“On the auspicious occasion of Nagpanchami, there is a tradition of feeding snakes milk. A bowl of milk is left out overnight in some remote corner of the house and the next morning it is presumed that a snake has partaken in it. This ritual symbolizes Hindus respect for all living beings, even for venomous snakes. No Hindu scripture lays down any injunction in this regard. Yet, Hindus do so. Only Hindutva can explain this phenomenon”. (D.P. Sinha, IAS (Retd.), Organizer, August 10, 2008)
Nagapanchami, the festival of snakes, was celebrated this year in Karnataka on the 6th of August 2008, with the usual religious fervor. Devotees could be seen waiting since four in the morning in labyrinthine lines in front of temples devoted to Nagadevatas - snake gods. Massive quantity of milk was wasted by pouring it on stone-images of snakes to propitiate the reptilian gods. Tiny silver replicas of human body parts were offered to the snake idols. Nagadevatas would, it is believed, bless the devotees and rid them of all ‘doshas’!
Seeing this devotion of the believers, a section of the urban environmental activists, especially the once-fashionable post-modern variety, sometimes come out with a curious claim similar to the one expressed by the Hindutva proponent quoted at the beginning of this essay. They argue that only a return to these sorts of pre-modern religious beliefs and ritualistic practices would save the fast depleting reptilian population. It is the rationalist world-view, they continue, that endangers the world’s flora and fauna by destroying their natural habitats.
