1879.] J. H. Rivett-Carnac—The Snake Symbol in India, 19 
again in a specimen where Siva’s Bull or Nandi supports the Lotus, repre- 
senting the female or watery principle, and within which is enclosed an agate 
egg (the jewel of the lotus ?), representing Mahadeo or the male principle. 
Above this is a small pierced vessel which should contain Ganges water, to 
trickle through the aperture and keep anointed the sacred stone placed 
beneath it. The vessel or Jota is supported by a Nag or cobra, the head 
erect, the hood expanded, forming the conventional canopy of the shrines of 
Siva. 
The serpent with the tree is to be seen on the canopies of shrines. 
In one case the shrine with a cobra-canopy has the Linga and yoni or Maha- 
deo complete. 
Most of the other canopies, as I will call these backs of shrines, were 
purchased as old brass or old copper, and the deities belonging to them had 
perhaps long since been broken up and melted down. In some of them the 
tree, with the serpent twisted round the trunk, is very distinct. One of 
them has been figured by me in the annexed sketch, Plate VII, fig. 3. I was 
hardly prepared to find the tree and the serpent together in this form, in a 
shrine apparently used comparatively recently, if not in the present day, and 
T hope for some explanation of these interesting symbols from Dr. Rajendra- 
lala Mitra, or some other authority.* 
The Bell, sent with the collection on which a hooded snake overshadows 
the figures of Garuda and Hanuman, seems, from these figures, to be 
adaptable for use at a shrine of either Vishnu or Siva. Lastly, the brass 
models represent the cobra with head erect and hood expanded, the design 
somewhat elaborated and ornamented. Although, in one of them at least, 
there is no space for the Mahadeo, these Nags are, I am assured, considered 
symbolical of life or generation, and as such are worshipped as Siva or 
Mahadeo or the Linga or Phallus or whatever it may be called. 
All these specimens were picked up in the metal bazar in Benares, 
where the fashionable trays, “ specimen-vases,”’ and much Philistine work 
are now made and exposed for sale. In most cases the specimens were raked 
out with difficulty from among sacks containing old metal, collected to be 
broken up and melted down for the manufacture of the brass-ware now in 
vogue. 
Although the presence of the snake in these models cannot be said to 
prove much, and although from the easy adaptibility of its form, the snake 
must always have been a favourite subject in ornament, still it will be seen 
that the serpent is prominent in connection with the conventional shape 
under which Mahddeo is worshipped at Benares and elsewhere, that it 
sometimes even takes the place of the Linga, and that it is to be found 
entwined with almost every article connected with this worship. 
* See Appendix, p. 31. 
