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| Sunday, 21 September 2003 |
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The growth of the cobra cult in Sri Lanka by Godwin Witane According to ancient history the earliest inhabitants of Lanka had been Yakkas and Nagas. They were supposed to have possessed supernatural powers. The tradition about Nagas was that they could assume human shape at will. There had been kingdoms in the north of Lanka where the names of two kings Mahodara and Chulodara, two brothers are mentioned whose rivalry over the prize of a gem studded throne had been quelled by the Buddha during His second visit to the island.
King Maniakkika had ruled in Kelaniya in the year 550 B.C. He had invited the Buddha to Kelaniya on his visit to Nagadipa where he met the Buddha. Thereupon the Buddha came to Kelaniya in 576 B.C. and sat on a jewelled Throne offered by the king to sit when He preached the Dhamma. It was this Throne that had been enshrined in the Stupa now called Kelaniya Dagoba. The presence of Naga damsels at Kelaniya is mentioned in the Selalihini Sandesaya written by the Sage and Poet Totagamuwe Sri Rahula. He advised the bird Selalihiniya who carried his message to tarry awhile at Kelaniya enjoying the sight of the luscious young Naga maidens who sat on the banks of the Kelani river with musical instruments in hand using their fingers to produce devotional sweet music in praise of the Buddha. In the Buridatta Jatakaya it is said that the Bodhisatva was once born as a King Cobra called Buridatta. At that time His inveterate enemy Devadatta was born in a clan of cobra venom doctors who excelled in curing snake bite victims. Cruelty One day the King Cobra Buridatta was trapped and fell into the hands of Devadatta who kept Him in a cage and earned money by exhibiting Him. The Devas on seeing this cruelty transformed the descendants of Devadatta to be snake charmers and tamers for ever. In Buddhist Jataka stories there is mentioned in several instances where powerful Nagas had invaded this earth on various missions. One such story relates that a certain pious monk of the Buddhist faith had lived up to very old age at a hermitage and being very weak had passed away. When the other monks at the hermitage visited the dead monk's Kuti they had found only the carcass of a dead cobra on the bed. The pious monk had obviously been a Naga who had come to this earth and taken human form clad in yellow robes and spent his time among the humans of this world in order to find salvation within this Samsara which he could not achieve in the Naga world. On account of the fact that Bodhisatva was born as a cobra according to Buddhist scripture and that once the Naga king Muchalinda had shielded the Buddha from getting wet in the rain by coiling round Him and holding his large hood above the Buddha's head the Buddhists all over never harm a cobra. It is most probably on account of the reasons mentioned above that one finds a villager addressing a cobra that enters into his garden as "Naihamy please leave our garden where there are innocent small children, where as we do not ever mean to harm you. "Villagers hold on to ancient traditions and therefore they never kill cobras. They also believe that a fatally wounded cobra dashes its head seven times on the earth before it dies, promising itself to avenge its death. People believe that such a cobra will be born again as a cobra and stalk its attacker until it had satisfied in taking revenge by biting him throwing a fatal dose of venom. For the Buddhists all over, the cobra is a sacred being though a reptile that holds venom in its fangs. Buddhist scripture records that the Buddha in His several births was born as a cobra. Though born in the animal kingdom possessing venomous glands He had always displayed restraint, tolerance and patience however much He was driven to unlimited and cruel provocation. Cobra worship had been practised for thousands of years in the Eastern countries from pre-historic times. In Hindu Iconography or the study of portraits the cobra is depicted as entwining itself round the neck of the supreme Hindu god Shiva. Hindus thus regard the cobra as a divine being. The figure of the cobra does not appear in any Buddhist Shrine except as a remembrance of the story of Muchalinda the Naga king who once saved the Buddha from rain. The Buddha never advocated worship as a means of salvation. One would notice the carvings of cobra heads on stones on the banks of irrigation tanks and also at water ponds found at Mihintale. It is believed that Nagas of ancient Lanka were great irrigation engineers who built these water storages. They had intermarried among the Sinhalese to form one nation. Although we see monoliths where several heads of cobras with the hood are carved on human figures in ancient shrines there is no proof that the Buddhists ever worshipped cobras as the Hindus who still tolerate the cobra cult. It is strange how actions become habits and habits become customs because people do not stop to question why something has become a habit with them. Emblem The emblem of the cobra is worn by some people in their rings they wear on their fingers. The astrologer advises a person to wear a pendant on the neck in the shape of a cobra with a blue sapphire studded in its head as a device to keep off misfortune during a malefic period in the movement of the planets according to his horoscope. It is the custom in some people to offer figurines of cobras made in silver or gold at the shrine of Hindu gods such as Kataragama. These beliefs are ingrained in their minds that even most sensible people follow these customs blindly. Ancient people followed these customs because they did not know better. They believed in things that have been long since disproved by science and reason. Speaking on the breed and life cycle of the cobra it is believed that there are 64 species of snakes in Sri Lanka and out of them the cobra is the most deadly. The female cobra has a tiny head, a thin neck and a hood that is half the size of a male cobra. Mating among cobras usually take place in the month of July. During the egg bearing period the female loses its venom and also the marks and specs on her head and hood. She then abstains from taking food. The eggs in the womb mature in about 100 days and over. Male eggs are milky white while the colour of the female eggs is a golden hue. She broods over them for about a month. The rays of the sun too helps in warming the eggs and the young ones come out of the shells on a full moon day and gradually one by one spreading over two weeks. Most of the eggs being infertile only about 20 of them come out of the brood. The cobra takes about two weeks to gain consciousness after birth. After about a month they grow their fangs, open their eyes and come out into the open. Crawling in the morning on the dew drop clad grass they absorb water which fills the hollow in their four front teeth two on each jaw. The action of the sun turns the liquid into venom. They drop their skin after about two weeks and grow new ones. Although the cobra has teeth on both jaws only the four fangs are connected to the glands containing the venom. When the cobra bites it introduces venom into the body of the victim which is first carried to the liver and then to the brain. In a short time the poison gets absorbed into all parts of the body. Evil People believe that snakes have the power to undo the evil they have done by sucking back the poison it has injected but there is no evidence to prove it. It is believed that there are four groups or classes of cobras and of them the Raja cobras live in seclusion in the hollow of old Bo trees in the forests. They come out in the nights and feed by the light of the Naga Manikkiya or gem that is supposed to be in their head. The life time of such cobras is said to be 200 years and they are regarded as sacred and are the guardians of buried treasure or "Nidan Vastu" People say the cobra will leave the treasure on the day the rightful heir comes to claim the hidden treasure. People have a notion that some species of cobras in their old age shed their body parts leaving only the head and hood. They call them "Kobo Nayas" They are capable of flight like the flying squirrel. However it is only a myth as no one has ever seen this creature. Of all street cries we hear so often is that of the snake charmers. Any child or even the adults are moved by the melodious music produced by his home made magic flute that calls for the display of a cobra dance. These snake charmers are a clan of gypsies who have migrated into this country from South India in the bygone era. Their language is Telugu. They are a nomadic tribe who do not settle down in a village or live in houses but travel about the country with a few donkeys to carry their scanty belongings and build their oblong huts at each new location. They have no history. They seek only the heaven above and the road below as they wander seeking new postings for their habitual nomadic life. They have no possessions except the clothes they wear and the women their few silver bangles on their arms, their pariah dogs, cobras and a few cooking pots. These along with their women are their wealth. The entertainment they produce brings them enough income for their daily needs along with arrack for the man and ornaments for the womenfolk. Once the gypsies camp out in a place the men and women spread out in the villages to collect money and food. While the men display the dancing cobra and the performing monkey the women engage in canvassing for the reading the palms of gullible people. They always predict the good times of the people who get their palms read. There is no better entertainment than the gypsy, Their flute which produces melodious and weird music and tunes is made of two parts. An empty gourd fixed with a mouth piece containing the reed and the portion containing the stops that produce the plaintive music. Both these parts are joined together by means of wax. Circular Once a gypsy is commissioned to perform, he sits on his haunches and plays a tune on his flute to coax the cobra which is still inside the circular rattan basket the lid of which is half open to enable the cobra come in to the open. When the piper with full blown cheeks and swaying one of his knees produces the music the cobra slowly glides out of the basket raising itself on its coils spreading its spectacled hood and strikes at the elusive knee of the performer hissing furiously all the while even if the cobra bites the man as the poisonous fangs of the cobra had been removed earlier the bite does not produce any ill except the slight bleeding caused by the teeth of the cobra. However, often one sees this performance it does not grow stale as the cobra with a n open hood at close quarters is a rare sight for most children and adults alike. |
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