Our Bureau/

The Manasa/Bisahari  puja revelers must aware that when Manasa approached Chand Soudagar for initiating her puja, Chand vehemently sustained her to have puja from him.

He abused Manasa as ‘Chengamuri’ and  clearly told her : “I worship Lord Shiva with my hand, I do not worship  Changmuri Kani (here Kani is blind in Bengali language)  with that very hand….”.

We have to remember that Sarpa Matrika  (Snake-mother divinity) Mansa or Janguli is the most common of all the mother idols found in Pala era. Much before Pala era,  Proto Mansa statue found in Chandraketugarh Gangaridai civilization also.

In Ketka Das Kshemananda’s poetry, Mansa is repeatedly referred to as “Chengamuri Kani” by Chand Soudagar or by the enemy. “There is no doubt that Ma Mansa is non-Vedic.  At least everything is bad cannot be said in the case of  Manasa.  Manasa clearly has no Vedic character,” observed Tamal Dasgupta, a renowned research scholar on Bengali history and identity and the editor of Journal of Bengali Studies.

According to Dasgupta who is also a senior teacher in the faculty of English in Delhi University, in India the tradition of Motherly- divinity  worshiping  and snake worshiping  originated from the Harappan civilization dates back.  Hence  Manasa is the representative of that very tradition of religion that was based on Tantra. Therefore, it is not surprising that she will be affected by the patriarchy.

Dasgupta raised question of the meaning of that strange word?  Her appearance is not exactly like the  shape of the head of Cheng or Chang fish. Mansa’s magnificence and opulence are evident in all the images.  But why such a name?

“Actually, Chang fish has nothing to do with the word Chengmuri.  Acharya Kshitimohan Sen, quoting from a famous Ayurvedic book pointed out that (in Deccan language) another name for Sej plant is Chengmur.  Still in Telugu this Sej plant is called Chemur.  And we call this Sej plant Mansa plant in presently in Bengal.  That is, the original use of the word Chengamuri as a sign of a tree/plant-dwelling mother.  The name is because of the inseparable relationship of this tree/plant with Mother Mansa,” Dasgupta observed.

“Then why Kani added with Chengamuri?” Dasgupta raised another question. According to him perhaps there is an ancient story of a king or a character in a folklore  having his eye injured by a thorn of that plant, which was attributed to Manasa.

Manasa’s popularity was very high during Pala era.  Kana Hari Datta wrote the first Padmapuran in the Pala era. But during Sen era, Tantra also remained instrumental for worshiping the motherly-divinity with simple reforms.  This have been proved as we came to know from the book of Hansanarayana Bhattacharya that one statue of Manasa engraved the name of first Sen emperor, Bijoy Sen was found but the current status or location of that statute is not mentioned.

Probably, the Senas might had brought the memories of worshiping of a serpent mother deity from the Deccan and the eulogy of Manasa as the presiding Matrika of the Chengmur or Mansa plant was probably given in the Sen era. The original meaning was lost in the post-Bakhtiyar Middle Ages, but the word remained.  In this connection, it is worth recalling Niharranjan’s erroneous (but not universally incorrect) Manchamma hypothesis: the Senas brought the southern serpent goddess Manchamma to Bengal and became known as Manasa and worship of Manasa began in the Sen era – this is the Manchamma theory.  The biggest flaw in Niharranjan’s theory is that the serpent has existed in Sarpa Matrika since ancient times, which is denied by Nihar saying that Mansa Puja started in Sen era.   As per noted historian, Dinesh Sen   in Pala time Kana Haridatta wrote a poem about Manasa  .  And among all the idols of motherly- divinity found in the Pala era, the single majority is undoubtedly the idols of Manas.

Considering these facts an easy conclusion could be drawn ;

During the Harappan civilization and even after its destruction, Manasa puja remained intact in India.  The picture of sacrificing of a goat to the motherly-divinity living on a tree/plant on one Harappan seal, the motherly-divinity is known as the ancient form of goddesses Durga or Kali. But looking at that tree/plant, it can be a Manasa tree/plant.  In addition, we know that the  sacrificing  a goat was universal practice of worshiping  Manasa in ancient time  among the common people, and Manasa came from this collective tradition.

Secondly,   The tree associated with Manasa is called  Sej tree/plant in Sanskrit, Mansa plant in Bengal, Chengmur in South India.  From there the word Chengamuri came .

Third,  from archaeological evidences we found  during Chandraketugarh Gangaridai civilization, Manas was found in her original form. She  (such motherly-divinity) was  vanished with the end of that Gangaridai civilization.

Later in the 6th and 7th centuries, with the rise of Gaur, Tantraism and  worshiping of motherly-divinity rose to prominence.

Then we see  the uprising of Manasa worship in Pala era. Probably several warrior tribes including Bauri were the main pillars of Pala kingdom used to worship  Manasa and such practice has been continuing till today among those people.  During this Pala era, many elements from south India were mixed in the life of Bengal . The Palas often intermarried with the Rashtrakutas. The Senas came to Bengal as Palas’ soldiers, later working as feudal lords.  Due to the influence of this southern name Chengmur, the southern name of Manasa plant associated with snake motherly-divinity in Bengal.

Manasa’s name, Chengamuri, which became a pejorative term in the Middle Ages after the fall of Sen, also lost its original meaning.  Unfortunately, most of such status of such motherly-divinities either stolen out or smuggled to foreign countries.

Places like Anga Pradesh which once was inside the administrative territories of both Pala and Sen kingdoms, however developed its own culture to worship Manasa. It developed folklores mainly in Angika, a local dialect of Anga Pradesh  which depicts the struggle of Manasa and the incident of  denial by Chand Soudagar to offer puja to Manasa is also mentioned like the early story in Bengali language.