Naga

one of his principal manifestations is Shesha, the cosmic snake. We must not be surprised, therefore, to find that Krishna, Vishnu’s human avatār and the conqueror of Kāliya, may be represented with the typical attributes of the serpent genii.

Zimmer argues that Vishnu’s identity with the cosmic serpent Shesha reveals that the divine conqueror and the Nāga he subdues share the same underlying substance, making the Nāga a manifestation of the supreme sustaining power rather than its mere adversary.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946thesis

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The nāgakals of Figure 8 are from the state of Mysore, South India. The reliefs decorating them are of several kinds. Some exhibit a snake queen of the mermaid type, with serpent tail and human body, and with a halo of expanded cobra hoods.

Zimmer documents the iconographic range of the Nāga in South Indian votive stones, demonstrating its pre-Aryan antiquity and its association with fertility, the Mesopotamian serpent-pair motif, and a continuous aboriginal substratum beneath the Vedic tradition.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946thesis

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representations of serpent genii occur in association with a variety of other divine patrons of fertility, prosperity, and earthly health. These personify under various aspects the life energy — beneficent but blind — which the message of the Buddha broke and dissolved.

Zimmer establishes the Nāga as an embodiment of the earthbound life-energy that Buddhism transcended but did not eliminate, preserving it in a devotional attitude of subordination at Buddhist shrines.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946thesis

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Nāgas, vriksha-devātās, yakshas and yakshinīs (serpent kings, tree goddesses, earth genii and their queens) posit

Zimmer situates the Nāga within the broader pre-Buddhist iconographic ensemble of chthonic and fertility powers that were absorbed and recontextualized by early Buddhist monumental art.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946supporting

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Other nāga forms are the serpent, the serpent with numerous heads, and the human torso with serpent tail.

Zimmer catalogues the morphological variants of the Nāga across Indian traditions, cross-referencing Persian and Armenian dragon-lord parallels to demonstrate the symbol’s pan-Eurasian diffusion.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Philosophies of India, 1951supporting

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Ein anderes, kleineres Heiligtum dieses Königs, Neak Pean, befindet sich in einem Bassin auf einer Insel, die von zwei steinernen Schlangen umzogen ist. Daher der Name des Tempels, der »eingerollte Naga« bedeutet.

Otto documents the Khmer temple Neak Pean — ‘coiled Nāga’ — as a sacred lustration site encircled by stone serpents, linking the Nāga symbol to purification, healing waters, and royal sacred architecture.

Otto, Walter F., Die Götter Griechenlands (The Gods of Greece), 1929supporting

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naga stones, 340

Jung’s index entry for ‘naga stones’ in the alchemical context indicates a cross-cultural parallel between Indian Nāga votive monuments and the chthonic stone symbolism within Western alchemical and Gnostic traditions.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Alchemical Studies, 1967aside

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