INDIAN SCHOOL (19TH CENTURY)
Dancing before the image of Manasa.....
inscribed and dated 1847 (upper centre)
watercolour heightened with white
20cm x 32cm

Manasa is a Hindu folk goddess of snakes, worshipped mainly in Bengal and other parts of northeastern India for the prevention and cure of snakebite and also for fertility and general prosperity. As the protector of children, she is often identified with the goddess Shashti (“the Sixth”; worshipped on the sixth day after birth). The written texts that contain her myth, the Manasa Mangals, date from the 16th - 17th century but are probably based on an earlier oral tradition. She is also celebrated in a variety of songs, dances, and dramas in many Indian villages. Manasa may be related to the nagas, legendary half-human, half-cobra figures in India.