Haq creates a composite core story of Manasa, the snake goddess whose constituency is the whole of eastern South Asia, and for whom the largest groups of texts are verse narratives in Bengali.
Looking in turn at her rise in the divine realm and in the realm of the merchant king, he considers such aspects as the birth of Parvati and her marriage with Shiva, the slaying of Taraka and
the Asura, Manasa’s forest exile, the churning of the seas, neutralizing Chand’s occult power, Usha and Aniruddha press-ganged by Padma, the marriage of Behula and Lakshmindar, and death in the
steel chamber. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
