Yucatan

Dear Friends: thanks for paying attention to this space and following my journey. I began the year at  in Cambodia, exploring the ancient Vishnu temples of Angkor Wat. We found some strange parallels between the forgotten pyramids of Shiva built by the Khmer civilisation in the jungles of Cambodia and the Mayan and Aztec pyramids of Mexico. I'm ending the year with a trip to the Yucatan peninsula where the Mayans once thrived. 

As a cultural anthropologist I'm interested in how these ancient cultures might have been related and how their sense of myth and time led the followers of  the cult of the serpent to construct temple-pyramids at the far ends of the earth. 

I plan to visit the Pu'uc region of Classic Mayan temples and the areas around Kabah with its temple of the sun, as well as  Uxmal, one of the most important archaeological sites in Mexico, the jewel in the crown of the Mayan empire. I'm beginning to feel that the Nagas hold the key to the relationship between these ancient cultures. At Uxmal the Governor's palace is decorated with more than 20,000 stones that form a detailed scenario with repeated Chaac figures enveloped in latticework rattle-snakes. The rattle snake was a symbol of the sun. The great pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza is decorated with snake motifs as well. During the Solstices, the shadow of Quetzalcoatl forms as the sun moves through its course. At mid-day the shadow snakes all the way down the sacrificial staircase as the sun communicates its power to the snake of time.

The serpent staircase of the sun in Mexico has a certain resonance with themes often seen in Asia.

The Wat Dio Suthep temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for example has a stupendous Naga staircase.

And Nagas in different forms appear even from the rooftops.

One can't help being struck by the similarities between these Naga roof ornaments and the Quetzalcoatl plumed serpent of the sun found on the pyramids of Kukulkan. Could the ancients have been linked by some primitive cult of snake worship, or might they have been informed by the same mythology derived from Puranic sources? It seems outlandish, but the architectural evidence seems to point to some syncretism.

Quetzalcoatl decoration at the Pyramid of the Sun, Mexico City

Nagas, India

Quetzalcoatl devouring a demon

Vishnu with Ananta Shesh

The word "Naga" in Sanskrit and Pali refers to  for a god or mystic being with the form of a serpent.  The Naga mythologies are found in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

In the great epic Mahabharata, the depiction of nagas are sometimes negative, as in the case of Takshaka, who kills Maharaja Pariksit. But often they are majestic, as in the case of Vasuki who aids in the churning of the ocean of milk. And yet when Janamejaya plans to rid the earth of snakes and serpents with his great sacrifice, his hand is stopped by the gentle Astik, a brahmana descended from the nagas.

In India there is a class of people who are descended from a race identified as the Naga tribesmen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naga_people

Tribesmen of the Naga, India

While snakes are often sinister and represent the devil or the forces of darkness, they are often agents of mystic powers. They control poison, mystic potions, and medicine. 

Caduceus or "Staff of Hermes"

The staff of Hermes shows entwined serpents and represents medical science. According to the Mahabharata and various Puranas, the Nagas were capable sorcerers and shape-shifters. The Nagas could their form at will. The serpent-people preside over the power of transformation. Just as a snake hides in the grass and suddenly appears, the Nagas held the ability to transform at will or disguise themselves.

Hidden places in earth and water were the hiding places of these subterranean or subaquatic and semi-demonic beings. The origin of the Khmer civilisation is said to have taken place when a Naga princess born within the waters of the Tonle Sap lake married a brahmin prince from India.

A diverse mythology involving the nagas inform the cultural traditions of Asia, from India to Cambodia. In southern India, nagas are considered nature spirits and the protectors of springs, wells and rivers. They bring rain, and thus fertility, but are also thought to bring disasters such as floods and drought. Shiva decorates his neck with a Naga, a cobra. The snake wraps round his neck three times, representing past, present, and future. Shiva wears time as an ornament since he is independent and controls time. 

The snake of time was important for the Aztecs. Their pagan calendar of the sun, while calculated centuries before the Christians of Europe was highly accurate and used to calculate eclipses thousands of years in advance. 

The Aztecs felt that Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, was representative of time, wisdom, and the sun. They incorporated many of these ideas into their pyramids. In prehistoric times, these stone monuments were their books. I plan to investigate this further next week, when I travel to the far reaches of the Yucatan in search of a deeper understanding about these archeological wonders.

If you are enjoying these musings, please share the blog with your friends. 

Thanks all, have a happy new year, and we'll see you in the Yucatan.

Krishna dancing on the head of Kaliya-Naga