Kaliya

Kaliya is a many-headed poisonous serpent of Hindu myth who fouled a pool of the Yamuna River until the young god Krishna leaped in, danced on his hoods, and banished him to the sea.

The Story

The tale of Kaliya is one of the favorite stories of Krishna's childhood among the cowherds of Vrindavan. It is told in the Harivamsha, the Vishnu Purana, and most famously in the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana.

Kaliya had fled his home on the island of Ramanaka in fear of Garuda, the great eagle and enemy of serpents. He hid in a deep pool of the Yamuna River, the one place Garuda could not go because of an old sage's curse. His venom made the water boil. Birds flying over it fell dead, the trees on the bank withered, and cowherd boys and cattle who drank from it collapsed.

Krishna climbed a kadamba tree and leaped into the pool. Kaliya wrapped him in his coils, and the people of Vrindavan watched in horror. Then Krishna slipped free, climbed onto the serpent's many heads, and danced on them, pounding them with his feet until Kaliya vomited blood. Kaliya's wives, the nāga queens, came forward and begged Krishna to spare their husband. Kaliya himself surrendered. Krishna ordered him to leave the river and return to the sea, promising that Garuda would no longer harm him, because Krishna's footprints were now stamped on his hoods.

Appearance and Powers

Kaliya is a huge black cobra with many hoods. Texts and artists differ on the number, from five to more than a hundred. His power is poison so strong that it fouls the air and water around him.

Meaning

Devotional readers see the story as the divine child conquering pride and evil, and Kaliya's surrender as a model of grace: Krishna does not kill him but marks him and sends him home. The dance on the serpent's heads also echoes the older Vedic pattern of a god defeating a serpent to free the waters.

Legacy

Kaliya Daman, "the taming of Kaliya," is a favorite subject of Indian painting and sculpture, from South Indian bronzes to Rajput and Pahari miniatures. Each autumn in Varanasi, the Nag Nathaiya festival reenacts the story at Tulsi Ghat, with a boy playing Krishna who leaps into the Ganges and rises standing on a model serpent. See our India and Southeast Asia page for related serpents.

Related

• Nāga: Nāgas are serpent beings of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain tradition, often cobras or half-human figures with cobra hoods, who live in underwater or underground kingdoms, guard treasure, and control rain and water.
• Shesha: Shesha is the thousand-headed serpent king of Hindu myth who floats on the cosmic ocean as the couch of the god Vishnu and holds up the earth on his hoods; his other name, Ananta, means "endless."
• Vasuki: Vasuki is a king of the nāgas in Hindu myth who served as the churning rope when the gods and demons churned the cosmic ocean, and who coils around the neck of the god Shiva.
• Vritra: Vritra is the serpent or dragon of drought in the Rigveda, a footless, handless monster who held back the world's waters until the storm god Indra killed him with the thunderbolt and set the rivers free.
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Sources and Further Reading

• Edwin F. Bryant, trans., Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God (Śrīmad Bhāgavata Purāṇa Book X) (Penguin Classics, 2003)
• H. H. Wilson, trans., The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition (London: John Murray, 1840)
• Anna L. Dallapiccola, Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend (Thames & Hudson, 2002)

Cite this entry: “Kaliya,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/kaliya.