Vāsuki

Also Known As: Vasuki; called Nāgarāja, Nāgendra and Sarparāja in the Mahābhārata, all meaning king of serpents
Region/Culture: South Asia
Mythos: Hindu Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: A length nobody has ever managed to measure, breath that leaves him as fire and smoke when he is strained, and kingship over every serpent alive.
Role in Mythos: He lends his own body to the work of greater gods, serving as the churning rope at the ocean of milk, as the bowstring on Shiva’s bow at the burning of Tripura, and as the living ornament at Shiva’s throat.
Relation to Humans: He is not a danger to be escaped but a deity to be fed, and in Kerala he stands among the ashtanagas, the eight serpent lords, holding the southeast and carrying the blue lotus as his sign. Households pour milk and turmeric into serpent figures drawn on the floor and ask him for children, for rain and for the safety of the family line.

The rope had a mouth, and the mouth was open. On one shore of the ocean of milk the gods pulled, on the other the demons pulled, and wound around a mountain between them lay Vasuki, king of serpents, taking the entire weight of creation’s appetite for immortality across his own ribs. Black vapour came off him, shot through with flame. It drifted into the faces of the demons at his head until their garlands and bright coats went the colour of smoke and their splendour went out of them like a lamp in wind.

He was born under the earth, to the sage Kashyapa and to Kadru, who had asked her husband for a thousand valiant sons and received exactly that. The lists of those sons do not agree on where he stands in them. The Mahabharata says Shesha was born first and Vasuki second; the later compilers put him first outright and leave it there. Either way he ended up crowned twice, once when the nagas anointed him themselves and once when the gods did it, and he ruled from Bhogavati, the serpent city below the world, which is why the epics use his name and the plain word for king of snakes almost interchangeably.

The trouble that shaped the rest of his life began with a bet about a horse’s tail. Kadru and her sister Vinata staked everything on the colour of the tail of Uchchaihshravas, the white horse that came up out of the churning, and Kadru, who intended to win, told her sons to go and hang in that tail as black hairs. Vasuki would not do it. Neither would the sons who stood with him. His mother’s answer was a curse that they should all burn in the fire of a sacrifice held by a king not yet born, and the Grandsire of the worlds heard her say it and answered, so be it.

That is the record. What the record does not carry is what he has actually been doing for most of the last two thousand years, which is receiving breakfast. In Kerala the groves called sarppakavu are left uncut for him and his kin, and on the ninth star of the month a family draws a serpent on the floor in five colours ground from crushed leaves, turmeric and burnt rice chaff, sets brass lamps burning around the edge of it, and pours a slow mixture of milk, rice flour, coconut and banana into the drawing while the chanting runs. Among the eight great serpent lords of that tradition Vasuki keeps the southeast and carries the blue lotus. Childless couples come to him for a child. Farmers come for rain.

The churning is still where he is best known, and the texts rather enjoy the indignity of it. The gods and the demons wanted the nectar lying at the bottom of the sea of milk, so they took Mount Mandara for a churning staff, set it on the back of the tortoise king when it began to sink, and invited Vasuki to be the cord, promising him a share of whatever came up. Then they argued about ends. In the Mahabharata the demons simply take the hood and the gods take the tail. The Bhagavata Purana tells it better: Vishnu takes the head first, the demon lords refuse to touch the tail on the grounds that it is a dirty and inauspicious limb and beneath men of their birth and learning, and Vishnu smiles, lets go of the head, and walks down to the tail with the gods. The demons got precisely what they had demanded. What came out of a thousand nostrils and a thousand eyes was fire and smoke, and it went through them like a forest fire through pines, while clouds gathered over the gods and a wind came off the sea to keep them cool.

Then the water gave up something worse than the serpent. The poison called Kalakuta rose out of the churn and began spreading in every direction at once, above and below, and the three worlds went stupid with the fear of it. Shiva drank it. Parvati closed his throat so it could travel no further, and it stayed there and stained the skin blue, which is why he is called Nilakantha. What little leaked between his hands went into scorpions and cobras and the bitter plants, and has stayed in them since.

Vasuki’s size is easiest to feel through other people’s failures with it. Garuda, who had carried the mountain out of the ground as easily as an eagle carries a frog, went down to the serpent city to fetch him and took him up in his beak by the middle. He climbed past the horizon and the lower half of the serpent was still lying on the ground. He folded him double and tried again and it changed nothing. He came back without him and was told what his strength was worth. Shiva then reached one arm down into Patala, and Vasuki coiled onto the wrist and came up as a bangle. He has stayed on that body ever since, which is how Shiva earned the name that means adorned with serpents, and why the snake at his throat in every image is not just a snake but somebody.

He has been equipment more than once. When Shiva burned the three flying cities, the mountain was the bow and Vasuki was the bowstring and the axle of the chariot. He is counted among the serpents whose bodies hold the earth up from underneath. He stands in the water god’s hall and sings there. He handed two of his own followers to the war god as attendants. There is a version of nearly every large event in which the king of snakes is present, doing something structural, and nobody thanks him for it.

The curse came due a few generations later. Janamejaya lit a fire to avenge his father, who had died of Takshaka’s bite, and the serpents began falling into it out of the air in their thousands, one after another, hauled down by the recitation of their own names. Vasuki felt the pull begin on him. He said that his head was swimming and his heart was breaking and that he could no longer tell one quarter of the world from another. What saved him had been arranged decades earlier and involved none of his strength: on Brahma’s advice he had given his sister in marriage to an ascetic, and the boy born of that marriage, Astika, walked into the sacrificial ground, praised the king until the king offered him whatever he liked, and asked for the fire to stop.

So his powers are real and almost every one of them gets borrowed by somebody else. A length that defeats the fastest thing in the sky. Venom carried in the breath rather than the tooth, which is why he never needs to bite anything. Command of every serpent alive, and a station among the few whose bodies keep the earth off the abyss. Set against that is a short list of limits that no amount of scale fixes. He could be gripped, stretched, tied to a mountain and pulled by two armies until he smoked, and not one part of it was his idea. He could not lift his own mother’s curse. The king of serpents spent the worst day of his existence being used as string and the best one being rescued by a nephew who talked. Kerala still puts out milk for him on the ninth star of the month, and has done for longer than anyone can date.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Vasuki in Hindu mythology?

Vasuki is the king of the nagas, the serpent race of Hindu mythology, and a son of the sage Kashyapa and Kadru. He rules from Bhogavati, the serpent city beneath the earth, and was crowned twice, once by the nagas and once by the gods. The Mahabharata uses Nagaraja, Nagendra and Sarparaja as alternative names for him.

What did Vasuki do in the churning of the ocean of milk?

Vasuki served as the churning rope. The gods and demons wound him around Mount Mandara and hauled on opposite ends to bring up the nectar of immortality, having promised him a share of it. The strain made him vent fire and smoke from his nostrils, which scorched the demons holding his head, while clouds and a sea wind protected the gods at his tail.

Why does Shiva wear Vasuki around his neck?

Vasuki came to Shiva as a bangle. When Garuda proved unable to carry the serpent to the ocean of milk, Shiva reached down into Patala and Vasuki coiled onto his wrist, and he has remained on Shiva’s body since. The association is why Shiva is called nagabhushana, the one adorned with serpents.

How was Vasuki saved from Janamejaya’s snake sacrifice?

His nephew Astika stopped the sacrifice. Vasuki’s mother Kadru had cursed her sons to burn in the fire of a future king, so on Brahma’s advice Vasuki married his sister to the ascetic Jaratkaru, and their son Astika later entered the sacrificial ground, won a boon from Janamejaya by praising him, and used it to halt the rite.

Is Vasuki worshipped today?

Yes. In Kerala he is one of the ashtanagas, the eight serpent lords, holding the southeast and marked by the blue lotus, and he receives offerings of milk, turmeric, rice flour, coconut and banana poured into serpent figures drawn on the ground. Devotees ask serpent deities for children, for rain and for the protection of the family.