Sacred Snakes (CONTEXTS AND CONSEQUENCES)

This book examines a centuries-old grass-roots tradition - snake worship - as manifest within the texts of orthodox Hindu and Buddhist traditions, including the Rig Veda, the late Vedas, the Ādi Parvan of the Mahabhārata, the Mahāvagga, the Jātaka Tales, and the Mahāvastu. Over the centuries Hindu and Buddhist redactors collected, edited, and amended the myths, rituals and hymns that comprise the building blocks of these traditions. What this textual analysis reveals is the process by which the figure of the supernatural snake was co-opted - its powers, its sites, and its rituals - from a pre-established tradition of snake worship to further the development of these orthodox traditions.