Some venomous thoughts(REAR WINDOW)

Mannanam junction had an anti- venom clinic operating in an old building that belonged to the local church. A Benedictine Brother from the church was the physician there. During some courtesy visits to the clinic, I could see for myself his treatment pattern. Patients would come from various places. Those from far off hillocks would be coming by jeeps and the nearby residents carrying the patient on a chair. Either way, frantic cries or general panic set the usual back-ground score. The accompanists would provide the physician with the name and category of the snake that bit and a commentary on the incident befitting their mind set.  Some would say it was cobra. No, it was viper—another would stress. Neither but krait, a third one would conclude. Brother won’t lend ear to any of these witnesses. Instead, consoling the patient he would clean the wound with freshwater and tie a knot above it. Then he would give the patient a pepper nut to chew. If it tasted sweet, the sting could be confirmed as venomous; otherwise it would just be a feel of the thing rather than a genuine bite. Then the patient would be made to count numbers in one breath. If only he/she could not count above 30 in one spell, the venom intake would be considered worrisome.

Once the poisoning was confirmed, Brother would begin the stone- treatment. Cutting open the wound a little, a stone made of certain secret medicines would be put into it. This stone had become a talking point among the local people. Some would say it was prepared with rat snake’s head, eagle’s egg and some chemicals as instructed by some ancient text. Some others were of the opinion that it constituted  of garudakkoti(indian birthwart/aristolochia indica), analivegam(poison devil tree/Alstonia venenata), pachcha manjal(raw turmeric), pongin thol(indian beech), murikkila( leaf of modeka palmeta lam), erikkila(leaf of calotropis gigantea), ummathila(leaf of devil’s apple), puliyila(tamarind leaf), veppu (neem), kuppa manjal (junk turmeric), muringathol(broom bark) etc. The stone would suck out the venom within a couple of days and then would fallout on its own. If the venom still persisted, the first stone had to be replaced with new ones. What then was the trade secret?  Once when asked, brother told me the treatment was effective thanks to proper diagnosis, dexterity in treating each case on its merit and an acclaimed source book on anti-venom treatment –Kochunny Thampuran’s Prayoga Samuchchayam. He was making use of the medicinal flora  available around like shathaavari kizhangu(asparagus racemosus), aavanakkin veru(castor root), karimpu(sugar cane), kumizh(gamelina asiatica), kumpalanga(wax gourd), kutakappaala(kurchibark), muthanga(cyperaceae), aatalotaka veru(malababar nut’s root), koova(arrowroot powder), nannarikizhangu(indian sarsapparila), payyani(trumpet flower tree), paathiri(stereospermum chelenoids) .

Brother was not simply an apothecary. By and large he was a Good Samaritan to the country folk. Many stories made rounds about him as was the wont in villages. Everyone would make stories on his own volition and mettle, a compilation of which would give you the autobiography of the village. Brother was very fond of my younger brother Sukumar Bose, who was a little boy then. Once, on an evening walk, Brother found him trying hard to press the buzzer of a calling bell by stretching up on a couple of bricks. Brother lifted him up and the boy rang the bell three four times in a hurry. Brother asked him affectionately whether he had any further wish, to which the little one said, ‘’before the mamma of this house comes out and screw us, let’s escape’’

Another story doing the rounds was that Brother could summon the snake that bit and make it suck back the venom it had injected. This magical power was attributed to a teacher in the village too—Xavier sir. Because of this propaganda both the gentlemen had an aura of sorts around them, though they would deny any such metaphysical prowess. These stories sprout from the belief that some physicians had attained such remote-control abilities by worshipping in Shiva temples. They would place the patient in a temporary hut and start the mantra recitals. The culprit would finally present itself and would be served with an auspicious milky offering. By the time it finished the milk, it would have lost its venom.  Then the body turning blue, the reptile would fall dead. And the patient would come back to life, venom-free. All these beliefs had their origins in rural stories like the one about Brother and Xavier sir. After all, these are the warmth and flavour of the countryside. Thus today’s snakes are believed to be the descendents of the serpent tribe mentioned in ancient folklore and epics.  According to my uncle C. Narayana Pilla, serpents of yore were an octet– Anandan, Vasuki, Thakshakan, Gulikan, Shamkhapaalan, Padman, Mahapadman and   Kaarkkodakan forming the distinguished club. Several beliefs centred on the snake family, like we dare not hurt a snake lest it‘d come back one day for retribution. But the truth is that snakes do not have this type of a discriminatory acumen.  A snake does not scheme things and execute accordingly. Simply because reptiles do not yet have such a brain development.  Khushwanth Singh in his story, Mark of Vishnu introduces a devotee who used to give milk to a snake. Once, while serving milk, he was bitten on the forehead and the man considered the sting-mark as the fleck of his Lord. In reality however, snakes do not drink milk. Because of the same reason, those force-fed in the laboratory were found to have fallen ill. Same is the case with the famous nonsense that the reptile would hang down from a tree top till the bitten man breathed his last. In the Malayalam version of Ramayana, it is stated that when Rama broke the bow of Shiva during the wedding contest, kings hearing the sound shuddered like reptiles. We cannot demand Ezhuthachchan to be proficient in modern zoology. But then, reptiles do not have hearing organs as mammals do. Instead, they make sense through the impact of terrestrial waves on their skin.

I used to visit the famous Madras Snake Park at Guindy, while in Chennai. The American born Indian resident and world renowned herpetologist Romulas Whitaker is the moving spirit behind this park. Once I had an opportunity to interact freely with him. Both of us had reached London as finalists for the famous Whitley Award for dynamic conservation leaders. He gave me new insights into the world of snakes and the ant-venin treatment in particular. Whitaker’s research has found out 160 varieties of snakes in Kerala. However the Zoological Survey of India recognizes only 106 varieties while the academic expert in this field Dr. K.G. Adiyodi enlists 104 types in his book Venomous Snakes in Kerala. As per Dr. Adiyodi’s research, only 25 varieties of snakes in Kerala are venomous including the sea-folk, 12 are mildly venomous and  67, too innocent of this trait. The traditional medical science categorizes venomous snakes into four: moorkhan (cobra), mandali (viper), raajilam (rat snake) and vendiran (krait). In the first category itself they talk of 26 varieties of cobras.  Just 15 milligrams of viper venom is enough to kill a human. But in a single sting the viper expends 200 mgs. In the case of vellikkettan, 6 mgs is the deadly point where as it inflicts 25 mgs. Cobra is the spendthrift of all—expending 150-200 while a mere 15mgs would do the needful. Snake venom is actually yellowish white. It turns blue due to certain chemical changes on atmospheric exposure. The mortality rate in India due to snake-sting is fairly moderate: 20,000 per annum. That does not mean that the reptile has gone lethargic in attitude. The rate of sting is 2 lakh per year!

Once I saw people thronging to a rubber estate in our neighborhood. On the cozy blackish bed of dry leaves under the swaying shadows of rubber trees as cover, two long snakes were seen ferociously moving in an intertwined position. It was a terrific scene. The swains in the mob wanted to finish off the snakes at first sight itself. But the elders told them to let go of the creatures. They knew that the snakes were mating and causing disruption to any being’s mating would be inhuman. There are stories about snake-mating as well. That a cobra, mating a rat snake gives rat-cobra, is one. Whitaker points out that caged snakes at times, mate with guests from other species.

Snake venom has its utility as well. Even for snake bites the anti-dote given is prepared of this venom. Shusrutha had spoken about the medicinal significance of snake venom, some 2500 years before Christ. In the modern times, it was Albert Calmette who initiated the experiments to make anti -venin, motivated by Louis Pasteur’s invention of rabies vaccine. First, the venom is extracted from a live snake (this is called milking). Generally, someone really brave (and fast!) grabs the snake behind the head and holds its mouth over a glass. The snake releases venom from its fangs, which are draped over the lip of the cup. The venom is collected in the glass below. Once enough venom has been extracted, a horse or sheep is injected with 1/10th to 1/100th the lethal dose of venom. Over a period of several weeks, the animal is injected with increasingly potent doses of venom. By the end of about 3 months, the animal is receiving doses several times stronger than a lethal dose. Meanwhile, the animal’s body is producing antibodies, which are proteins made by the body to fight foreign substances (such as venom).  Then blood is withdrawn from the animal and the samples are then centrifuged. This is a really cool process where the container of blood is spun around very fast in a machine. When the blood spins, the white blood cells separate from the red blood cells. The white blood cells, collectively called serum, actually contain the antibodies to the venom. This serum is the antivenin you receive in hospitals for snake-bite.

We had a serpent grove close to the public road in a remote corner of my paternal home. It was decided to raise a building to let, near the grove. Some of the grove’s trees had to be cut down. Valiamma and kochammavan were damn sure that it would invite serpent wrath. As a penance valiamma offered a special vow to Mannarashaala, the famous temple of serpents. Still, whenever some in the family had some trouble, she would instantly attribute it to the above deed. The serpent grove was not just an assembly of trees, kochammavan would remind us, unfolding the legend underneath.  Snakes reaching the age of say 500 years or so, would go in search of treasure. Sitting upon the treasure they would invoke Lord Shiva. Due to the treasure’s glow and glare their venom would melt down to form naagamanikyam (serpent ruby) . When the snakes fly upwards to Kailasam (Shiva’s abode atop the Himalayas)to offer him the ruby, they ‘d get charred to ashes by the sultry sunrays. The spots on earth where these ashes fell, in due course became serpent groves. And hence kochammavan’s reminder that a grove was not just an assembly of trees.

Due to an ascetic’s bane, king Pareekshith, the immediate descendent of the Pandavas died of serpent Thakshaka’s sting. Furious and heart-stricken, his son Janamejayan went on a killing spree of snakes by conducting a sarppasathram (large fire place to put snakes into). Millions of snakes were put to death but Thakshakan was still elusive. Indra, the king of devas had given him asylum.  At last, he could be saved thanks to Vyasa’s mediation. Sarppasathram of the legend has had a historic sequel, it seems, in Kerala. The Pappinissei Snake Park near Kannur had developed commendably under former CPI(M) stalwart M.V.Raghavan. Enough and more has been written about the gruesome incident that took place there, shocking the whole state. Retired  justice Krishna Iyyer’s  jotting after a visit to the spot would make a befitting epilogue:  ‘’A couple of months after I  visited  Pappinisseri’s  snake park, some political goons who have animosity towards the institution, charred the snakes to death. That was a feat crueler than beastliness.’’

Sarppasathra or snake park, killing or worshipping; snake has an unassailable place in human history. Push off on the biblical highway and you come across Adam and Eve making merry in the tranquility of paradise. Enter the snake. First, Eve succumbing to his temptation. Then Adam to hers.  The word mercy yet to enter His thesaurus, God showers them with the available synonyms of damn. And people on earth scramble for cover, rather fig leaves. The demand for fig leaves escalating, Nature has to manage the supply side. It’s Economics, stupid. And who else but the snake is its bloody dad