Agnipurana 293

English (machine translation) 293

Language: English

293.6 — 3 parts
293.17 — 3 parts
293.28 — 3 parts
293.39 — 1 part
293.41 — 3 parts

293.1

The classes of serpents and others, the ten conditions and locations, and the action,
the astrological birth-omen, and the behavior of the bitten—these are declared to be the seven characteristics.

293.2

Śeṣa, Vāsuki, named Takṣaka, Karkaṭa, Abja, Mahāmbuja, / Śaṅkhapāla, and Kulika—these are the eight chief serpents.

293.3

Endowed with ten, eight, five, and three times a hundred hoods in order, / two are declared brāhmaṇas, one king, two vaiśyas, and two śūdras among serpents.

293.4

Their lineage consists of five hundred, and innumerable ones were born from them. / Hooded, circulatory, and striped [snakes] consist of wind, bile, and phlegm [respectively].

293.5

Intermediate [snakes] have mixed humors; hooded snakes are known as darvīkaras, / bearing [the marks of] a chariot-wheel, a plough, an umbrella, a svastika, or an elephant-goad.

293.6

Gonasas are slow-moving, long, and covered with circles of various kinds.

293.6.p2

1. 'rathāṅgalāṅgalatramuṣṭikāṅkuśadhāriṇaḥ' according to manuscript kha.

293.6.p3

2. 'sthitāḥ' according to manuscript kha.
[p. 89]

293.6_2

Rājilas are variegated, glossy, and [marked] horizontally and vertically with stripes.

293.7

Intermediate snakes have mixed marks; [they are divided according to] earth, rain, fire, and wind. / They are of four kinds with twenty-six varieties; the gonasas are sixteen [varieties].

293.8

The rājilas are thirteen, and the intermediate ones are twenty-one. / Snakes that are born at an improper time are remembered as intermediate snakes.

293.9

Conception occurs in the three months beginning with Āṣāḍha; in four months [the embryo develops]. / Two hundred and forty eggs are laid.

293.10

The serpents swallow their brood of offspring, except for females, males, and neuters. / The eyes open after seven days; after a month [the snake] becomes dark outside.

293.11

From twelve days there is clear awareness; teeth emerge from the sight of the sun. / In thirty-two days or twenty, among them there are four fangs:

293.12

Karālī, Makarī, Kālarātrī, and Yamadūtikā. / These are the poisonous fangs situated on the left and right sides.

293.13

After six months it sheds its skin; it lives for one hundred and twenty years. / The seven serpents are declared the lords of the days beginning with Sunday, day and night.

293.14

Kulika [presides] in all junctions, with six [portions] for their own respective days; / or its rising occurs together with Śaṅkha or Mahābja,

293.15

or the rising of Kulika lasts for a measure of two nāḍikās. / That time is inauspicious everywhere, especially in snakebites.

293.16

Kṛttikā, Bharaṇī, Svātī, Mūla, the three Pūrvas, Aśvinī, / Viśākhā, Ārdrā, Maghā, Āśleṣā, Citrā, Śravaṇā, Rohiṇī,

293.17

Hastā, the days of Saturn and Mars, the fifth and eighth lunar days,

293.17.p2

1. 'nāḍikāmātrasantrakam' according to manuscript ña.

293.17.p3

2. 'vinirdiśet' according to manuscripts ka, kha, ja, and ṭa.
[p. 90]

293.17_2

the sixth, empty, and auspicious [tithis are deemed] reprehensible, as well as the fifth and fourteenth.

293.18

The four twilights are inauspicious, as are burnt configurations and zodiacal signs. / The bites are one, two, or many, and [classified as] bitten, pierced, and torn.

293.19

[The bite] without fang-marks is concealed; thus the bite is of four kinds. / Bites may have three, two, or one puncture, with pain and profuse bleeding.

293.20

Bites at night resembling a turtle with one foot are impelled by Yama. / Bites that feel like creeping ants, accompanied by swelling and pain in the throat,

293.21

with pricking pain and hardening, are venomous; the rest are non-venomous. / [A bite inflicted] in a temple, an abandoned house, an anthill, the hollow of a garden [tree],

293.22

at a road junction, in a cremation ground, at a river, at a confluence with the ocean, / on an island, at a crossroads, in a palace, in a house, at a lotus pond, before a mountain,

293.23

at the opening of a hole, in an old well, in a ruined house, against a wall, / on a moringa, a śleṣmātaka, an akṣa tree, or among jambū and udumbara trees,

293.24

or on a banyan tree, an old rampart, or on the cavity of the mouth, heart, armpit, collarbone, / palate, temple, throat, head, chin, navel, or feet—

293.25

such a bite is inauspicious. An auspicious messenger has flowers in hand, speaks well, is wise, / is equal in gender and caste [to the bitten person], wears white garments, is clean, and is pure.

293.26

One who approaches by the wrong door, carries a weapon, is careless, looks at the ground, / wears discoloured garments, holds a noose or the like, speaks with a stammering voice,

293.27

leans on dry wood, is depressed, has hands smeared with sesamum, wears rags, / wears wet clothes, has black and red flowers in the hair,

293.28

presses the breast, cuts nails, touches the anus, scratches the feet,

293.28.p2

1. Variant reading: 'with a bite, obscured' in manuscript ña.

293.28.p3

2. Variant reading: 'accompanied by dryness and pain in the throat' in manuscript ña. / [Page 91]

293.28_2

pulls hair, or cuts grass—such messengers are evil, one and all.

293.29

Whether the iḍā or the other [nāḍī] flows in two ways, if of the messenger or of oneself, / from both of these, through its strength, one should recognise female, male, or neuter.

293.30

The limb that the messenger touches, at that limb one should declare the bite. / The movement of the messenger's foot is evil; standing still is auspicious.

293.31

A messenger on the living [favourable] side is auspicious; one arriving on the other is evil. / The living breath that comes and goes is inauspicious; it is auspicious during the messenger's report.

293.32

The messenger's speech is corrupted if spoken with the first half censured; / by dividing the ends of his speech, the venomous or non-venomous period [is known].

293.33

By the initial vowels and the vargas beginning with ka, the script is twofold. / The vowel-born possesses wealth; the varga-born and its dismissal make up the mātṛkā.

293.34

The four [letters] in the vargas have the nature of wind, fire, Indra, and water; / the fifth [letters] are neuter; the vowels originate from Indra and water.

293.35

The speech and feet of the messenger are evil [if belonging to] wind and fire; the middle one is Viṣṇu. / Letters belonging to Varuṇa are praised; neuter letters are extremely evil.

293.36

At departure, auspicious speech, the roar of clouds or elephants, / a clockwise circumambulation, a fruitful tree, and a sound on the left bring victory.

293.37

Auspicious are sounds of singing and the like; the contrary leads to failure: / inauspicious songs, lamentation, a cry on the right, or a sneeze.

293.38

A courtesan, one who sneezed, a king, a maiden, a cow, an elephant, a tabor, a banner, / milk, clarified butter, curds, a conch, water, an umbrella, a kettle-drum, fruit, spirits,

293.39

rice grains, gold, and silver—these, met facing forward, lead to success. / One carrying wood, fire, an artisan, one wearing dirty garments,

293.40

one with an axe at the neck, a jackal, a vulture, an owl, cowries, / oil, a skull, cotton—[these encountered] upon forbidding lead to destruction, and ashes bring ruin.

The stages of venom are seven, through its passage from one bodily tissue to another. / The venomous bite travels to the forehead, then to the eye, then to the mouth, / and from the mouth to the vocal channels; thus it reaches the bodily tissues in succession.

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Agnipurāṇa (Nag Publishers edition, Delhi) — Sanskrit

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Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit

Agnipurana 293

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