ENARADA, Bengaluru, August 19, 2015
For seeking divine blessings for the welfare of family members, People across the country worshiped snake god today, on the Fifth day (Panchami) of Shravan month.
A group of people from different age worshiping snake god on the occasion of Nagara Panchami today at Mysore.Photo: WWW.ENARADA.COM
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Earlier, it was a practice to worship the actual snakes and offer milk . Nowadays, snake idols are worshiped and bathed in milk. As snakes are dear to Shiva, devotees visited Shiva temples and performed abhisheka ( pouring of water/milk) on shiva linga. Many farmers didn’t plough their fields today to prevent any destruction to anthill.
Some brought clay snakes in the morning, worshiped and immersed in the sea / river in the evening.
As it was difficult to find Naga devata idols and anthills, many chose to worship at home. They made a five hood snake at home by mixing “gandh” (a fragrant pigment),”haladi” (turmeric powder), “chandan” (sandal) and “kesar” (saffron) and worshiped. Few devotees observed fasting till dawn.
