Elements of Hindu Iconography v4.c35.s2.1

v4.c35.s2.1

The Nāgas are, according to the purāṇic authorities, a race of serpents who inhabited the Pātāla-lōka or the nether regions. The Mahābhārata and the Varāhapurāṇa give the origin of the Nāgas. By Dākshayaṇī, the daughter of Daksha, Kaśyapa begot the seven serpents beginning with Vāsuki. Their progeny increased and the world was flooded with serpents to the great detriment of man. The latter complained to Brahmā about the hardship caused to them by the serpents. Brahmā summoned the serpents to his presence and cursed them to be ruined by the imprecations of their mother which she uttered in the Svāyambhuva-manvantara and banished them to the Pātāla-lōka with the command that they should not bite any human beings, except those who were predestined to die a premature death and those that were really bad. We learn from the Mahābhārata that the Nāgas were the sons of Kadru and Kaśyapa, that they induced their step-brother Vainatēya (Garuḍa) to fetch for them the amṛita (ambrosia) preserved in the kingdom of Indra, that they were made to grant freedom to Vinata and her sons from the voluntary bondage they had entered into under Kadru, that they were deprived of the amṛita brought down by Garuḍa, that Indra carried it away once again to his abode, that by licking the *kuśa* grass on which the vessel of *amṛita* was placed they had their tongues split in twain and other accounts. In historical times, portions of India were inhabited by a race of men who went by the name of the Nāgas and they are said to have formed the majority of persons who joined the newly started Buddhistic religion. Some scholars of Malabar are inclined to believe that the modern Nāyars (Śudras) of Malabar might be descendants of the early Nāgas, a name which, in modern times might have been corrupted into Nāyars. The hypothesis is more fictitious and fanciful, than real and tenable.