When Snakes Ruled India

The Mahabharata begins with a snake. 

In the 100,000 verse epic’s opening scene, King Janamejeya, the great-grandson of Prince Arjuna, vows to kill all of the snakes on earth to avenge his father, King Parikshit, who has just died from a snake bite. Hundreds of priests gather around a massive pyre to chant mantras to bring the nagas out of their hiding places — in a snake sacrifice ceremony called the Sarpa Yagna. As the yagna progresses, a young sage named Astika — the son of the snake goddess Manasa — falls to the floor, begging the grief-stricken king to stop the purging of the snakes from the earth. An angry Janamejeya asks Astika to state his reason. 

Behind this tale of vengeance, few remember that these sacred serpents were once gods themselves, their power so great that newer deities had to literally wrap themselves in snakes to prove their supremacy (just look at any image of Vishnu or Shiva). Yet, somewhere along the way, divinity gave way to dread, and reverence became fear. In the year of the snake, we want to ask: what happened?