Would You Like to Meet a Cobra
useful, cautious, well-equipped to defend itself. Getting to know it better can help us to appreciate a much-maligned member of the animal kingdom.
Cobra Worship and Superstition
COBRA worship has existed from ancient times. The cobra motif has been found on seals at Mohenjo-Daro, one of the oldest civilizations to be unearthed by archaeologists. From the third millennium B.C.E. down to today, millions in India have viewed cobras with superstitious reverence. Interestingly, many of the cobra stories can be recognized as distorted myths built around actual historical happenings.
A creation “story” tells of a time when there was no light in the universe. From dark cosmic waters the brilliant god Vishnu was created first, then heaven, earth, and the underworld. From the leftover material, a gigantic cobra called Shesha (meaning remaining part) was created. Myth credits Shesha with from 5 to 1,000 heads, and images depict Vishnu reclining on the coiled Shesha, sheltered by the open hoods of Shesha’s many heads. Earthquakes are attributed to Shesha’s yawn, and fire from his mouth or his venom destroys the world at the end of an age.
Hindu mythology depicts a cobra-race called Nagas, who inhabit the underworld, Nagalok or Patala. The ape-god Hanuman claims that in the “Perfect Age,” all men were saintly, there was only one religion, and there were no demons or Nagas. The serpents became the guardians of the earth’s wealth and possessed great knowledge and magical powers. Shesha, sometimes also called Vasuki, was used by the gods to churn a sea of milk to produce amrit, a nectar that would give immortality. The underworld, ruled by the Nagas, is portrayed as a most desirable place; warriors who die in battle are promised unimaginable pleasures there.
However, not all mythical cobras are considered benign. One “story” relates an encounter between Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, and Kaliya, a great, malignant demon-cobra. Images show the victorious Krishna with his foot on the head of the great serpent.
Manasa, or Durgamma, queen of the Nagas, is worshiped by women to protect their children from snakebite. On the festival of Nagapanchami, snake devotees pour milk and even blood on images of cobras and down snake holes. Stone or silver images of cobras are worshiped and offered at temples by women hoping to conceive a male child.
The Cobra in Films
The cobra of mythology is a very popular theme in films made in India more than 40 having been produced since 1928. Usually the cobra is depicted as a guardian of goodness, a helper of its devotees, and a destroyer of the wicked. Popular is the myth of the Icchadari cobras, which are said to have the power to take human form. They are said to have one devoted mate. If the mate is killed, the cobra is able to see the image of the killer in the dead snake’s eyes, and it sets off on a trail of revenge. This becomes a lively base for many films. Dominating the story are the snake dances; with music like that of the snake charmer, the dancers imitate the movement of the snake, even slithering on the ground.
A documentary movie, Shakti, was filmed at a festival in Rajasthan, India, where every August hundreds of thousands of snake worshipers meet in the desert. Under a burning sun and in temperatures reaching over 122 degrees Fahrenheit [50°C.], they flagellate themselves with iron rods and crawl on their stomachs more than a mile [2 km] on the scorching sand to the temple of a snake-god, Gogha. A historical king in the tenth century C.E., Gogha is said to have saved his people from Muslim invaders by leading the enemy into a snake-infested area, where the army was decimated by snakebites.
Saved by the Cobra
Two families in Sastur village in India have reason to be grateful to a cobra. They were wakened about 3:50 a.m. on September 30, 1993, by the loud hissing of a cobra as it slithered out of their house. They chased it into the fields to kill it. At 4:00 a.m., the horrendous earthquake in central India flattened their village killing almost everyone. The two families survived thanks to the early-warning system of the cobra!
Did you find this article informative and useful? You can learn and read a lot more articles at this site. http://www.pythonsnake.net