Kulika
Kulika
Śveta has other meanings too: see all meanings of Śveta. Śaṅkha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Śaṅkha.
Kulika is one of the great nāgas (divine serpents). The Agni Purāṇa names him the eighth of the eight best of the nāgas, together with Śesha, Vāsuki, Takshaka, Karkoṭaka, Padma, Mahāpadma and Śaṅkhapāla. Where the seven nāgas from Śesha are each lords of a day of the week, Kulika rises at the junction of them all, and the time of his rising, kulikodaya, is forbidden for every work. Like the other chief nāgas, his mūrti (sacred image) holds a sūtra (cord), has a face in the shape of a hood and shines with a great mass of tejas (radiance).
He is honoured in the pūjā of the Devī. In the dhyāna of Kubjikā Devī, the nāgas Kulika and Kūrma are the earrings of her two ears, and in the pūjā of Tvaritā Devī he is one of the eight nāgas who are her ornaments, worshipped with his own mantra.
The eight great nāgas
Agni Deva, teaching the marks of serpents, begins with the origin of the nāgas. Śesha, Vāsuki, Takshaka, Karkoṭaka, Padma, Mahāpadma, Śaṅkhapāla and Kulika: these eight are the best of the nāgas. Of them, two are brāhmaṇas, two kshatriyas, two vaiśyas and two śūdras, and the nāgas of these four varṇas have, in order, 1,000, 800, 500 and 300 hoods. In their vaṃśa (line) five hundred nāgas were born, and those born from them are countless.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 294
Kulikodaya, the rising of Kulika
The seven nāgas beginning with Śesha are, in order, the lords of the weekdays beginning with Sunday, by day and by night, and each rises on his own weekday. But Kulika rises at the sandhi (junction) of all of them, or together with Mahāpadma and Śaṅkhapāla. By another view, Kulika’s rising falls in the two ghaṭikās between Mahāpadma and Śaṅkhapāla.
That time of Kulika’s rising, kulikodaya, is forbidden for every work, and above all it is inauspicious for a serpent’s bite.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 294
His mūrti
Hayagrīva, teaching the marks of the images of Sūrya and the other devatās, gives the form of the nāgas. Ananta, Takshaka, Karkoṭaka, Padma, Mahāpadma, Śaṅkha, Kulika and all the chief hosts of nāgas hold a sūtra (cord). All have faces in the shape of hoods, and all shine with a great mass of tejas.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 51
Ornament of the Devī
Parameśvara, teaching the pūjā of Kubjikā Devī, gives her dhyāna. She is dark like the petal of a blue lotus, with six faces and twelve arms, seated at ease on a lion-throne, and the great nāgas are her ornaments: Karkoṭaka is her girdle, Takshaka is on her head, Vāsuki is her necklace, Kulika and Kūrma are the earrings of her two ears, and on her two eyebrows are the nāgas Padma and Mahāpadma.
In the pūjā of Tvaritā Devī, which Agni Deva teaches, the eight nāgas who are the ornaments of the Devī are worshipped, each with his name. Kulika is worshipped with the mantra “kulikāya namaḥ svadhā”, together with Ananta, Vāsuki, Śaṅkhapāla, Takshaka, Mahāpadma, Karkoṭa and Padma.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 144, 314
In Pātāla: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa
Śuka Maharshi, describing the lokas below the earth, tells Parīkshit that below Rasātala is Pātāla, where great-hooded serpents live: Śaṅkha, Kulika, Mahāśaṅkha, Śveta, Dhanañjaya, Dhṛtarāshṭra, Śaṅkhacūḍa, Kambala, Aśvatara, Devadatta and others. Among those serpents of great wrath Vāsuki is the chief. They have five, seven, ten, a hundred or a thousand heads, and Īśvara set in their hoods great gems shining brightly, whose light drives away the darkness of Pātāla.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 24
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 51, 144, 294, 314
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 24