Sri Nagendra Ashtottara Shatanamavali

A hundred and eight names of Nagendra, the lord of serpents - Om Anantaaya Namah, Om Aadi Sheshaaya Namah at the head of the list, with Om Vaasukaye Namah among the names that follow. Ananta, Adishesha and Vasuki are the great serpents of the Puranas, and this namavali gathers them and the rest under one archana. In Karnataka it is read at the naga kallu, and most of all on Naga Panchami.

Significance

In coastal Karnataka and the Malnad the naga is not a minor deity you visit occasionally. For many families he is the kuladevata, and the stone stands where it has stood for generations - under an ashwattha tree at the edge of the field or the compound, often with a tulsi katte nearby, carved with entwined serpents and dark with turmeric and oil.

What people bring to the naga kallu says what they are asking for: milk, tender coconut water, turmeric, and tambittu - the rice flour and jaggery offering shaped by hand. Families come about sarpa dosha in the horoscope, about delayed marriage, about children, and about skin ailments, which tradition connects with offence against serpents. Tradition also holds that neglect of the family naga stone shows up in the family's fortunes, which is why an abandoned stone being re-established is a serious matter and why sarpa samskara is performed at Kukke Subramanya and at Ghati Subramanya near Doddaballapur.

The names themselves reach past fear into something older. Adishesha holds the earth and is the couch of Vishnu; Vasuki was the rope at the churning of the ocean. The serpent in this tradition is not the enemy - he is the one the gods borrowed when they needed something strong enough to move a mountain.

How and when to chant

Naga Panchami, the fifth tithi of the bright fortnight of Shravana, is the day. In Kannada households women observe it, and it is one of the few festivals where the married daughters of the house are called back. The Ashlesha nakshatra day each month is the other regular occasion, and Ashlesha Bali at Kukke is performed on it.

At the stone: bathe before going, take milk, turmeric, a tender coconut, flowers and tambittu. Pour milk and turmeric water over the naga kallu, apply turmeric and kumkuma to the carved hoods, offer flowers at each name as the ashtottara is read, then place the tambittu and light the lamp. Many families keep the fast until this is done. Fried food is avoided in some households on that day - the reason given is that the naga should not be offended by anything put on the fire.

One thing to say plainly, because it is a live issue: the offering is meant for the stone, not for a live snake. Pouring milk into an occupied burrow, or into the mouth of a captured snake, harms the animal - snakes do not drink milk. Most temples now direct devotees to the naga kallu for exactly this reason, and following that is not a dilution of the practice. It is the practice.