PREFACE

I gratefully dedicate this book to my friend and colleague, Professor C. C. Uhlenbeck, PhD. As my guru original: "guru"; a teacher or spiritual guide at the University of Amsterdam, he was the first to introduce me to the mysterious world of the Nāgas serpent-deities in Indian mythology, as revealed in the ancient prose of the Paushyaparvan a section of the Mahābhārata epic focusing on the genealogy of the serpents.

In the summer of 1901, a visit to the Kulu Valley a valley in the modern-day Indian state of Himachal Pradesh brought me face-to-face with people who still revere the very same serpent-demons known from early Indian literature. During my later travels through the Western Himalayas—where remote valleys have preserved many ancient beliefs and customs—I had plenty of opportunities to collect information about the worship of the Nāgas as it survives to this day.

Other nations have practiced or still practice animal worship. However, it would be difficult to find another example where it plays such a prominent role in literature, folklore, and art as it does in India. Nor would it be possible to name another country where the development of this cult can be studied over a period of no less than three thousand years. For such a vast amount of time, these deified serpents have captured the imagination of the people of India original: "Hind". Even more astonishing is the endless variety of ways the Nāgas appear in Indian literature and art.

On one hand, we encounter the primitive reptile endowed with the magic properties we usually associate with the dragons of Western fables. On the other hand, the Nāga often has the character of a water-spirit. Furthermore, they may be able to take any form they choose and commonly appear in human shape. In Brahminical original: "Brahmanical"; referring to the ancient social and religious system of the Brahmins legend, a Nāga may become a pious hermit; in Buddhist lore, one may even develop into a selfless saint. Very often, these various types appear strangely blended together.

In this volume, my goal has been to collect the legends relating to the Nāgas found in the Brahminical and Buddhist literature of India. I do not claim that every single Nāga story in that massive body of tradition has been included. However, the three main sources of serpent-lore—the Mahābhārata one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the Jātaka Book a collection of stories about the previous lives of the Buddha, and the Rājatarangiṇī an 11th-century historical chronicle of the kings of Kashmir—have been fully utilized. For the rest, it is doubtful whether much would have been gained by aiming for total completeness. The stories presented here will certainly be enough to show the wide variety of Nāga characteristics I have mentioned.

Since the storytellers of ancient India were fond of using repetition and detail,