Snakes are used in Sanskrit in many ways, such as Uraka, Sarpa, Bhujanga, but the most common word is ‘Naka’ or ‘Nakhi’ in the female gender. The author found that ‘Naka’ is often used when referring to snakes of high birth, including a type of non-human with great virtue and divine nature.
In addition to referring to snakes, Naga or Nak in Buddhist literature also refers to important elephants, such as ‘Paccayanakendra’ in the Maha Vessantara Jataka, and also refers to excellent people. However, in this article, when the word Nak is used, it refers to ordinary snakes. If referring to Nak with divine nature, the word ‘Nakraj’ is used.
For example, the Mahabharata mentions the origin of Nak and the conflict between Garuda and Nak, stating that the Rishi Kasyapa had many wives. Among those wives, two were named Kadru and Vinta. Kadru gave birth to 1,000 eggs, which all hatched into snakes. Vinta gave birth to two eggs. She could not wait for them to hatch so she peeled the first egg before the time came. It turned out to be a beautiful god named ‘Arun’. He was born with a deformed body. In his anger, he cursed his mother to become a slave to Kadru. He would be free only if his younger brother, who was still in the egg, helped him to solve the problem. After that, Arun went to live with the Sun God. The other egg hatched into a Garuda. Later, when Vinta lost a bet, she had to be a slave to Kadru for 500 years. When Garuda brought the elixir of life to the nagas as promised, he redeemed Vinta and made her free.
The Mahabharata also mentions four other important nagas: Shesa, Vasuki, Airavat, and Taksaka.
Here, only two of them will be mentioned: Shesa and Vasuki.
Shesa has a thousand heads. Shesa means leftovers. She got this name because when the world collapsed at the end of the Kalpa, The fragment of the Naga will not be destroyed. The fragment of the Naga also has other names such as Shesa which means the first Naga born and Ananta Shesa means having an infinitely large body. The Puranas mention the size that Shesa Naga can embrace the whole universe within its hood. And in the Mahabharata, there is another story that Lord Brahma asked Shesa Naga to support the earth firmly. Shesa Naga therefore dived into the underworld to support the world and practiced a kind of penance that every mouth would praise Vishnu all the time. Another important duty of Shesa Naga is to spread himself as a bed for Vishnu in the middle of the ocean of milk, hence this form is called ‘Anantasayana’. The fact that Vishnu sleeps on the fragment of the Naga bed with Lakshmi sitting at the end of the bed to serve him is consistent with the belief that Shesa Naga can support the entire earth, meaning that the world rests on the fragment of the Naga. Therefore, it can be concluded that The greatness of Vishnu, the supreme god, is reflected through the concept of ‘Narayana sleeping on the ocean’, which is Vishnu sleeping on the throne of the shard naga, Vishnu is the world, and the world is Vishnu.
In the beliefs of Vaishnavism Hinduism, the role of the shard naga is also shown alongside Vishnu in the suppression of injustice in the Ramayana. When Vishnu incarnated as Rama, the shard naga was born as Lakshmana, his younger brother of the same father. They became monks together and wandered in the forest for many years until they defeated the demon Ravana or Tosakantha in the Thai epic Ramakien. In the Mahabharata, when Vishnu incarnated as Krishna, the shard naga was born as Phalaram, Krishna’s elder brother.
As for Vasuki Naga, the younger brother of the shard naga, he has a special characteristic of having a ‘naga mani’ on his head. This naga is a garland worn on Shiva’s neck to show that Shiva is fearless.
Vasuki’s important role is in the churning of the ocean of milk. In the Puranas, it is stated that gods and demons churned the ocean of milk together to obtain the elixir of life. Vasuki then wrapped himself around the Mandra mountain, which was used as a churning stick. During this time, Vasuki spat out a poison called ‘Lahal’. This poison was very dangerous to all living beings, even gods. Shiva swallowed all the poison and kept it in his neck. Parvati also helped hold Shiva’s neck to prevent him from vomiting smoke. Because of this poison, Shiva’s neck turned black, hence he is also known as Neelakantha, which means black neck.