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02
D. 1). KOSAMBI
snakes as for example Herakles and the Hydra, or the Indian counterpart Krana and Kaliya; yet the Hydra has one head which is immortal, and Kṛṣṇa only subducs Kaliya without killing him. The vast though inobtrusive current spread of the naga cult need not be given in detail. One major Hindu holiday is dedicated to the cobra. Cobras are regarded by many (my mother, grandfather, uncle, and cousins among them) as embodying ancestral spirits, and the live snake himself generally forms an appendage of most rustic temples. Sesa's bearing the whole earth on his multiple hood goes back much further than the obviously recast legend in Mbh.i.32. Visnu sleeps upon the great (many-headed) cobra, Siva wears him as a necklace, and the cobra's protective hood is reared above the phallic symbol of Mahideva. The chief cobra Taksaka escapes being burnt down with the Khandava forest (Mbh.1.218.4; the whole episode is one of land-clearing in the typical Aryan manner, by firing the woods and slaughtering all inhabitants), and is barely saved from Janamejaya Päriksita's firc-sacrifice by his human newphew Astika. The name takşaka is related to takşan carpenter, hence to the god Tvasty; and to Taksasila, (the Greck Taxila) which was the capital after the Mahabharata war. Thus Taxila to Kurukṇctra must have been the territory of a tribe or tribes which had a cobra totem or cult. Nägas remain extraordinary craftsmen in Indian folklore, demonic beings able to assume human form at will. Krana's elder brother is usually taken to be an incarnation of the great Naga. The demon Vṛtra is called ahi in the veda, but the snake of the deep ahir budhnyas remains an object of worship. References to ahi are scattered throughout the veda with the important exception of the Visvamitra book. Here, the word ahi is found only twice (iii.32.11 and iii.33.7), in both cases referring to Indra's killing of the demon Vṛtra in order to release the waters. The peculiar difference between Vrtra or Trisiras and Azi is undoubtedly to be explained by the historical differences in the relations between the Aryans and the conquered people in India, as against the Aryans and their Assyrian enemics in Persia. As for the Angiras Dirghatamas (Bṛhaddevata iv.11-12), his name itself shows association with darkness (explained away by his blindness, i.147.3; iv.4.13), hence with the Vṛtras who are the enemics of Indra and the Aryans. But in spite of the familiar royal persecution he left descendants who became Brahmins in the main priestly lincage, while Traitana left his mark only upon a very distant branch of Aryans. Thus even this legend supports the contention that the development of Indo-Aryan sacerdotal tradition is by assimilation of a pre-Aryan element, which has special connection with the Brahmin caste, particularly in its original stages. With the Zoroastrians, success meant that the religion was predominantly that of a comparatively small number ruling over vast territories inhabited by far more numerous peoples which had diverse customs of their own and in some cases law-codes going back to Hammurabi. Therefore, the development of a new gotra system among the Magi was not necessary. In India, on the contrary, the conquest meant destruction of the
