Nāga

Overview

A nāga can be represented as a serpent, a humanlike figure with serpent attributes or a being whose hooded form shelters another sacred figure. Those representations express different contexts rather than a single species description. Nāga stories may concern water, treasures, family descent and conflicts with Garuḍa.

The Mahābhārata’s Āstīka narrative places serpent lineages within a complex account of conflict and its restraint. Buddhist and Southeast Asian uses add other meanings that cannot all be read through that Sanskrit epic. The Met’s Gandharan relief is a specific art-historical witness to Garuḍa and nāga imagery, while present practitioners may understand such figures through active religious relationships.

The selected epic translation gives the serpents a family history. In section XVI, the sisters Kadru and Vinata are wives of Kasyapa. Kadru asks for a thousand equally splendid serpent sons, while Vinata asks for two sons surpassing them in strength. Their eggs hatch at different times; Vinata’s sons are Aruna and Garuda. Section XXXV names Sesha first and Vasuki second among the serpents, followed by Takshaka, Karkotaka and other principal figures. The narrator expressly declines to enumerate all their descendants. This is the epic’s named household and lineage, not a taxonomy of every being called nāga in other traditions.

The quarrel that leads to bondage concerns the celestial horse Uchchaihsravas. Vinata calls it white; Kadru claims that its tail is black, and the sisters stake their freedom on the answer. Kadru orders her sons to become black hairs on the tail. They initially refuse and receive her curse of destruction at Janamejaya’s snake-sacrifice. In section XXII they reconsider and carry out the deception. Kadru wins the apparent test and enslaves Vinata. The sequence therefore includes both an initial refusal and later compliance.

Garuda is made to transport the serpents and asks what will free him and his mother. They demand that he bring amrita. After overcoming its guards, he returns with the vessel and places it on kusa grass, telling the serpents to bathe before drinking. They acknowledge Vinata’s release. While they are away, Indra retrieves the amrita under an agreement with Garuda. The serpents lick the grass where it stood and split their tongues. That is this narrative’s explanation of forked tongues and the grass’s sacredness; they do not successfully drink the elixir in this episode.

The family is not morally uniform. In section XXXVI, Sesha leaves his quarrelling brothers and practises severe austerities, specifically regretting their treatment of Vinata and her son. He calls Garuda another brother. Brahma grants his wish for steadfast virtue and assigns him to support the earth from beneath it; the passage also calls him Ananta. Its ending gives Garuda to him as a helper. These details qualify any simple rule that bird and serpent must always be enemies.

Vasuki convenes the other serpents to seek protection from the threatened sacrifice. Their proposals range from persuasion and obstructing the ritual to killing its officiants. Some explicitly condemn the violent suggestions, and Vasuki is dissatisfied with the counsel. Elapatra then reports a prophecy: the ascetic Jaratkaru will marry Vasuki’s sister, also named Jaratkaru, and their son Astika will save the surviving serpents. Sections XIV–XV narrate the marriage and birth, so the relationship is more than a prophecy left unfulfilled.

The closing sacrifice scene preserves both loss and rescue. Section LVII lists serpent lineages already burned, including descendants associated with Vasuki and Takshaka, and describes varying sizes and numbers of heads. As Takshaka is drawn toward the fire after Indra abandons him, Astika asks Janamejaya to end the sacrifice. He rejects offers of wealth and repeats his request on behalf of his maternal relatives. Astika’s command holds Takshaka in midair; the king grants the boon and the rite stops. The surviving serpents’ subsequent promise to spare those recalling Astika belongs to the religious story, and the ending does not revive those already burned.

A separately located Buddhist account appears in Udāna 2.1. Shortly after the Buddha’s awakening, an unseasonable storm lasts seven days. Muccalinda, called a nāga king, encircles him with seven coils and spreads a protective hood. When the weather clears, Muccalinda withdraws the coils, assumes a young man’s appearance and pays homage. The Buddha’s concluding utterance concerns contentment, restraint, dispassion and relinquishing the conceit of self. Seven here counts the coils; this translation does not specify seven heads. The protective encounter has its own setting and purpose alongside the epic’s family conflicts.

The Met’s schist relief, object 1980.325, is catalogued as Garuda Vanquishing the Naga Clan and dated approximately to the second–third century in ancient Gandhara, now Pakistan. Its object date supplies a material witness to representation. It does not date the composition of the epic or identify the first origin of nāga traditions.

Origins & earliest records

Selected evidence includes a Gandharan schist relief dated approximately second–third century by the Met, the composite Mahābhārata in Ganguli’s nineteenth-century English translation, and Udāna 2.1 in Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu’s published translation. Object dates, textual composition and translation dates are distinguished; none establishes one first appearance of all nāga traditions.

Records & interpretation

Complete selected Ganguli sections XIII–XVI, XX, XXII–XXXVIII and LV–LVIII read, including genealogy, conflicting counsel and the sacrifice ending. Complete Udāna 2.1 checked on the translator’s current site after the older Access to Insight version; the article paraphrase is under 150 words and quotes none of the modern translation. Met object metadata checked. No complete Sanskrit/Pāli collation or new object-image inspection claimed.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Āstīka narrative — family, curse and horse-tail wager

   Traditionally attributed to Vyāsa; English translation Kisari Mohan Ganguli · English translation published 1883–1896

   Located sections XIII–XVI, XX, XXII–XXIII. Complete selected sections read; other intervening ocean-churning sections not claimed as newly read.

2. 02

   Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Āstīka narrative — Garuda bargain, forked tongues and serpent counsel

   Traditionally attributed to Vyāsa; English translation Kisari Mohan Ganguli · English translation published 1883–1896

   Located sections XXIV–XXXVIII. Complete selected sequence read. XXXV names principal serpents; XXXVI gives Sesha’s ascetic and earth-supporting role; XXXVIII gives the prophecy.

3. 03

   Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Āstīka narrative — Astika’s appeal and the end of the snake-sacrifice

   Traditionally attributed to Vyāsa; English translation Kisari Mohan Ganguli · English translation published 1883–1896

   Located sections LV–LVIII. Complete four-section ending read, including the intervening list of casualties and the survivors’ boon.

4. 04

   Udāna 2.1 — Muccalinda Sutta

   Pāli Buddhist canon; English translation Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu · Modern translation; current translator-hosted version checked 2026

   Complete short discourse and attached note read. Seven coils, protective hood, young-man transformation and final utterance kept distinct from later imagery.

5. 05

   The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume I, Books 1–3

   Traditionally attributed to Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa; composite Sanskrit epic · 1883–1896

   English prose translation; hosted title states publication range 1883–1896. Section numbers are those of this translation.

Family, evolution & connections

Kadru’s serpent sons in the selected Mahabharata passages

Adi Parva XVI’s thousand-serpent brood, with named examples from LXV.

Explicit relationships in the named source witness. The five names are examples within the thousand, not five extra sons. Other scriptural genealogies are separate witnesses. No claim is made about all nāga traditions or natural snake ancestry. The collective brood node groups named examples visually; it is not an intervening generation.

Vasuki’s sister, the two Jaratkarus and Astika

Completed kinship in Ganguli’s Adi Parva XIV–XV and LVIII.

Sibling grouping, with the sister’s spouse named on her label and their descendants below. The two spouses share a name but remain different people. The grouping root is not an ancestor; no shared parents are inferred for Vasuki and his sister here. Descendants are unnamed and uncounted. XIV’s closing formula mistakenly says thirteenth; its heading is SECTION XIV. No wider nāga genealogy is inferred.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. MuseumThe Met: Garuda Vanquishing the Naga ClanResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Historical English translation of primary narrativeGanguli, Āstīka XIII–XVI: Jaratkaru marriage, Astika and serpent householdResearch access: 2026-10-05
3. Historical English translation of primary narrativeGanguli, XX and XXII–XXIII: curse and horse-tail deceptionResearch access: 2026-10-05
4. Historical English translation of primary narrativeGanguli, XXXIV–XXXVIII: amrita outcome, principal serpents, Sesha and councilResearch access: 2026-10-05
5. Historical English translation of primary narrativeGanguli, LV–LVIII: Astika’s intervention and survivorsResearch access: 2026-10-05
6. Modern translation of Pāli primary textṬhānissaro Bhikkhu, complete Udāna 2.1Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

Nāga

Image associated with the exact linked encyclopedia article; consult credited file description for its interpretation.