9. SHAPESHIFTING SNAKES

From taking the form of beautiful human beings to avenging the death of their loved ones, Indian folklore grants snakes a lot of natural and supernatural powers. We love the icchadhari naagin so much that our popular culture just can’t stop spinning stories around her. So where did the icchadhari naagin come from? Did she always exist in this form? Or is she just the most recent phase in a long-running cultural fascination with snakes?

Just like Rumors, Bound helps brands and storytellers create high-quality, knowledgeable, and stellar podcasts with our end-to-end podcast and video production services. Reach out to our producer, Aishwarya Javalgekar, at aishwarya@boundindia.com to get started on your podcasting journey or analyze if a podcast is right for you.

‘Rumors’ shines a light on the darkest corners of India, where fact and fiction combine into magical and haunting stories.

Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms.

Written and voiced by Chandrima Das, a best-selling author, storyteller and an avid collector of dark tales. Follow her @hackiechan on all social media platforms.

Produced by Aishwarya Javalgekar
Sound design by Aditya Arya
Artwork by Artisto Designz

Disclaimer: This show is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to outrage, insult, defame, or hurt any religion or religious sentiments, beliefs, feelings of any person, entity, class or community and does not encourage or propagate any superstition, black magic and/ or witchcraft. While every effort has been made in research, we do not make any representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability or completeness of the content.

Transcript

This show was made for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to outrage insult, defame or hurt any religion or religious sentiments, beliefs feelings of any person, entity, class or community and does not encourage or propagate any superstition black magic and of witchcraft. listeners should exercise their discretion.

00:24

South Asia and particularly India is obsessed with snakes from the ability to take on the form of beautiful human beings to avenging the death of their loved ones. Our folklore has granted sneaks a lot of natural and supernatural powers.

00:44

Pop culture hasn't been too far behind, giving us gems like the unintentionally finding Bollywood film, Johnny Dishman, and the an imaginatively titled soap operas like noggin, which has the supernatural ability to go on for season after season after season after season. And it isn't just the sea pop culture. After all, who can forget Harry Potter is weirdly cast and misnamed within now Guinea.

01:16

So where did India's cultural fascination with snakes come from?

01:22

This is the origin story of the Richard Harry noggin.

01:52

This is rumours. I am Chandra Das. Join me as I shine a light on the darkest corners of India, where facts and fiction combine into magical and haunting stories.

02:23

Deep inside a tropical forest, a couple lies on the ground.

02:29

The forest is lush with vines and grass and fresh dewdrops hanging from tree leaves. Quite the idyllic romantic setting.

02:40

This couple is usually very alert and sensitive to their surroundings. But right now, the setting has lulled them into a false sense of security. They bodies become entwined in each other, lost in the throes of pleasure.

02:58

Nothing can break through this Kokoon of love.

03:03

The couple embracing on the forest floor are a couple of snakes.

03:10

Suddenly, strong vibrations reach the snakes through the ground. They realize these are footsteps. The animals making these footsteps are already too close. And they aren't just passing through the forest. They mean to harm the snake couple.

03:28

These animals making footsteps are humans.

03:33

The snakes desperately try to separate themselves from each other, but their panic prevents them from untangling the knots in time. Still struggling to get back into a defensive position. The male snake feels a sharp pain. A hunter has hit him with a stick.

03:52

Blows rain upon the poor meetings make apples. Red blood seeps into the green forest floor.

04:00

The humans laugh and gloat at the destruction they've unleashed.

04:05

And then they leave.

04:09

The female snake watches in grief as her mate dies a slow painful death from his injuries.

04:17

She's hurt too, but she somehow survives the attack.

04:22

broken and bleeding. The female snake or noggin tastes the air deeply and memorizes the vibrations through the ground.

04:32

She vows to remember the hunters through their body chemistry and the sound of their footsteps.

04:40

Then, she vows to avenge her meat.

04:44

The noggin retreats into the depths of the jungle, where she undertakes a long and difficult the Persia of penance.

04:53

She prays to Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction for several years

05:00

The noggin completely abstains from using her venom. Finally, Lord Shiva appears before her.

05:10

He grants her a boon as a reward for all the penance she has been through.

05:16

He will give her whatever she wants.

05:21

The snake bows before him and asks for justice.

05:26

She wants her species to be protected from the careless humans.

05:32

Lord Shiva considers the request and grants the snake the ability to shape shift.

05:40

This is what makes the noggin and it Chaudhary.

05:45

She can now take on the appearance of any creature with the power of a simple wish, or her it Cha.

05:53

Shiva then extends his boon to her entire species. It declares that any snake which abstains from using its venom for a long period, will also gain the ability to shape shift or become a Choudhary.

06:10

The noggin expresses her gratitude to Lord Shiva, and takes on the form of a beautiful human woman.

06:18

Drawing upon her painful memory of the hunters chemistry and the vibrations, she hunts down and kills every human who had taken part in the senseless murder of hermit.

06:32

Of course, noggin stories in popular culture don't always tell the story with empathy for the person may

06:40

the motives of humans where there is one where humans are in the forest out of desperation, they need some gems wealth, or healing power to save a relative, a power which the snakes are stubbornly guarding. So the humans are forced to kill the snake, because their own survival and future prospects depend on getting the treasure. Such stories usually justify the defeat and murder of the snake.

07:08

Then there are versions where the hunters kill the help the snake by accident or through sheer carelessness. In such stories, the hunters are portrayed as irresponsible, but innocent. the motives of the female snake also change. There are versions of the law. Whether it chattery noggin doesn't want justice for the wrongs done to her mate, but it's simply on a power trip, killing dozens of innocent people before being vanquished by a human hero.

07:41

Finally, there are the horror romance versions of the Lord, where the noggin falls in love with a human man and becomes his protector.

07:53

Well, you get the drift. Stories of the Chad hurry noggin are flexible, as flexible as the snake herself. They shift their shape according to the needs of the storyteller.

08:07

This is probably why the Chad hurry noggin lore is a MacGuffin of sorts for Indian Pulp Fiction writers. But apart from being a flexible story device, is there anything else that explains our collective obsession with each ad hurry noggins?

08:26

Just like fairy tales. Every load has a message behind it. And it's the message that causes us to relate and propagate the story.

08:37

In the chat hurry nagging Lord, we find two recurring messages.

08:43

The obvious one is stay away from snakes and protect the environment. Snakes represent nature and the wealth that she holds. And the human hunters represent the mindless destruction that we inflict upon nature and how creatures.

09:01

The deeper message is the relationship between abstinence and power.

09:06

In some versions, any Cobra that lives 400 years without using its venom, can attain the powers of the Chad hurry.

09:16

The venom then hardens and becomes a gem on the Cobras hood. This gem known as a nag money or Naga Ratnam grants the snake its shape shifting abilities.

09:30

In some versions, the narc money itself becomes the object of human greed, leading men into paths of desire and destruction.

09:40

The noggin is often shown as a femme fatale. She first seduces the villains, and then kills them using their own lust and greed against them.

09:52

Either way, the child hurry noggin Lord tells us that the consequences can never be good for greedy and Kayla

10:00

Humans in the long run.

10:02

Nature will eventually respond to our greed by giving her creatures new powers to defend themselves through the process of evolution.

10:12

And thus, someday, nature will exact her revenge upon us.

10:19

So where did the lore of the Choudhary noggin come from? Did it always exist in this form? Or has the lore also been changing shape with time?

10:31

If we look back a few 100 years to medieval India, we find a slightly more expanded version of the noggin, Lord. She comes to us in the form of the goddess ma Mansa Devi.

10:48

Manasa Devi is the subject of many conflicting mythologies.

10:54

The Quranic scriptures say that she was created directly from the mind or Manas of a sage named Kashyap. The creator god Brahma made her the presiding deity of snakes and reptiles.

11:09

Later Lord Krishna granted her divine powers, and even ritually worshipped her, thus making her an established goddess of the Pantheon.

11:19

Much like the modern age Chaudhary noggin, ma Manasa can choose to appear in any form she desires, snake, half snake, half human and fully human.

11:31

She can control and command other snakes, and she even has the power to heal snake bites and remove poison.

11:40

Then came the Mongol caviars, composed in medieval Bengali. These devotional songs and stories present over 50 versions of mama aniseh story.

11:52

Though these myths don't present mama aniseh as a full blown goddess, the underlying her short temper and tendency to remain dissatisfied. There's a recurring theme of rejection in these latest stories. We eat from Shiva, who is depicted as mom and Assad's father, her stepmother, the goddess Chandy, or her husband,

12:17

Mom fantasize kind to her devotees, but harsh towards people who refuse to worship her. She is denied full goddess status in these stories, and her aim therefore, becomes to establish her authority and to gain human devotees.

12:36

Ma monocytes clearly more powerful than your average Chaudhary noggin. She's a full blown goddess in Quranic mythology. But later texts seem to demote her to a demi goddess struggling to establish her status and gain entry to the main pantheon. There seems to be a gradual watering down of her powers with time.

13:00

There's a pattern here. The further back we go, the more powerful snakes become in Indian mythology,

13:09

or ancient forests, so full of snakes, and it's no surprise that ancient Indian mythology is filled to the brim with tales of serpents. These creatures eclipsed the mere noggins of TV serials.

13:24

They were the Nagas.

13:29

The Nagas are depicted as a semi divine race of half human half serpent beings. While they possess many supernatural abilities Nagas are mortal and can be killed. Their chief ability as you can guess, is shape shifting. And because they are shapeshifters their appearance varies and lower, from human to semi human to full serpent.

13:57

Typically, Nagas are clever but short tempered creatures that mimic the characteristics of snakes.

14:05

They are standings for Nature herself, or his guardian deities of the Earth Resources, regard material wealth, but also supernatural and even spiritual wealth. And like the Choudhary noggin. Naga has also appear youthful and beautiful.

14:24

Like many supernatural creatures in Hindu mythology, Nagas didn't come from the human brain. They originate in the secret underground netherworld of battle look Nagas can come up to the human plane, only through water bodies. No wonder the Kashmiri word for water bodies is not.

14:48

So how old exactly is Naga lore

14:52

and how powerful can they get?

14:55

Well, if you go by Hindu mythology Nagas predate

15:00

The creation of the world itself. The primordial snake in Quranic Hindu mythology, is Adi shisha, also known as Sheshnag.

15:11

Adi shisha is described as a massive snake floating through space. Sometimes, he is depicted with five, seven, or 10 heads. But in some depictions, he has as many as a million heads.

15:29

In the Bhagavad Gita are the shisha is called Anantha shisha, or the finite one.

15:37

His coils are the bed upon which the god Vishnu rests the entire material universe, including all the planets, based upon his hood,

15:49

time moves forward and creation takes place. Only when are the shisha uncoils

15:56

and if he ever coils back, the universe shall cease to exist.

16:06

Conceptually, this means that our the shisha is a primordial being that exists outside of our physical universe. Even when the world is destroyed, our the shadow will remain as he is. mind boggling, isn't it?

16:25

Alicia has a younger brother named Vasuki. Just as Adi shisha appears alongside Lord Vishnu Vasuki is the snake coiled around Lord Shiva has NEC. In fact, almost all Hindu gods and goddesses continue to be depicted with Nagas be it Ganesha Karthikeya are the various forms of Devi. The Nagas was also key figures in Buddhism.

16:52

Six weeks after Gautam Buddha sat down to meditate under the Bodhi tree in Gaia, a storm arose.

17:00

It rained heavily for seven days. But curiously, the booth has deep meditation was not disturbed. The Naga King mukha, Linda emerged from beneath the earth and covered the Buddha's head with his seven sneakerheads sheltering him.

17:21

When the storm cleared, the Serpent King assumed his human form, bowed before the Buddha, and returned to his palace.

17:30

The image of Buddha meditating under the protection of mocha Linda continues to be a common motif in Laos with his start.

17:40

These mythologies show us that snakes used to be thought of as amazing magical creatures. They were associated with healing, not just in South Asia, but across cultures.

17:53

Perhaps ancient and medieval people who witnessed a snake shedding its skin may have believed that snakes are immortal, or at least have the power to heal themselves.

18:11

The magical godlike powers of snakes led to some interesting claims.

18:18

Many royal families in South Asia declared they had descended from the Nagas. The family legends of the pallava dynasty, who ruled a significant portion of the Deccan plateau for about 600 years say that their ancestor descended from a schwa tama, that legendary warrior from the Mahabharata and his union with a Naga princess. Other royal dynasties that claimed descent from Nagas include the dynasty of Manipur, and the Fallen dynasty that ruled in Southeast Asia.

18:54

Royal lineages were not the only ones who made use of the Naga Lord in history to Earth shastra the ancient polymath Chanakya proposed psychological warfare tactics around this law.

19:09

He suggested that soldiers could create a diversion during war by impersonating a Naga in the enemy Kingdom.

19:18

The soldier would wear a costume and emerge near a water body inside the enemy kingdom. He should then demand complete surrender. Otherwise, a horde of magical Nagas would descend. This was Chana cast tactic to scare the enemy king and convince him to accept defeat without a war ever having to be fought.

19:43

Naga law became so popular that it went viral. Stories of Nagas made their way out of India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, all the way to Southeast Asia, where the serpent motif can still be found in many of their ancient constructions and art.

20:01

But as time went on, folklore and mythology depicted Nagas with lesser and lesser powers, until they were watered down to the Chad Harry naggy.

20:14

This modern day casting as supernatural creatures and horror movie monsters, makes it increasingly harder to visualize them as the gods they once were. And while snake worship continues to be a part of many rites and rituals on the subcontinent, belief in Nagas as divine creatures, is on the decline.

20:40

So why did creatures who originated as gods and demigods become relegated to supernatural monsters in popular culture?

20:50

Perhaps the Nagas are the South Asian equivalent of the old Greek and Roman Pantheon, who became relegated to the background when your gods arrived. And like then, though, the Nagas were assimilated and included into Hindu and Buddhist pantheons, but only as lesser deities.

21:12

In another sense, though, the Nagas are like the Old Norse gods, Loki, Thor and Odin.

21:20

They've all found a place in modern culture through popular superhero stories. Loki and Paul's myths are retold in Marvel's superhero movies, while the Nagas appear as it Choudhary noggins in a staccato serials.

21:37

Perhaps this shows us how destructive time can be. Time is so powerful that it can even erode the status of gods. Perhaps all Old Gods, whether they be Nagas, Greek or nos, eventually retire from full time worship, and live on in the realms of superhero or supernatural pop culture.

22:01

A well told noggin story still has power over Indian audiences. For though the West gave us the silly label of snake charmers. We were the ones being charmed by snakes all along.

22:21

Thank you for listening to rumors. A fact and fiction combine into magical and haunting stories.

22:29

I'm Chandra Madonna's collector and Teller of dark tales. And the creator of this podcast in collaboration with bound a company that helps you grow through stories

22:42

produced by Aishwarya Azhar will get good and sound designed by other thier Aria.

22:49

Join me every Friday on this quest into the lesser known side of the subcontinent. Subscribe rate and review for new episodes every week.

23:01

Sleep safe tonight.

23:04

Who knows what awaits in the dark?