Nag Panchami
The fifth tithi of bright Shravana, kept for the serpent deities — milk at the anthill, and no digging.
Where it is kept All India, with distinct forms in Maharashtra, Bengal, Rajasthan, Kerala and the Nepal Terai.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying the tithi running at sunrise.
Overview
Milk is offered at a snake hole or an anthill, or to a serpent image drawn on the wall in cowdung or turmeric, and the eight great nagas are named — Ananta, Vasuki, Padma, Mahapadma, Takshaka, Kulira, Karkotaka, Shankha. In Maharashtra the day is also a women's festival with its own swing and songs; in Bengal the worship goes to Manasa, the serpent goddess with a substantial literature of her own.
In Kerala the serpent groves — sarpa kavu — are the site of the observance. These are small patches of forest left uncut beside a house or temple precisely because they are the snakes' ground, and they have become significant refuges of remnant native vegetation.
Where it comes from
The observance descends from the Mahabharata's Astika narrative: Janamejaya's snake sacrifice, undertaken to avenge his father Parikshit's death by Takshaka's bite, is halted by the young brahmin Astika on the fifth tithi of Shravana. The nagas are saved on that day and the day is theirs.
Snake worship in India is older than the epic material and is likely pre-Vedic in origin; the naga cult appears in Buddhist and Jain sources as well, and the serpent as a guardian of water, of treasure and of fertility is common to all of them.
Why it matters
Shravana is when the monsoon floods the burrows and snakes come into the open and into houses. The festival falls exactly when the encounter rate peaks, and the observance is a negotiation with an animal that cannot be excluded — which is a practical reading, and the one the agricultural context supports.
The rat control that snakes perform in a grain-storing society is the material fact underneath the reverence, and the prohibition on killing them is the working part of the festival.
How to celebrate
- Leave the offering at the burrow or the image rather than seeking out a live snakeThe traditional offering is made at the hole or to a drawn image.
- Protect the serpent grove or the anthill on your landIn Kerala this is the observance; elsewhere it is the useful equivalent.
- Keep the prohibition on killing snakes for the day at minimumThe Astika story is about the halting of a slaughter.
What to avoid
These are not all the same kind of thing. Some are prohibitions from a named text, some are Indian law, some are practical, and some are a confusion worth not repeating. Each item says which it is.
- Do not give milk to a live snakeSnakes are not able to digest milk and captive cobras used for the offering are frequently dehydrated, defanged and dead within weeks. The practice is widespread, illegal under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, and cruel.
- Do not dig, plough or till the earth todayThe oldest and best-attested prohibition of the day: the burrows are not to be broken open.
- Do not patronise snake charmers on this festivalTheir trade in wild-caught cobras peaks on this day; the animals are mutilated for it.
- Do not kill a snake found in the house — have it movedEvery Indian state has a rescue network; the killing is both against the day and against the law.
Where this comes from
Everything above is either computed by this site’s own panchang engine, or drawn from the works listed here. Where a custom is modern, commercial or contested, the page says so rather than presenting it as ancient.
- Mahabharata, Adi Parva, Astika Parva, for the halting of Janamejaya's sarpa satra on Shravana Shukla Panchami.
- Manasa Mangal Kavya of Bengal, for the eastern form of the observance.
- Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, Schedule I and II, under which the capture and display of cobras is an offence — stated here because the traditional offering and the law are in direct conflict.
Dates are computed for the place named above and will differ elsewhere. Regional traditions vary; where two reckonings are in use, both are named rather than one being chosen silently.
Other festivals
All festivals, with dates for any year · The calendar on the home page