Nāgakuṇḍa at Pushkara

Chapter 31 of the Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells how the Nāgakuṇḍa, a holy pool at Pushkara, came to be. Brahmā had put the nāgas under a śāpa (a curse) and sent them down to pātāla. When they came to his great yajña (fire ritual) at Pushkara, tired and thirsty, he made cool water fall for them. At the same time he set up the vrata (vow) of Nāgapañchamī.

Brahmā’s śāpa on the nāgas

In an earlier age the nāgas became a great trouble to living beings. They bit and harmed creatures without cause. Brahmā was pained by this. He laid a hard śāpa on the nāgas. They would be driven out of the worlds of the devas and sent down to pātāla. So the nāgas went down to the regions below and lived there.

The journey to Pushkara

Brahmā was about to perform his great yajña at Pushkara. Word went through all the worlds that this was a very high occasion of dharma. The nāgas in pātāla heard it too. They were filled with devotion and wished to attend. Their life in exile was hard, but they travelled all the way from pātāla to Pushkara to join Brahmā’s yajña. The road was long and wearying. When they reached the holy tīrtha, they were tired and parched.

The Nāgakuṇḍa

Brahmā saw the tired nāgas who had come with such devotion, and he was moved with compassion. He made cool, clean water fall for them. The water fell at Pushkara and gathered into a holy pool. This pool is called the Nāgakuṇḍa, and it is also called Nāga-nadī. It is a tīrtha of the nāgas within the larger holy ground of Pushkara.

Nāgapañchamī is set up

On this same occasion Brahmā set up the observance of Nāgapañchamī. On the śukla pañchamī (the fifth day of the bright half) of the month of Śrāvaṇa, the nāgas and devotees should bathe at the Nāgakuṇḍa.

Brahmā declared that the nāgas who bathe at this tīrtha on that day will be free from all fear of Garuḍa, the great enemy of the serpent race. He also declared that all creatures who honour the nāgas at the Nāgakuṇḍa on Nāgapañchamī will be kept safe from snakebite and fear.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 31