Naga mythology... and Medusa

Posted on April 23, 2010 (Subscribe to Blog)

Naga

One of the not-so-well-known creatures in myth and legend is the naga, generally described as a half-human, half-snake person. It's an Indian legend and a pretty cool one at that, hence their inclusion in my Island of Fog trilogy, particularly the second and third books.

The word Naga in the Sanskrit language means snake or serpent. The Naga were also a group of people spread throughout India during the epic Mahabharata. As epics go, this was a really long one, apparently ten times longer than the Iliad and Odyssey combined. That's some heavy reading, with more pages than Stephen King's gargantuan novel Under The Dome. Anyway, the ancient Naga people were most likely a serpent-worshipping group who were later described as serpents themselves in ancient Indian literature.

I find it interesting that the Indian Cobra is still called a naga in Hindi and other languages of India, whereas a female naga is a nagin or nagini. I couldn't help noticing the correlation between "female" and "nagging." *ducks to avoid flying brick*

Naga

Most naga creatures are depicted with giant serpent bodies and upper torsos of humans. There are also versions which have no arms, just a human head in place of the snake's head. I like to think that the head-only version dwells underwater, perhaps a more primitive species, while the more common variety live on land and have human-like settlements and so on. In any case, my own version of the naga is able to communicate with any form of serpent, which in the real world is limited to snakes, but in a fantasy setting includes those good old giant-size sea serpents and all other related monsters, perhaps even the Oroborous, which circles the world!

Naga

Snakes are generally creepy, sinister and dangerous things. In Greek history, Medusa is a snake-headed woman whose gaze can turn heroes to stone. In the legend she was one of three sisters who was "made hideous" by the goddess Athena for the crime of being too beautiful for her own good. She was turned into a monster and exiled to an island, cursed with a terrible gaze

Comment by ANONYMOUS on Wednesday, November 21, 2012...

Great. Informative. Studying Hindu and Buddhism, hence trying to figure if the Naga were the Gorgons. So many cultural ties through our species.

Comment by ANONYMOUS on Friday, April 6, 2018...

I'm not an lslamists, but a good Muslim citizen. I don't believe in these Fairy tales which were founded to entertain, to fascinate or frighten the people. Just like the Space Monster fascinate us nowadays. These myths and legends were the Hollywood and Bollywood of those eras. To idolize such creatures like Snakes, Elephants, Monkeys ect. on a godly level is a pure escape from reality. It has nothing to do with Faith or Religion.

Comment by A NONI on Thursday, October 4, 2018...

This is pretty cool. I think if the Nagas do/did exist, they might be from the Jin family instead of humans. They can shapeshift yet choose a form they like and stick with it. In some stories, these nagas/serpents are bad

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Thursday, October 4, 2018...

A Noni, I just wrote about a Jin / jinn in my latest book, Death Storm! Didn't explore it a whole lot, but it got an honorable mention. :-)

Comment by CASS on Thursday, January 3, 2019...

Thank you for the helpful info! I was trying to remember correctly the difference between the true medusa and a naga.

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