The Naga

The word Naga is rooted in Sanskrit and means "Serpent". In the East Indian pantheon it is connected with the Serpent Spirit and the Dragon Spirit. It has an quivalency to the Burmese Nats, or god-serpents. In the Esoteric Tradition it is synonymous for Adepts, or Initiates. In India and Egypt, and even in Central and South America, the Naga stands for one who is wise.

The Naga seems to be one of the creatures that should fit perfectly in to this board. I was watching a show on Discovery a couple of weeks ago and seems that there have been sightings of this mythical beast much like the Loch Ness monster and the other multifarious creatures here (not least the posters)

www.forteantimes.com...

decent links seem thin on the ground anyone decent ones appreciated


[Edited on 12-5-2003 by cassini]

At least he had time to go fishing...



Wonder if this (the Naga, not the fish) is similar to the giant snakes of the Amazon (not the anaconda)...???

[Edited on 14-5-2003 by Gazrok]

I think the Discovery show I watched talked about them as well. They intereviewed a local who thought he had seen one of around fifty to sixty feet long. But the Naga is supposed to be a similiar type creature possibly having tiny legs or feet at the front!

Surprised their did n`t seem to be more links when I was searching for The Naga as it seems to be an incredible creature, guess its because its tied in so closely with the myths and legends of the region.

part of other mythologies as well... As I do a lot of fantasy gaming, etc., I've delved into the origin of many of the "beasties" from various mythologies...

www.thelema.net...

www.ignca.nic.in...

www.piney.com...

www.peterwalker.com...

Incidentally, it's the normal word in Malay/Indonesian for "dragon": the Chinese Year of the Dragon is just "Tahun -year -Naga": which is a sort of guide to how strong the legends are.

This is a good word to start with.
The etymology is tricky: one recalls that there is a large group of Indian peoples called the Naga (not in any way Indo-European) and the word may refer to something connected with them- and their name was rationalized as �serpent people much later �much as the Romans created �Romulus� to explain their name.
It certainly doesn�t have any influence of the main Indo-European families as far as �snake� or �dragon� are concerned. On the other hand the Sanskrit for �cobra� is �bujanga� (the �NG� in the middle may be a clue to a link with �naga�.)
In older languages we have �uNGuis� in Latin for �hoof� and �oNYX =oNYGs� in Greek. And for that matter �naga� = �hoof� in Lithuanian )to most IE scholars the most interesting of all modern l;angauges)
And these may be the ancestors of English �nail�; German �Nagel� etc.
So it could be some sort of adoption from Asian beliefs made by the IE peoples when they arrived: or some sort of amalgam of �hoof�, �sharp� �perhaps clues to a beast.

cheers to Gaz and estragon for the input, heres some more links on the Naga. This one from a Cryptozoologist,

www.cfz.org.uk...

www.cfz.org.uk...

like what the estragon say it is true naga mean the dragon
or in chinese there is a year where they call a dragon year.but somehow i do believe this dragon in asia originate from the west .and use to believe this dragon are actually a human with ancient machine like a beast
which is make a war with the devas in india.but who know this is truth and that what i believe to be truth.
p/s there is a stories from africa about this naga but i forget from which is the country of the african warrior make a war to

they were in warcraft 3 also
cool huh?

Destination Truth covered half an episode on the Naga: