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  • Naga people (Sri Lanka)
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  • Naga people were snake-worshippers, a custom found in many tropical climes including the Amazon. The interchangeable names Naga, Nāya and or Nāka, meaning Cobra or Serpent were applied to and self described by these snake-worshiping people from classical antiquity. The word Naga was sometimes written in early inscriptions as Nāya, as in Nāganika - this occurs in the Nanaghat inscription of 150 BCE. Archaeological excavations and studies provide evidence of palaeolithic inhabitation in the Jaffna and Kerala region.
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abstract
  • Naga people were snake-worshippers, a custom found in many tropical climes including the Amazon. The interchangeable names Naga, Nāya and or Nāka, meaning Cobra or Serpent were applied to and self described by these snake-worshiping people from classical antiquity. The word Naga was sometimes written in early inscriptions as Nāya, as in Nāganika - this occurs in the Nanaghat inscription of 150 BCE. Archaeological excavations and studies provide evidence of palaeolithic inhabitation in the Jaffna and Kerala region. The Nagas lived among the Yakkha, Raksha and Deva in Ceylon according to the Manimekhalai and Mahavamsa and Ramayana. According to Ramayana Indrajit married to the daughter of Naga king. Time to time Anuradhapura Kingdom was ruled by few kings from Naga tribe. Having several kings in Kingdom of Rajarata from Naga tribe, it seems there were significant of Naga power in country. H. Parker, a British historian and author of "Ancient Ceylon" considers the Naga to be an offshoot of the Nayars of Kerala Ancient Sri Lankan history book Mahavamsa mentions a dispute between two Naga kings in northern Sri Lanka. The Manimekhalai and archaeological inscriptions refer to the Chola-Naka alliance and intermarriange being the progenitor of the Pallava Dynasty. Many Buddhist temples in the south of Sri Lanka have assimilated the divine form of naga (Natha Deva) into a Bodhisattva.