NAGA CITY

NAGA CITY - Many believed that the name Naga is taken from Narra Trees. But this can be easily contested and debunked. History tells us that the ancient people of Naga City as well as Legaspi City were mostly Hindu worshipers while others were animist. Perhaps, to understand our ancient past we can look at the old empire of Majahapit and its religion. Malay regions and its islands were part of Melayu and the islands now we call Philippines.

Origin of NAGA

 
Naga is a Cobra, a king snake. Nagas was called "Nueva Caceres" or New City in English by the Spanish Conquistadors and Friars. However, the name Naga is from Ramayana and Mahabharata. "The Nagas of the Sanskrit literatures may be identified with the Nagas, who in their climax of glory came to rule in Northern India, after the fall of the great Kushanas before the rise of the imperial Guptas in Northern India, the descendants of whom may be the present Naga Sadhus of central India. Thus it is hard to accept the theory of "Naga" originating from Sanskrit "Nag" meaning serpent. There is no snake worship cult among the Nagas, though the Python is revered sometimes and its killing is done ceremonially and elaborately. Some have connected the "Naga" with Sanskrit "Nag" meaning mountain as the people live mostly in the hills, thus implying "hill men." (http://www.angelfire.com/nm/nagalim/origin.htm)

In Sanskrit, a nāgá (नाग) is a cobra, the Indian cobra (Naja naja). A synonym for nāgá is phaṇin (फणिन्). There are several words for "snake" in general, and one of the very commonly used ones is sarpá (सर्प). Sometimes the word nāgá is also used generically to mean "snake". The word is cognate with English 'snake', Germanic: *snēk-a-, Proto-IE: *(s)nēg-o- (with s-mobile).