A Goddess from Bengal

Feared as the ruler of snakes, Manasā, a late entrant to the pantheon of Hindu deities, is a fiercely partisan goddess who is vengeful to her adversaries and bountiful to her adherents. Legends of her origin and history vary but her cult has roots in pre-Hindu religious beliefs absorbed through time into the Hindu tradition, though she has remained outside the circle of the major Hindu goddesses and exercises only regional, not pan-Indian, authority. She is worshiped, often by Hindus as well as Muslims, mainly in the more snake-infested regions of India, particularly eastern India and part of South India. In Bengal her cult has produced a popular narrative tradition in her praise called maṅgalakāvya that has deeply influenced Bengali literature. With little or no philosophical underpinnings, the cult of Manasā has historically arisen and flourished out of a simple binary of fear and expectation of gain.