1. Dragons, serpents, serpent-gods, serpent-dæmons (nâga), play a
great part in Indian mythology. Their king is Shesa. Serpent-cultus
was of very ancient observance and is practised by both followers of
Brahmanism and Buddhism. The Brahmans seem to have desired to show
their disapproval of it by placing the serpent-gods in the lower
ranks of their mythology (Lassen, i. 707 and 544, n. 2). This cultus,
however, seems to have received a fresh development about the time of
Ashoka, circa 250 B.C. (ii. 467). When Madhjantika went into Cashmere
and Gandhâra to teach Buddhism after the holding of the third Synod,
it is mentioned that he found sacrifices to serpents practised
there (ii. 234, 235). There is a passage in Plutarch from which it
appears the custom to sacrifice an old woman (previously condemned
to death for some crime) in honour of the serpent-gods by burying
her alive on the banks of the Indus (ii. 467, and note 4). Ktesias
also mentions the serpent-worship (ii. 642). In Buddhist legends,
serpents are often mentioned as protecting-patrons of certain towns
(ii. 467). Among the many kinds of serpents which India possesses,
it is the gigantic Cobra di capello which is the object of worship
(ii. 679). (See further notice of the serpent-worship, iv. 109.)
It would seem that the Buddhist teachers, too, discouraged the
worship at the beginning of their career at least, for when the
Sthavira Madhjantika was sent to convert Cashmere, as above mentioned
he was so indignant at the extent to which he found serpent-worship
carried, that it is recorded in the Mahâvansha, xii. p. 72, that he
caused himself to be carried through the air dispersing them; that
they sought by every means to scare him away--by thunder and storm,
and by changing themselves into all manner of hideous shapes, but
finding the attempt vain, they gave in and accepted the teaching of
the Sthavira, like the rest of the country. Under which last image,
we can easily read the fact that the Buddhist teacher suffered his
followers to continue the worship, while he set limits to it and
delivered them from the extreme awe in which they had previously
stood of the serpents. See also note 4 to Tale XXII.