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.

The Churning of the Ocean

Vasuki's great moment comes in one of the best-known Hindu myths, the churning of the Ocean of Milk, told in the Mahabharata, the Vishnu Purana, and the Bhagavata Purana. The gods, weakened, needed the nectar of immortality, amrita, which lay hidden in the depths of the cosmic ocean. Working together with their rivals, the demons, they used Mount Mandara as a churning stick and wrapped the serpent king Vasuki around it as the rope. Vishnu, in the form of the tortoise Kurma, held the mountain up on his back.

The two sides pulled Vasuki back and forth, the gods at one end and the demons at the other, and the ocean gave up many treasures: the goddess Lakshmi, the wish-granting cow, the moon, and finally the physician of the gods carrying the amrita. It also produced a deadly poison, halahala. In several versions it came partly from Vasuki himself, strained by the churning. To save the world, Shiva drank the poison and held it in his throat, which turned blue, giving him the name Nilakantha, "blue throat."

Appearance and Powers

Vasuki is a king among serpents, a son of the sage Kashyapa and Kadru, mother of the nāgas, and a brother of Shesha. Artists show him as a huge cobra, sometimes many-headed. His strength and endurance are his powers: he holds firm as the churning rope even as his body is scorched. Shiva wears him as a garland around his neck.

Family and Other Tales

The Mahabharata tells how Vasuki gave his sister in marriage to the sage Jaratkaru. Their son Astika later stopped King Janamejaya's sacrifice to destroy the serpent race, saving Vasuki's people.

Legacy

Buddhism counts Vasuki among the eight great nāga kings who heard the Buddha's teaching, and he traveled east with that list as one of the dragon kings of China and Japan. The churning scene is carved in a vast relief at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. In 2024 scientists named a giant fossil snake from Gujarat Vasuki indicus in his honor. See more on our India and Southeast Asia page.

Related

• 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."
• 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.
• 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.
• Dragon Kings (Longwang): The Dragon Kings are the dragon rulers of the seas, rivers, and lakes in Chinese religion and folklore, rain-giving lords who live in crystal palaces, take human form, and answer to the Jade Emperor.
• Dragons Across Cultures
• Dragon Species

Sources and Further Reading

• J. A. B. van Buitenen, trans., The Mahābhārata, vol. 1, The Book of the Beginning (University of Chicago Press, 1973)
• H. H. Wilson, trans., The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition (London: John Murray, 1840)
• J. Ph. Vogel, Indian Serpent-Lore, or the Nāgas in Hindu Legend and Art (London: Arthur Probsthain, 1926)
• Debajit Datta and Sunil Bajpai, "Largest Known Madtsoiid Snake from Warm Eocene Period of India Suggests Intercontinental Gondwana Dispersal," Scientific Reports 14 (2024)

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