MANASA: THE INDIAN SERPENT GODDESS

Ophidiphobia was the foremost reason that gave rise to imagination of the Indian serpent goddess Manasā, and thus came into existence the ophiolatric cult of this deity in course of time. The Manasā cult is in existence in Assam since either the tenth or the eleventh century. The tradition of reciting stories eulogising the deity ultimately took the shape of kāvyas. The Manasāmaŋgals formed the oldest type of the Maŋgalkābyas penned in medieval Bengal. Manasā could easily prevail over the low caste populace. Nevertheless, she had to withstand a lengthy strife from the upper caste Hindus. This was the essence of the Manasāmaŋgals. We shall uncover in this book, links between the Assamese Manasākāvyas and the Bengali Manasāmaŋgals. We have found that the dissimilarities between the Bengali Padmāpurāņ and the Assamese Suknānī composed by Nārāyaņdev were in the story line, while the similarities were in some of the lines themselves. The similarities are so many that it can be concluded that the same person must have written both of the kāvyas and that neither version was a copy of the other; one of them was indeed adapted from the other.