Mucalinda, Muchalinda or Mucilinda is the name of a

nāga The Nagas (IAST: ''nāga''; Devanāgarī: नाग) are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. ...

, a

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more ...

-like being, who protected the

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

from the elements after his enlightenment. It is said that six weeks after Gautama Buddha began meditating under the Bodhi Tree, the heavens darkened for seven days, and a prodigious rain descended. However, the mighty King of Serpents, Mucalinda, came from beneath the earth and protected with his hood the One who is the source of all protection. When the great storm had cleared, the serpent king assumed his human form, bowed before the Buddha, and returned in joy to his palace.

Development

Mucalinda first appears in the ''Mucalinda Sutta'', where it is described that the naga king protected Buddha from the elements by encircling Buddha's body seven times with his coils and standing with his hood spread over. After Buddha finished meditating and the sky cleared, Mucalinda adopted the form of a youth and bowed before him.Jason Johns, Jyotsna Rani Nag, ''Muchalinda Buddha:- An Interdisciplinary approach to Reinterpret the Depiction of the Buddha with Muchalinda Naga'', Journal of Archaeological Studies in India, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2021, pp. 140-157 The first existent artwork depicting Mucalinda comes from a 2nd century BC

stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circum ...

in Pauni,

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...

, where the naga is portrayed as having five heads and guarding Buddha's empty seat. Contemporaneous artwork from Sanchi has him portrayed in zoo-antropomorphic form and attended by a retinue of nagini.

Artistic representations

The subject of Buddha meditating under the protection of Mucalinda is very common in Lao Buddhist art. A particularly striking gigantic modern rendition is present in Bunleua Sulilat's sculpture park Sala Keoku. Art depicting Buddha with Mucalinda's hood over him with might have been influenced by

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

art of

Parshvanatha ''Parshvanatha'' (), also known as ''Parshva'' () and ''Parasnath'', was the 23rd of 24 ''Tirthankaras'' (supreme preacher of dharma) of Jainism. He is the only Tirthankara who gained the title of ''Kalīkālkalpataru ( Kalpavriksha in this "Ka ...

, himself represented as a man with a cobra-like hood.

In popular culture

The legend of Mucalinda (Muchalinda) is prominently featured in Aldous Huxley's novel ''

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

'' where it functions as a metaphor of communion between humans and nature, in opposition to the hostile/cautious view of

s in the

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

. The webcomic

Sinfest ''Sinfest'' is a long-running American webcomic by Tatsuya Ishida. Updating daily, ''Sinfest'' started as a black comedy strip in January 2000. It covers such topics as American politics, organized religion, and radical feminism. Overview It fol ...

featured a version of this in a

sunday strip The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies. The first US newspap ...

in 2010.

References

File:Muchilinda Buddha from Cambodia, Angkor kingdom, Bayon style, 12th century, sandstone, HAA.JPG, Mucalinda sheltering

( Naga Prok attitude); 12th century Khmer Sandstone with traces of pigment and gold, Honolulu Academy of Arts File:Mucalinda protecting Buddha.jpg, A statue of Mucalinda protecting the Buddha in Mucalinda Lake, Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India File:SalaKeoKou 2.jpg, Sculpture in Nong Khai, Northeastern Thailand File:BouddhaSimuong.jpg, Mucalinda Sheltering Buddha - BouddhaSimuong File:ChinessTemple2-9.761527,100.007254 (24).JPG, Chinese Temple File:090 Mucalinda protects Buddha (detail) (9192151900).jpg, Mucalinda protecting Buddha in painting Buddhist legendary creatures Nāgas Indian legendary creatures {{Buddhist-myth-stub