Nāga Pañcamī

When it falls

The fifth lunar day (pañcamī) of the bright half of Śrāvaṇa, in July or August. Andhra and Telangana keep Nāgula Cavithi after Dīpāvali instead.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

The nāgas are the serpent beings of the underworld, guardians of treasure and of the water under the earth. Śeṣa carries Viṣṇu on his coils; Vāsuki was the rope at the churning of the ocean; Kṛṣṇa danced on the hood of Kāliya and sent him from the Yamunā. Śiva wears one round his neck.

The monsoon floods the burrows and brings the real snakes into the fields and houses, and the festival is the tradition's way of making peace with them: today no one digs, ploughs or cuts, so that nothing underground is hurt.

The Mahābhārata was first recited at King Janamejaya's snake sacrifice, begun in revenge for his father's death by snakebite and stopped by the sage Āstīka on this day; the day is his too.

How the day is kept

• Milk, rice, turmeric and flowers are offered at anthills (held to be nāga homes) and at the carved nāga stones under trees in every village of the south.
• Images of serpents are drawn on the walls of the house in cow dung or turmeric, or a clay snake set in the shrine.
• Sisters pray for their brothers' protection from snakebite; in Maharashtra the day is theirs and they visit their parents' homes.
• Battīs Śirālā in Maharashtra used to bring live cobras out for the day; since 2014 the courts have stopped it and the village worships images.

More holy days