Indian Serpent-Lore, or the Nagas in Hindu Legend and Art

Regarding Indian snake-worship, after a general survey of the Nāgas, Auguste Barth says: ¹

“These brief points are enough to show that the serpent religions of India form a complex whole, one that cannot be explained simply as a worship of fear original: "deprecation". We can distinguish three parts: (1) the direct adoration of the animal itself, which is the most formidable and mysterious of all human enemies; (2) a worship of the deities of the waters, springs, and rivers, symbolized by the waving form of the serpent; and (3) concepts similar to that of the Vedic Ahi A serpent-demon in the Rig-veda, which are closely connected with the great myth of the storm and the struggle of light against darkness.”

Professor Moritz Winternitz,² of Prague, likewise emphasizes the many-sided character of Indian snake-worship in a very skilled and extensive article, which is certainly one of the most important contributions to our knowledge of the subject.

Before beginning our account of the historical development and various aspects of Indian snake-worship, there is one more point to consider. Several writers, such as James Fergusson,³ have argued that Indian snake-worship was non-Aryan in its origin. According to them, the Aryans adopted it from the Dasyus a term used in ancient Vedic texts for indigenous or non-Aryan peoples, the dark-skinned indigenous people of the Peninsula. One of the main arguments brought forward in support of this view is the fact that in the Rig-veda—the earliest of the four Vedas—no reference to snake-worship is made. It should, however, be remembered that the Rig-veda-samhitā is a collection of about a thousand hymns, and we cannot expect to find a complete picture of the civilization of those days within them.⁴

In the Yajur-veda, and especially in the Atharva-veda, serpent-worship is clearly and unambiguously mentioned. The same is true of later Vedic literature.

In this connection, it should also be noted that the legendary snake-kings have personal names that are almost always purely Aryan, not Dravidian.⁵ The very word nāga, by which these serpent demons are generally known, is thought to be related to the English word “snake,” and consequently is Indo-Germanic the older term for Indo-European in its origin.

If we wish to explain serpent-worship, we must start from the animal itself,⁶ which...

¹ Auguste Barth, The Religions of India (1882), pp. 266 f.; Works original: "Oeuvres", vol. 1 (1914), p. 230.
² Moritz Winternitz, The Sarpabali: An Ancient Indian Serpent Cult original: "Der Sarpabali, ein altindischer Schlangencult", Communications of the Anthropological Society in Vienna original: "Mitteil. der anthropol. Gesellschaft in Wien", vol. xviii (1888), pp. 25 ff. and 250 ff.
³ See original: "Vide" also L. von Schroder, India’s Literature and Culture in Historical Development original: "Indiens Literatur und Kultur in historischer Entwicklung" (1887), p. 377. But compare M. Winternitz, in the work cited original: "op cit", pp. 262 ff.
⁴ H. Oldenberg, The Literature of Ancient India original: "Die Literatur des alten Indien" (1903), p. 23: “The life and thought of the ancient Indians were reflected only incompletely in this mass of songs.” original: "Leben und Denken der alten Inder spiegelte sich in dieser Liedermasse nur unvollstandig wider."
⁵ M. J. Przyluski informs me that, in his opinion, the prefix ku- found in the Nāga names Kuthara, Kuhara, etc., seems to point to a possible connection with non-Aryan languages. The same scholar is inclined to assign an Austro-Asiatic origin to the name Karkota, which apparently means “the Crested One.”
⁶ Monier Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India (1883), p. 319.