Nag Panchami

About Nag Panchami

Significance

Nag Panchami is the day of the Nagas, the serpent beings who in Hindu tradition guard the waters, the underworld and the treasures of the earth. Shesha supports the earth and serves as Vishnu’s couch, and Vasuki is Shiva’s ornament and the rope with which the ocean was churned. A widely recited verse invokes nine great Nagas, among them Ananta, Vasuki, Takshaka and Kaliya, and the day is traditionally understood as a time of reverence and reconciliation with them.

The Mahabharata (Adi Parva, the Astika episode) relates how Kadru cursed her serpent sons to perish in a fire-sacrifice and how, generations later, King Janamejaya’s snake sacrifice was halted by the young sage Astika; some traditions connect that rescue with Panchami. The Bhavishya Purana includes a Naga-panchami narrative of its own, and in Braj and elsewhere the day is also linked with Krishna’s subduing of Kaliya (Bhagavata Purana 10.16).

How and where it is observed

The festival is kept across India, with strong regional colour. In Maharashtra and Karnataka women draw Nagas on walls and floors and worship at anthills, the traditional homes of snakes; in Bengal, Assam and Odisha the monsoon worship of the serpent goddess Manasa belongs to the same season. Some communities, notably in Gujarat, keep Nag Pancham on the Krishna Panchami later in the month, and in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Nagula Chavithi is kept after Diwali. Where live snakes were once carried in procession, as at Battis Shirala in Maharashtra, wildlife law now restricts it and images are used instead.

Rituals

Images of Nagas drawn in turmeric, sandal paste or cow dung, or made of clay or silver, are worshipped with milk, flowers, durva grass and rice, and milk is offered at anthills or at Naga shrines and stones under sacred trees. In many farming families the soil is not dug or ploughed that day, and some households avoid cutting or frying food. Women in several regions pray for the safety of brothers and children, and swings and folk songs mark the day in Maharashtra and North India.

How the date is fixed

Nag Panchami is Shravana Shukla Panchami, the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Shravana (Sawan); being in Shukla paksha, it has the same month name in the Amanta and Purnimanta calendars. It is kept on the day on which Panchami prevails at sunrise (udaya tithi). If Panchami is present at two sunrises the first day is taken, and if it falls entirely between two sunrises it is kept on the day that contains it.

Sources

• Mahabharata, Adi Parva (Astika Parva: Kadru’s curse and Janamejaya’s snake sacrifice)
• Bhavishya Purana, Brahma Parva (Naga-panchami narrative)
• Bhagavata Purana 10.16 (the subduing of Kaliya)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Naga (Hindu mythology)

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.