Vāsuki

Vāsuki is the great Nāgarāja, king of the nāgas, and a son of Kadrū and Kaśyapa Prajāpati. He served as the churning rope coiled around Mount Mandara at the Samudramanthana, the churning of the ocean. The effort scorched his body and turned his breath into clouds.

When Janamejaya’s sarpa-yāga (serpent sacrifice) came near, Vāsuki called a council of the nāgas. He kept his sister unmarried for years as the bride ordained for the ṛshi Jaratkāru. In the end he saw his nephew Āstīka stop the yajña and save the serpents who were left. He is counted among the greatest nāgas, and his answer to disaster was not violence.

At the Samudramanthana

The devas and dānavas resolved to churn the Kshīrasāgara (the Ocean of Milk) for amṛta (the nectar of immortality). They needed a churning rope of cosmic size. Vāsuki offered himself. He was coiled around Mount Mandara, the churning staff. The devas held him at the tail end and the dānavas at the head end. The churning was huge and lasted long. The rubbing of the mountain scorched Vāsuki’s body. His breath became clouds and rain. Through all of this he held steady in his service.

The council after the śāpa

Kadrū had laid a śāpa (a curse) on the nāgas, and Brahmā himself had agreed to it. When it was clear that Janamejaya’s sarpa-yāga was near and the nāgas faced destruction, Vāsuki called a council of all the great nāgas. Plan after plan was put forward and rejected. They could not fight Janamejaya’s brāhmaṇa priests, whose mantra-power would beat any force of serpents. They could not spoil the yajña from within. They could not flee from the pull of the sacred mantras.

Then the nāga Elāpatra spoke. He had been at Brahmā’s court when the śāpa was spoken, and he had heard Brahmā’s later words: that a son of the ṛshi Jaratkāru by a woman also named Jaratkāru would stop the yāga. Elāpatra told this to the council.

The long preparation

Vāsuki had kept his sister, who was also named Jaratkāru, unmarried for years, kept safe and waiting. When he heard Elāpatra, he saw that she was the woman Brahmā had named. He sent serpents in every direction to find the ṛshi Jaratkāru. This ṛshi wandered as a strict ascetic, begging for alms and accepting nothing else.

At last the ṛshi Jaratkāru came wandering through the forest, calling for a wife who shared his name and would be freely offered. Vāsuki gave his sister as bhikshā (alms). The ṛshi asked her name. When he heard that it was Jaratkāru, the same as his own, he accepted. The wedding was performed, and the marriage Brahmā had ordained was done.

Lament during the yāga

When the sarpa-yāga began in earnest, Vāsuki felt it in his own body. His limbs burned and his mind reeled. His great family of nāgas was falling into the fire by the thousands. There were white ones, black ones and blue ones, large and small, young and old, all drawn in by the force of the mantras. He turned to his sister, the wife of the ṛshi Jaratkāru, and said: “My limbs are burning. My heart is splitting. I feel I will fall into that fire. The time has come. Send our son Āstīka to stop this yāga.”

Āstīka’s success and Vāsuki’s relief

Āstīka stopped the yāga and the nāgas went free. Vāsuki was fully relieved. He offered Āstīka a vara (a boon). Āstīka chose: “Let anyone who recites my story and remembers my names at dawn and dusk be protected from all serpents.” The nāgas agreed. These mantras for protection from serpents became part of the tradition.

The smoke in Nāgaloka (Aśvamedhika Parva)

The Uttaṅkopākhyāna in the Aśvamedhika Parva tells of a smaller crisis that struck Vāsuki’s house directly. The ṛshi Uttaṅka went down into Nāgaloka to win back stolen maṇi-kuṇḍalas (jewelled earrings). Agni, in the form of a horse, had Uttaṅka blow a terrible smoke through Nāgaloka to force the nāgas to give way. The Mahābhārata records that the smoke filled Airāvata’s house first. It says that “in the homes of Vāsuki and the other nāgas” the same great cries of hāhākāra (wailing) arose, and every building was darkened as if wrapped in a snow-covered forest. Vāsuki and the gathered nāgas, old and young alike, their eyes stinging from the smoke, came before Uttaṅka and honoured him. They returned the kuṇḍalas with full respect, to win his grace.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Āstīka Parva, Chapters 14–58
• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 58