Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/677

 — GUN

599

The episode

of the BanjSra and the Nag confirms this view. The Ndg in the imagination of the ignorant Banjara lay- coiled at the bottom of the tank, its presence only revealed by the broad leaves of the sacred

whom

was but the the embodiment of the memories of the departed race rajas, those "ruling powers who had cultivated the- arts of luxury to an extraordinary degree, and yet succeeded in maintaining a protracted struggle against the Aryan invaders." These Nagas or serpent, worshippers, who lived in crowded cities and were famous for their, beautiful women, and exhaustless treasures were doubtless a civilized, people, living under an organized Government. ****** It may be conjectured that prior to the Aryan invasion the Naga rdjas exercised an imperial power over the greater part of the Punjab and Hindustan.. The clearance of the jungle at Indarprastha (Delhi) was effected by the expulsion of the Nagas. One of the heroes of the Mahabharata had an amour with the daughter of a Naga raja. The Aryan conquest of Prayaga (Allahabad) and other parts lotus,

of

Naga



in India are mythically described as a great sacrifice of serpents, To this day traces of the Nagas are to be found in numerous sculptures of the old serpent gods, and in the nomenclature of towns and villages. In

Bengal barren wives creep into the jungle to propitiate the serpent of a tree -with an offering of milk, in the simple faith that by the favour of the serpent deity they may become mothers. There are strong reasons to suspect that the worship of the snake, and the practice of snake charming formed important elements in an old materialistic religion, which may at one time have prevailed' amongst the Dravidian populations, and of which the memory still lingers throughout the greater part of



India" (Wheeler's History of India

III., 56.)

The Buddhist monarchs seem to have sought out special distinction the traces of the departed Nagas.

and honoured with For instance:

"Hwen Thsang records that outside the town of Ahichhatra there was a Wdg-brada or serpent tank near which Buddha had preached the law for seven days in favour of the serpent king, and that the spot was marked by a stupa of king Asoka."' "A similar story is told at Buddha Gaya of the Naga king Muchahinda who with his expanded hood sheltered Buddha from the shower of rain produced by the malignant demon Mara" (Ancient Geography of India I, 360.) "Asoka is celebrated in aU Buddhist countries especially for the construction of very many stupas, or memorial towers of Gotama Buddha" (Wheeler's History III. 238.) I hazard the conjecture that Asoka's stupas mark the spots where Buddha was traditionally associated with the N%as, and am inclined to believe that what the Banjara of my legend worshipped was a fragment of Naga sculpture, found at or near an earth stupa of Asoka's time, and that he enshrined the fragment in a brick temple- raised on Asoka's mound. That is my reading of the legend and of the brick At Aliabad in Bara Banki debris on the lonely mound at which I heard it. in Chaudhri Ghulam- Farid's garden there is a curious mound or tila of On the bank of the earth of, as far as I remember, about the same height. adjacent Bhar tank serpent worship is carried on to this day. If elsewhere are found curious high

mounds with

or without brick superstructures,