Defeating Patriarchal Politics: The Snake Woman as Goddess: A Study of the Manasa Mangal Kavya of Bengal

The worship of the snake goddess Manasa, popular in rural Bengal, belongs primarily to the domain of the womenfolk and is part of their daily struggle against adversity through a plea for divine intervention. Simple domestic worship to Manasa forms part of the large repertoire of rituals, chanting and narration through which rural women seek to placate rural goddesses who, on the whole find little mention in Vedic Hinduism. Though the snake does occupy an important supportive role in Hindu myths as part of Shiva's girdle, the crown of his matted locks or in Vishnu's canopy, Manasa as a snake goddess may be traced back to pre-Aryan goddess mythology. Literary historian, Asit Kumar Bandopadhyay, believes that goddesses like Manasa, Chandi, Sheetala, Shashti and Bashuli, are, even today, worshipped by rural women within their homes with simple non-Vedic rituals. He argues that this form of worship may be traced back to the tribes of Proto-Australoid origin who inhabited the plains of eastern India before Aryan settlement. Vestiges of this culture and form of worship lingered on amidst the lowest castes of the Hindu hierarchy who mingled easily with the tribes even after the Aryan influence swept the region. Adapted from the source document.