The Nagaraja temple at Mannarasala near Haripad in Kerala is unique in more ways than one and the most significant feature is the chief custodian of this temple is a woman. A priestess as chief custodian of a Hindu temple is a very rare phenomenon among the countless Hindu temples scattered across the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent.
According to legend, the temple was established by Sage Parashuram and the deity is Nagaraja, the King of serpents embodying simultaneously two major serpent deities of the Hindu pantheon, Ananta and Vasuki. While Ananta is the great hooded serpent who supports and guards the supine body of Vishnu while he dreams the universe into existence, Vasuki the serpent king served as the churning rope during the churning of the oceans to bring forth the elixir of life-Amrita, and is found in the company of Lord Shiva, wrapped around his neck as a necklace. Interestingly, Vasuki is also known in Chinese and Japanese mythology as one of the “Eight Great Dragon Kings”.
The visibly ancient Nagaraja temple structure is surrounded by a grove of pristine tropical rain forest that has remained untouched for centuries. The legend is Sage Parashuram after his genocide of Kshatriya clan to avenge the death of his mother, wanted to atone his sins by donating tracts of land to Brahmins. But being an ascetic he had no possessions nor ownership of land to give away. So he reclaimed land from the sea and distributed it among the brahmins of Kerala. However, the reclaimed land was infertile and barren because of the high salt content and was unsuitable for cultivating crops of any kind. To find a solution to this problem, Parashuram prayed to Shiva with all his heart. Shiva was pleased with his disciple’s piety appeared before him and revealed that serpent venom has the power to neutralise the salt and cure the soil, and to achieve that he will have to gain the blessings of Nagaraja, the King of serpents.
Parashuram set out propitiate Nagaraja and after a prolonged period of prayers and austerities, the serpent king appeared before him and agreed to solve the matter at hand. On the orders of Serpent king, hordes of serpents arrived and crawled across the land and with their venom neutralised the salt content in the soil and made the land fertile and suitable for cultivation. Parashuram was overjoyed and immediately converted his ‘yaga-shala’ into a temple for Nagaraja and the forest grove surrounding the temple was offered to the serpents as their sanctuary. After handing over the temple to Brahmin priests for its upkeep Parashurama went away to the Himalayas.
After many generations of priests, a brahmin couple, Vasudevan and his wife Sridevi became custodians of the temple. One day, unexpectedly forest fire spread across the grove and the injured serpents fleeing the fire entered the temple premises. The childless Brahmin couple was pained by the sight and took in the wounded serpents and nurtured and healed them offering the same love and affection parents would bestow on their children. Witnessing this Nagaraja was immensely pleased and appeared before the couple and blessed them. After listening to their lament about having no children of their own, he promised to be born as their child. He also promised fertility to any infertile couple who would visit his temple and perform a prescribed ritual.
Soon Sridevi became pregnant and gave birth to a serpent and a human male child. As time went on the siblings grew up and became adults and the human son got married and started his own family. Nagaraja who was the serpent sibling immediately announced that his time as their child has ended, and withdrew into the basement of their home and attained samadhi. Sridevi was heartbroken to lose her serpent son and sank into deep sadness. Once again the ever kind and benevolent Nagaraja was touched by her suffering and promised to appear before her every year and gave the women descendants of her family the right to be the chief priestess of the temple. This tradition has continued through the years to the present day, and the chief priestess of the Manbarasala Nagaraja temple are women descendants of the family of Vasudeva and Sridevi.
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Story collected by Baiju Parthan
As told by the office bearers of Mannarshala.
Location: Kerala
Image Copyright: Vidya Kamat
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