Manasa

Manasa is the goddess of serpents, a very ancient folk deity of Bengal and Northeast India. Puranic accounts describe her variously as the daughter of sage Kashyapa or Jaratkaru and the sister of the serpent kings Shesha or Vasuki. Her chief functions are protection from snakebite and the appeasement of serpents; she is worshipped in a pot (ghat), and her story is told at length in the Manasamangal epic. Her special worship is held around Nag Panchami in Shravana and on sankrantis.