Kala Sarpa

By Alan Annand

Kala Sarpa, “the serpent of time,” is an astrological pattern wherein all of the planets occupy half of the chart as defined by the axis of the moon’s nodes, Rahu and Ketu. Although one in eight people have Kala Sarpa in their charts, few know whether it constitutes a yoga, a sign of power and fortune, or a dosha, an inherent flaw that may irrevocably spoil a life.

Because it isn’t discussed in any of the classic shastras of Jyotisha, the Kala Sarpa pattern is poorly understood by clients and astrologers alike. But now, for the first time in print, this book reveals many key elements of interpretation that were previously only part of India’s rich oral tradition.

Alan Annand, who studied with Hart de Fouw, is accredited by the American College of Vedic Astrology and the British Faculty of Astrological Studies. His previous books, Parivartana Yoga, and Stellar Astrology, Volumes 1 & 2, have been praised for the quality of their research and writing. His New Age Noir crime novels feature astrologer Axel Crowe, whom one reviewer has dubbed “Sherlock Holmes with a horoscope.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alan Annand
• Release date: Nov 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781927799314

Alan Annand

ALAN ANNAND is a writer of crime fiction, offering an intriguing blend of mystery, suspense, thriller and occult genres. When he’s not dreaming up ingenious ways to kill people and thrill readers, he occasionally finds therapy in writing humor, short stories and faux book reviews.Before becoming a full-time writer and astrologer, he worked as a technical writer for the railway industry, a corporate writer for private and public sectors, a human resources manager and an underground surveyor.Currently, he divides his time between writing in the AM, astrology in the PM, and meditation on the OM. For those who care, he’s an Aries with a dash of Scorpio.ALAN ANNAND:- Writer of mystery suspense novels, and astrology books- Astrologer/palmist, trained in Western/Vedic astrology.- Amateur musician, agent provocateur and infomaniac.Websites:- Writing: www.sextile.com- Astrology: www.navamsa.comFiction available at online retailers:- Al-Quebeca (police procedural mystery thriller)- Antenna Syndrome (hard-boiled sci-fi mystery thriller)- Felonious Monk (New Age Noir mystery thriller #2)- Harm’s Way (hard-boiled mystery thriller)- Hide in Plain Sight (psychological mystery suspense)- Scorpio Rising (New Age Noir mystery thriller #1)- Soma County (New Age Noir mystery thriller #3)- Specimen and Other Stories (short fiction)Non-fiction available at online retailers:- The Draconic Bowl (western astrology reference)- Kala Sarpa (Vedic astrology reference)- Mutual Reception (western astrology reference)- Parivartana Yoga (Vedic astrology reference)- Stellar Astrology Vol.1 (essays in Vedic astrology)- Stellar Astrology Vol.2 (essays in Vedic astrology)Education:- BA, English Lit- BSc, Math & Physics- Diploma, British Faculty of Astrological Studies- Diploma, American College of Vedic Astrology

Book preview

As in all matters astrological, I am forever indebted to my teacher Hart de Fouw, whose many courses I attended over the course of more than a decade. As I’ve acknowledged on many occasions, his instruction was instrumental in providing me the critical tools to develop and function as a working jyotishi. Indeed, many of the key concepts about Kala Sarpa presented herein arose from material he had presented in courses and workshops over the years. Meanwhile, several other of my sidebar explorations, although not discussed in his classes, were inspired by his example of constant inquiry measured against classical principles of exegesis.

I am also beholden to his guru, Krishan Mantri, who guided and inspired me on a wholly different level. Without the years of instruction from Hart, and the explicit encouragement from Mantriji, I might never have undertaken to write this book, or any other, on a subject as complex as Jyotisha. Let me credit them for whatever light is shared herein, whereas any shadows that are left, by error or omission, are the result of my own limitations.

In one of those early classes, Hart remarked, every student learns via four different sources. A quarter comes from shastra, a quarter from the guru, a quarter from personal observation, and a quarter from other students on the path. In this latter regard, my thanks as well to Marga Mahan, who read and commented on this manuscript-in-progress, and thus helped ensure it remained true to the sampradaya we share.

Chapter 1

Introduction to Kala Sarpa

Like the king cobra of India, which sometimes grows up to 18 feet long, swallowing other snakes whole, Kala Sarpa has a formidable reputation in Jyotisha. Some ancient Dravidian texts from South India have declared that Kala Sarpa has the power to make an individual a king – assuming he survives long enough to assume that mantle.

In fact, like most elements of Vedic astrology, Kala Sarpa is a complex subject. Like a snake itself, Kala Sarpa remains hidden from sight most of the time. When it does appear in a chart, it typically incites fear and foreboding in either the native or the interpreter of the chart, if not both. But as any visitor to India knows, snakes can be tamed to some degree and used for mundane purpose, eg, to entertain tourists or catch rodents, or for a spiritual objective, eg, wherein the snake may be an object of devotion in the sadhana of an aspirant.

This book is intended to shed light on the mystery of Kala Sarpa and, in the process, to discuss the manifold aspects of the moon’s nodes, Rahu and Ketu, whose role in chart interpretation remains a puzzle to many.

General definition of Kala Sarpa

Kala Sarpa is generally defined as occurring when all of the planets lie within one half of the chart as delineated by the nodal axis, ie, the opposing degrees of Rahu and Ketu, respectively, the moon’s north-ascending and south-descending nodes. After that general definition, things get more complicated as we examine this configuration a little more closely.

Some say that Kala Sarpa ceases to exist if any planet occupies the same sign as either of the nodes. Others say that such a configuration is allowed, but Kala Sarpa becomes null and void as soon as one of the planets crosses beyond the degree of the nodal axis, even if that planet remains in the sign occupied by a node.

For those who have even a passing acquaintance with the basic concepts of quantum theory, this is somewhat reminiscent of the heated debates between physicists a hundred years ago, when they questioned whether light photons behave as particles or as waves. Much to the consternation of some, the final ruling on that matter was: light acts like both a particle and a wave.

Although I’ll defer a full discussion of all possible Kala Sarpa configurations for a later section of this book, let’s keep it simple for the moment and say that the broadest possible definition is when all of the planets are contained within half of the chart as demarcated by the nodal axis. Other variants on that basic configuration will be fully discussed in due course.

Lest anyone think that Kala Sarpa is a rare occurrence in a client’s chart, and therefore of little interest to a practicing jyotishi, consider just one finding of my research. When I went through my database of 3000 clients, I found that 12.5% of them revealed a Kala Sarpa under the broad definition. In other words, one out of every eight people has the pattern. Statistically, that means a Kala Sarpa is more common than any of the Dharma-Karma Adhipati or Pancha Mahapurusha yogas.

Like any snake, we ignore it at our peril.

Literal meaning of the term

Kala Sarpa, simplistically translated from Sanskrit, means black snake or serpent of time. And yet there is more to it than this.

The root word kāl (kaala) has several associations, the chief of which is time or death. The main reason why our existence is seen as filled with suffering is because it is temporal. Time is seen as the great enemy of all living things. In the Yoga-Vasistha, the author compares time to a potter who, continually turning his wheel, produces innumerable pots only to smash them whenever he feels like it.

The epic poem Mahabharata refers to kaala in at least two different stanzas:

* Time pulls along all creatures, even the gods. There is none dear to time, none hateful.

* Time cooks all things. Time destroys all creatures. When all else is asleep, time is awake. Time is hard to overcome.

So kaala may be used to connote several different things:

* Destiny or fate, referring to that aspect of time which leads to events, the causes of which are imperceptible to the human mind.

* Death, or the time of death, in the sense that time is the destroyer of all things. Death is often personified by, or identified with, Yama the regent of the dead.

* The planet Saturn, who is the lord of time and therefore the one who enjoys the right understanding of it.

* Black or dark blue color, both associated with Saturn or his proxy Rahu.

In Sanskrit, sarpa means serpent. In Hindi, the language spoken in much of northern India, sarpa is always the black snake, the most venomous of those indigenous to India. Such snakes are responsible for 45,000 deaths annually in India. They like to live near humans, typically in rice paddies, and can grow to more than five feet long.

India has a love/hate relationship with snakes, which are both feared and revered. Ironically, it is generally considered a sin to kill snakes, which are widely worshipped in India. In fact, many misfortunes in life are attributed to ancestors having killed snakes, thus demanding some sort of propitiation before the individual can achieve their heart’s desire, eg, the birth of a child.

Absence of references in shastra

Kala Sarpa is not discussed in any of the traditional shastra such as Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, Jataka Parijata, Phaladeepika, Uttara Kalamrita, etc. Many critics of Kala Sarpa use this as justification to say it has no bearing on horoscopic interpretation. However, many other patterns in horoscope analysis go unmentioned in these same shastra, and yet their prevalence in charts and their consequent utility in interpretation goes unquestioned. One might well ask, is this aversion to Kala Sarpa because it is largely undocumented, and therefore so little understood?

A logical explanation might lie in the mode of instruction so typical of the Indian continent, most obviously in centuries past, but still a living tradition today. Long before written texts were available, the pedagogical model was based on just three elements – guru, shishya, and shastra – or, teacher, student and scripture. In the case of the latter, nothing was written down. The body of knowledge was contained within a series of shlokas, or verses, to be recited and committed to memory.

But like a zipped electronic file containing all of the information essential to understanding a subject at hand, the shloka had to be decoded by the teacher for the student, without whose explanation the information would remain largely impenetrable. This is the tradition of paramparaa – literally, from one to the other – the chain of oral transmission and empowerment from teacher to student. Within such a tradition, actual written texts serve only as aids to memory, while the real jewels of knowledge are in memory only.

Given the Tantric fascination with shadows, time, snakes and the occult, all of which are invoked in the very phrase itself, Kala Sarpa is almost certainly Tantric in origin. Kala Sarpa is described in some Dravidian treatises from South India, where indigenous snakes are plentiful, but even in those texts there’s no agreement as to its ultimate effect, good or bad. Almost everything else that has otherwise been written about it stems from the modern era.

However, if we acknowledge that the subject of Kala Sarpa is part of an oral tradition, we must at the same time accept that parts of that story may be incomplete. Whatever has been written might only be a partial account – provisional, incomplete, and/or subject to encryption, somewhat like a backup disk of a vital file.

Modern perceptions

My teacher Hart de Fouw once remarked, "Jyotisha has teeth, and it can bite," by which he meant, Jyotisha is not all good news. Like the science of medicine, it can see below the surface, and identify a protocol we might follow to achieve those things we hold dear, whether our good health, or our life’s ambitions. On the other hand, it can also reveal the flaws of a life, and the prognosis may be that the client will die of a terminal disease, or his cherished dreams will evaporate unfulfilled.

Kala Sarpa is a potent astrological symbol for this very conundrum, ie, whether to see life as a blessing or a curse, or whether to use astrology in cultivating hope versus despair. As we’ll discuss later in Chapter 6, one of the existential questions concerning the mystery of Kala Sarpa is whether to judge it a yoga (a state of fulfillment) or a dosha (a blemish or defect).

For better or worse, our attitude toward Kala Sarpa has been shaped in part by one of the dominant proponents of Jyotisha, B.V. Raman, who in his classic reference text Three Hundred Important Combinations relegated discussion of Kala Sarpa to the appendix, as if it wasn’t quite worthy of inclusion in the main body. At the outset of his note he says:

Kalasarpa Yoga (KSY) is said to be formed if all the planets are situated between Rahu and Ketu. The results are that countries and rulers are destroyed and people become afflicted.

Strictly speaking, KSY does not find a place in the classical astrological literature. How this yoga gained currency and gathered a sinister meaning is not clear.

He cites the general belief that Kala Sarpa is evil, restraining all the other good yogas present in the horoscope, thus condemning the native to a life of reversals and setbacks. After acknowledging that nodal house positions help determine the yoga’s effect, he offers examples of some misfortunes, but then adds that Kala Sarpa also has a bright side.

Despite the native’s mental restlessness, it makes one industrious and hard-working, capable of achieving eminence in one’s field, provided of course other Raja yogas are present. Which only leaves us to wonder, under what conditions does Kala Sarpa enhance rather than nullify the good yogas?

Raman goes on to state that the evil effects of Kala Sarpa are intensified with Rahu below the horizon, but neutralized with Rahu above the horizon. But he adds that the Kala Sarpa is annulled if even a single planet is with a node or falls outside the nodal axis.

In concluding his comments on Kala Sarpa, Raman rightly notes that no single yoga dictates the outcome of a life, and the overall assessment of a horoscope is required. But his final word is, "Kalasarpa Yoga plays an important role in mundane astrology and is not of much importance in individual charts."

Via these words, he may have condemned multiple generations of astrologers to disparage if not dismiss one of the more significant yogas in the jyotishi’s toolkit. And in so doing, he has robbed many an interpretation of something both vital and powerful.

Anyone who cares to search for Kala Sarpa in modern textbooks, website articles or videoblogs will be left in an equal state of confusion. The field of opinion is equally divided between those who say it’s a curse and those who consider it a blessing, or inconsequential, or has the power to magnify everything good or bad in the chart.

K.N. Rao’s book Kaal Sarpa Yoga: Why such fright? largely dismisses the role of Kala Sarpa in natal charts, suggesting that whatever has befallen the natives is a result of other demonstrable factors. Seemingly, part of Rao’s motivation for his book was to counter the practice of Indian astrologers who terrify clients having Kala Sarpa in their horoscopes, exhorting them to invest in gemstones, pujas and/or yajnas to nullify the disasters otherwise awaiting them.

In all fairness, it’s a noble effort on Rao’s part to discourage a widespread practice wherein unscrupulous astrologers take advantage of gullible clients in promising to make their Kala Sarpa problems go away. But if our social conscience is so aroused, we might just as well chastise astrologers who routinely advise their clients to purchase gemstones to counteract weak planets in their charts. Kala Sarpa charts, after all, are in the minority, whereas virtually every chart has at least one planet that is debilitated, combust, heavily afflicted or otherwise compromised.

Perhaps similarly motivated, popular videoblogger Kapiel Raaj devotes a YouTube video to a rant against Kala Sarpa, citing no more rationale than that it’s become the favored stick of choice by which mercenary astrologers coerce clients into funding expensive upayas to nullify its effects. Thanks to his online popularity, Raaj has assumed an authority that perhaps exceeds his logical arguments and, in so doing, has poisoned another generation’s mind against the validity of Kala Sarpa.

Where does that leave us?

The birth chart is already complicated. The presence of Kala Sarpa may indeed make it more so, but it neither glorifies nor condemns it. Kala Sarpa is a unique pattern that demands careful analysis rather than casual dismissal.

As I hope to demonstrate, some of the generally accepted principles regarding Kala Sarpa’s formation and effects have little foundation in fact, nor much interpretive utility in practice. In their stead, I hope to provide evidence for some more refined principles, along with practical guidelines for interpreting Kala Sarpa in the birth chart.

Chapter 2

Astronomy

The lunar nodes: Rahu and Ketu

Although many readers are likely familiar with the lunar nodes, let’s review the astronomical definition.

Picture our solar system. The Sun sits at the center of this system, and the planets orbit around it, each completing a full cycle within a regular timeframe known as its orbital period. With small variances, all of the visible planets orbit within a common plane. From Earth’s perspective, it seems as if the Sun circles the zodiac within that same plane, which is called the ecliptic.

As Earth orbits the Sun, it is in turn orbited by its own satellite the Moon. As the Moon completes each cycle, it too describes a plane of motion with the Earth at its center. However, the Moon’s orbital plane does not align with that of the ecliptic, but is tilted at roughly five degrees. Thus the Moon crosses the ecliptic twice in each orbital period, once as it moves from the southern hemisphere to cross the ecliptic going north (the ascending node), and once again two weeks later when it moves from the northern hemisphere to cross the ecliptic going south (the descending node). The north-ascending node is called Rahu, the south-descending node called Ketu.

Figure 1: Intersection of the ecliptic and lunar orbital planes

The nodes and eclipses

As the Earth orbits the Sun, and the Moon orbits the Earth, we thus have a three-body system in which there are two orbital planes – the ecliptic shared by the Sun and Earth, and the Moon’s orbital plane defined by its relationship with the Earth. The two points of intersection between those planes are: Rahu the north-ascending lunar node, and Ketu the south-descending lunar node.

Most of the time, the Sun is in a different zodiacal sign than Rahu or Ketu. But for a month every year, the Sun occupies the same sign as Rahu and, six months later, the same sign as Ketu. Within those two months, there’s a day (or night) when the Sun is in the same zodiacal degree as Rahu or Ketu. That means that when the Moon crosses the ecliptic going north or south, all three (Sun, Moon and Earth) will line up.

If the Moon lies between Earth and the Sun, it blocks our sight of the Sun. This is known as a solar eclipse, and can only happen under a New Moon. If our view from Earth is such that the Moon perfectly blocks the Sun, this is known as a total solar eclipse. If the alignment is less-than-perfect, and the Moon only covers a portion of the Sun, this is known as a partial solar eclipse.

If the Earth lies between the Sun and the Moon, Earth casts a shadow on the Moon, thus making it temporarily invisible to us. This is known as a lunar eclipse, and can only happen under a Full Moon. If the Earth’s shadow perfectly covers the Moon, this is known as a total lunar eclipse. If the alignment is less-than-perfect, and the Earth’s shadow only covers a portion of the Moon, this is known as a partial lunar eclipse.

Mean versus true nodes

In the last 40 years or so, computerized astrology programs have given astrologers the option to select a default calculation for the lunar nodes in a chart – mean node or true node. What’s the difference?

If you think about it, the only time a nodal position is true is when you observe the Moon crossing the ecliptic. Every 27.5 days or so you’d see the Moon cross the ecliptic going from south to north hemisphere, and you could mark Rahu’s position. Two weeks later, when the Moon completes its half-orbit in the northern hemisphere, it’ll cross the ecliptic going south, and you could then mark Ketu’s position.

Those observed crossings are the only true nodal positions; everything else is hypothetical. For centuries, astronomer-astrologers observed the north- and south-bound crossings of the Moon through the ecliptic, and noted their zodiacal positions. If they wanted to know where the nodes could have been for any intervening date, they mathematically interpolated between the nearest two observed positions.

With the advent of NASA’s moon missions, astrophysicists with super-computers made more sophisticated calculations of the nodes, taking into account perturbations due to the Earth’s slight wobble, and other anomalies in the Earth/Moon dynamic. The American astrologer Neil Michelsen began including the True Node in his planetary ephemeris, but in all fairness, it might have been more appropriately named the Hypothetical Node.

But because of its nomenclature, astrologers all over the western world, without thinking it through, began treating the True Node as if it were a superior version of the old Mean Node. Conduct a poll of practicing western astrologers and I’ll bet that a majority use the True Node, simply because it sounds like it’s the real deal, whereas the Mean Node sounds like an approximation.

Meanwhile, Vedic astrologers work within a tradition that’s utilized the nodes, Rahu and Ketu, with greater emphasis than in the West. Although there may be exceptions among those who are influenced by the West, most of them use the Mean Nodes. Does that somehow undermine their use, or detract from their utility in interpreting a horoscope, or diminish their effect in dashas and bhuktis (major and minor planetary periods) when making predictions? Not at all.

The True Node is a misnomer. The nodes don’t exist until the Moon crosses the ecliptic going north or south. Everything else is hypothetical. The Mean Node is at least an honest label, because it implies an interpolation between observed readings. The True Node should rather be called the Astrophysically-Calculated Hypothetical Node.

Astrologers who attach importance to the nodes should be aware of this distinction, and of the consequences of their choice. The difference between True Node and Mean Node can range as high as one-and-a-half degrees of longitude. In some cases, this can result in nodes appearing to change signs!

In all charts presented in this book, I have used the Mean Node positions.

Chapter 3

Myth and meaning

The creation myth and soma

The myth of Rahu and Ketu is recounted in India’s famous epic poem, the Mahabharata. After the creation of the world, the Hindu devas (gods) at one point declared their intention to generate soma, an elixir of immortality. Their intentions were honorable because, after drinking the elixir and becoming immortal, the gods could thus remain forever the custodians of a dharmic world order. But the creation of soma was not an easy task, so the devas asked the asuras (demons) for help in stirring the oceans to produce the elixir. Out of this churning ocean were produced the Sun, Moon, goddesses, and all magical things, together with the desired soma.

Vishnu took charge of distributing the freshly-made soma to the devas. However, while the elixir was being passed out, the asuras clamored for a taste of it, saying they’d earned it through their churning of the ocean. Not wanting to allow the demons immortality, the gods refused. The demons began to battle with the gods. During the confusion, one of the demons Rahu disguised himself as a god and managed to drink some of the elixir, but the Sun and Moon recognized Rahu as an imposter and alerted Vishnu.

Just as Rahu was swallowing the soma, Vishnu threw his war discus and cut off Rahu’s head. But because some of the soma had already passed into his throat, Rahu thereby achieved immortality and thus too did his severed tail. To revenge himself against the Sun and Moon, Rahu chased them across the sky and tried to eat them. Occasionally he caught and swallowed one of them, causing an eclipse, but when the victim fell out of Rahu’s mouth, the eclipse ended, and the eternal cycle of pursuit and capture began all over again.

The Naga kingdom

In Vedic mythology, the Nagas were powerful serpent beings originating from a non-Aryan culture (ie, not from nobility). Unlike the devas who lived in the sky, the Nagas lived on Earth with humans. But because they were a distinct race, they were instructed by Brahma to establish their kingdom, Naga Loka, below the earth. This realm, also known as Pathala Loka, was a vast domain filled with residences and pleasure gardens, and whose main city was Bhogavati. Although the Nagas were antagonistic to the devas, they were not so with people, to the extent that they even inter-married with humans. But being from another lineage, they were recognized by their different and variegated colors, sometimes bordering on the gaudy.

Within the zodiacal system of nakshatras (star-clusters that form the 27 asterisms), the deity for Ashlesha is Ahi, the sky serpent, aka Sarpa or Naga. This nakshatra, which spans 16CN40-30CN00, is considerably south (11S13) of the ecliptic and therefore associated with the asuras. So Sarpa, or Naga, is both a deity and a class of deities. They were thought to be half-human, half-serpent, possessed of tremendous courage, quick to entwine, potentially violent, but handsome and liked to dress up.

Etymologically, naga can be loosely translated as not going. Thus, the Naga is the one who has the power to go or not go. This can be interpreted to mean that serpents have the power to go where other creatures cannot. By analogy, the mind has something of the same quality, to go where the body cannot. This in turn represents the ability to move unseen, and to delve into unseen things. Indeed, seeing is a metaphor for all of the senses.

The Nagas, worshipped as gods in South India, are thought to have wisdom to teach human beings. Nagas can shape-shift, have siddhis (paranormal powers) and often guard hidden treasure troves, thereby making them potent symbols of esoteric knowledge.

The serpent is a protecting mechanism, the supporter of our world. It has the potential power to create and to protect. The world manifests through the means of Vasuki, a Naga king who was also Shiva’s serpent. The Nagas are primal symbols of incarnation, karma, time, power of creation, and of Prakriti, ie, the whole of nature’s creations, from the transcendental mind to the objective world perceived by the senses.

The Nagaraja is the king of cobras, a lethal venomous snake that can appear out of nowhere. It grows up to 18 feet long, and demonstrates intimidating behavior. When it raises its head, it can stand five feet tall. Unique among snakes, it prefers to feed on other snakes. This cannibalism reflects both its powerful predatory instinct and its capacity to control and rule its own kind.

The Nagaraja symbolizes leadership and power. There’s a strong correlation between snakes, the divine and ancient wisdom. Thus, the Nagaraja embodies themes of power, potency, commanding presence, leadership, rulership and protection.

Because Kala Sarpa is itself a symbolic representation of the Nagaraja and its lethal bite, the formation is associated with predatory actions, intimidating circumstances, sudden and unforeseen events, disasters out of the blue, and undesirable results. What humans fear most is death; after that, we fear the unknown. Kala Sarpa and its familiars, the Nagas, lurk in the shadows as unpredictable forces of nature.

According to Vedic myth, there are 12 different types of Nagas that dwell in Pathala Loka. The names morph, and each has an associated myth. Note how many characterizations of the 12 Nagas appear to correlate with aspects of the 12 bhavas (houses of the horoscope), eg, Vasuki the 3rd with courage, Padma the 5th with mantra and tantra, Takshaka the 7th with war, and so on. Later we’ll see how these mythological attributes find their way into meaningful interpretations of the 12 possible configurations of Kala Sarpa, depending on the house alignment of the nodes.

1. Ananta (a Nagaraja). Ananta is a Sanskrit term which means endless, limitless, eternal or infinite. Ananta is the snake who helped Vishnu by giving him, during the pre-creation stage, a ground to stand on. Thus, the substance that forms the manifestation is ananta.

Ananta is also the serpent of infinity who eavesdropped on the secret Yoga teaching being imparted by Lord Shiva to Goddess Parvati. On being apprehended, Ananta was sentenced by Lord Shiva to impart that teaching to human beings, for which purpose Ananta assumed the human form and was called Patanjali.

2. Kulika. Kulika is a Sanskrit term meaning a kinsman of a good family, an artisan or head of a guild, a hunter, as well as a kind of poison. Kulika was one of the sons of Kasyapa and Kadru, early progenitors of the Naga race. He is described as dusky-brown or red in color, and having the mark of a half-moon on his head.

3. Vasuki (a Nagaraja). Vasuki is one of the three chief kings of the Nagas. Vasuki represents courage, because he lends his body to be wrapped around the mountain Mandara, which becomes the churn by which the ocean endures its suffering (abrasions that occur in the process of churning), around which things arise out of cosmic milk. Vasuki is famous for coiling around the neck