Sangli: As the whole nation celebrates Nag Panchami today, the Battis Shirala village in the Sangli district of Maharashtra has been the centre point of snake worship for the past several years. Although a court order had put a ban on worshipping snakes -- a common, age-old practice here -- the villagers are insistent about celebrating Nag Panchami in the traditional manner that the village has been following.
Earlier, every house in the village had a live snake being worshipped on the day of Nag Panchami before the said order was issued in 2006. However, since the ban, the villagers continue their ardent worship of snake idols and even pay their respects to a live snake if they accidentally come across one. People consider snakes as gods and consider it a sin to kill them here. Every woman in the village considers Nagaraja (the snake) as her brother, fasts for him and breaks the fast after the snake worship.
The village has a legend that a certain Gorakshnath Maharaj had come to the village on Nag Panchami and revealed several serpents in the village as a curse when the women in the village delayed giving him the alms he was asking for. When asked why the women made such delay in coming out of their houses while he was waiting at the door, they said they were all busy worshipping the clay snakes in their houses. He then released a live snake with godly powers in the houses and it is since then that every house in the Shirala village has a Nagaraja being worshipped in it on Nag Panchami.
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The village also followed a custom of taking out a procession of live snakes from the village on the day of Nag Panchami. Devotees from all corners of Maharashtra used to come in large numbers to witness Nagpanchami in Shirala city. This tradition has been preserved and practised for hundreds of years here.
In 2006, Pranimitra -- an animal welfare organisation -- along with some other social organizations filed a petition in the court demanding a ban on the worship of live snakes under the Wildlife Act. The court ordered in favour of the petitioners and banned the worship of live snakes in the village thereafter. The villagers have however been insistent about granting permission to follow the traditional practice but to no avail so far.
