least.
35. As an extension of the aforementioned study, let us also have a look in to the physical history, to have a closer look at the Naga Kings and their kingdoms. Historicity reveals that Nagas were the prominent kings of Bharatvarsha in the millenniums prior to Mahabharat period. Ramayana says that Ravana defeated the Naga king Vasuki of Bhogavathi Puram and snatched the wife of his younger brother viz. Thakshaka. And during Mahabharat period itself they were prominent rulers. Apart from kings and emperors, as we have seen, that they were great Vedic rishis too. Anandha (Shesha), Vasuki, Karkotaka etc. were some of their common names. In the history, the great Pathanjali appears to be belonging to Naga clan. Further, rishi lineage of Kanva etc. shows that he too, in all probability belonged to this clan. Another prominent name to be mentioned here is Parshwanath, the founder of Jainism. The serpent symbol used by him must be an indication that he belonged to Naga dynasty, though this aspect needs more concrete proof. If to name, there are a lot to mention about the great kings, rishis etc., belonging of Naga clan. Since that is not the objective of this short article, and as this limited explanation itself is enough to prove beyond doubt that the great Nagas described in the Vedas, Mythologies, Epics etc. were pure humans or humans alone, and not serpents, it is felt that the objective of the discussion is fairly met with.
36. Let us now revisit the discussion on the origin of Nairs and Naga clan or Naga caste, towards the winding up of these discussions. On watching closely, it may be seen that the Nairs of Kerala is one such group, who still by and large seen adhering to certain features of Naga culture including serpent worship, worship of ancestors, involve in treatments of snake poison etc. Though the elaborate system of worship as explained in the initial part of this study is now rare among the community, basic systems of worship is still maintained by the community in general, like lighting an oil wick before the serpent idols kept in the home compound wherever possible, visiting the temples where serpent idols are installed at least on special occasions etc. etc. The most important link that connect Nair community to Naga Clan, apart from the serpent worship, expertise in ayurvedic and kalari systems which are closely related to their profession as warriors, abilities in kundalini related tantric matters etc. is the information available in an ancient book related to the inhabitant people of the state of Kerala, when Brahmins started settling in Kerala. This book viz. ‘Keralolppatthi’, is written in ancient Malayalam. From this book, one can well make out that it was Nairs who were early settlers and rulers of Kerala and were the ones who opposed the settlements of Brahmins here. As per this book, probably written under the aegis of brahmanical community (exact author of this book is unclear – though some are attributing it to Thunjathu Ramanujan Ezutthachan), these brahmanical settlements were being accomplished under the leadership of Parasurama. It is clearly stated in this book that his (Parasurama’s) initial efforts for making settlements could not meet with success as ‘Sarpamgal’ (Nagas) opposed it. His subsequent attempts only could meet with success as by then he could control them. As usual in the explanations about Nagas elsewhere, here too, Nagas have been explained as ‘sarpas’ and Nagas interchangingly, considering it as synonym words. Again, it is mentioned in this book that once the Brahmins were forced to retreat initially, the ‘Nagatthans’ ruled the state again for a long time. In another version of this book in the name of Tunjathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, it is also explained specifically that the word nagas used in the book has to be understood as those belonging to Naga tribes. Though the Keralolppatthi cannot be considered a perfect historical record, to prove the present point in mention, that is Kerala was earlier ruled by Nagas and the word Naga was also being used as Sarpa (serpent) – being it a synonym – interchangingly, it is a monumental work to quote. The fun is that there were people still in the state, who believed that the message of the book was that serpents could foil the great Parasurama’s plan. If one could accept that Parasurama, an incarnation of Vishnu, could be deterred by serpents, what logic can convince them to see the realities?
37. The Sarpakaves being maintained in various compounds by Nair families were primarily for upholding the customs they followed as Nagas. As hinted earlier, these includes making available requisite ayurvedic herbs for treatments especially for snake bites, protecting the nature in the possible virgin form, worship of ancestors, making possible an environment for kundalini related tantric practices etc. etc. It was believed that if the Kaves (Sarpakaves) are destroyed, village shall be ruined. It is doubtful that though the system originated with such pious objective, whether the later generations could grasp or conceive the great concepts behind it, as many Sarpakaves ended up as places of superstition of various kinds. While traditions and rituals have an important place in purification of minds, on the onward journey of individuals and communities towards realization and for the same, if the Sarpakaves can be saved of superstitions and consider as places of nature worship, with due importance for Ayurveda, including snake bite related and other poison treatments, it still has a great place in modern society.
38. In essence, while winding up these discussions it needs to be stated that the great ideals of Nagas can be followed through serpent worship, if only it is filtered through the Vedic logic. Otherwise, it will end up as wasteful and illogical exercises like reducing the great Ashtanaga kings of Naga dynasty as mere funny creatures and so on. In short, it is essential that the systems related to serpent worship are sanitized, sensitized and sanctified, so that, the beliefs won’t remain a stumbling block, in the efforts of the individuals and community towards realization, that Sanathana Dharma advocates.
Dated: 12/04/2025.