Nagraj

Origin

In ancient times when Gods still visited earth without any restrictions, there existed a Kingdom known as Takshaknagar ruled by King Takshakraj and his Queen Lalita. The ruling couple had no worries except for one; They had no child. The Queen started getting depressed over this.

Praying to their family deity Deva Kaljayi a snake god for his blessings she becomes pregnant.

However the king's younger brother Nagpasha, who would become the king if there was no child, replaced a curtained plate that held the offerings for the god, with one containing a dead mongoose during the queen’s prayer times, angered the Snake God knocked her unconscious with his poisonous breath.

On seeing the grief of the king however the Snake God relented and showed him how to save the queen, unfortunately the method, a magic crystal, caused all the venom in her to enter the body of the baby who, when she gave birth, was blue and apparently dead.

As per the ritual at the time the body was thrown in the river, unknown to the king and queen and wicked prince Nagpasha the baby was really in suspended animation.

So when a very drunk Nagpasha went to the two-headed snake god Deva Kaljayi, the protector of the royal treasure, he was informed that the real successor was alive, angered Nagpasha attacked the god with his sword (he was very drunk after all) but with just one flick of his tale he knocked Nagpasha into two bowls in the treasure room, one holding the world’s most deadly venom and another that held a nectar that granted immortality. Rendering the evil prince both immortal and because of the venom both poisonous and horribly mutilated.

Meanwhile the child still blue and in suspended animation got struck some where in bushes where he lay for a long time, fortunately all the divine venom in him protected him from harm, as he lay there Deva Kaljayi appeared in the dreams of the also childless King Maniraj and his wife Queen Manika, rulers of Ichchhadhaari Naags a kingdom on the island Nagdweep in the Indian Ocean that was invisible to those on the outside so as to protect their far more advanced culture.

Many years passed and the treatment given by the king’s wise man started showing results, while still in a state of suspended animation, the color of the baby had changed to green.

This news was good enough that the King and Queen decided to adopt the child.

Later an evil shape-shifting Tantrik (snake-person) who stood to gain the thrown if the king and queen should have no children attacked the palace and escaped with the baby planning to kill the child he thought better of it, fearing that the same god who had led the king to him would punish him, so he abandoned the baby in the same place on the continent of India where he had originally been found.

(his plan by the way failed when the second king and queen had a daughter.)

Cured enough to come change from green to a more normal shade the baby woke up and started crying and was found by the priest of a nearby temple, later the priest gave the boy to a Professor Nagmani who was in the forest searching for snakes, it was Nagmani who discovered that the boy, whom he named Nagraj (King Snake) was no ordinary human, in fact instead of white blood cells he possessed millions of microscopic snakes!

He was also stronger, and quicker than any human, could shoot a venomous gas at will from his mouth, and had extraordinary healing powers. (other even more fantastic abilities would show up later.)

That’s when it turned out that the professor was no good, and as the Nagraj had been in suspended animation long enough that he had access to technology that let him to implant a mind controlling devise in the boy’s head, his plot being to turn him into the most powerful assassin for hire to villains and terrorist the world had ever seen, he also lied to Nagraj saying that he had created him in his lab.

During his first mission, which was to steal an ancient statue, he was foiled by the Sage Baba Gorakhnath who frees him from the mind control of Professor Nagamani letting him awaken to a larger world, in response to this Nagraj vows to rid the world of evil and terrorism, and considering that he starts out with three dedicated powerful arch-enemies already against him before even doing his first good deed, this is perhaps the wisest path he could follow.

Character Evolution

Begun in the 1980’s, Nagraj is the longest running Indian superhero, the character has changed a lot over the years, both with his look, and his abilities, which at first were close to human normal, but then grew until he could shoot thousands of snakes out of wrists to form anything from whips, to nets, to even parachutes, and grew so strong that he was able to toss things into orbit.

Also at first he had no secret identity, the closest he would come would be to sometimes done a trench coat and slouch hat.

However he started taking the guise of Raj, a bespectacled bumbling Public relations officer of Bharti Communications.But during the Nagraj ke Baad series his secret identity is revealed to the entire media. His new alter ego now is that of Mr Nagraj Shah who is the manager of a security agency Snake eye which is run by the snakes present in his body.

At present he is in the middle of a world-wide tour to wipe out terrorism.

While little known in the West, Nagraj is very popular in India and it is claimed that over 100 million copies of the various comics containing him have appeared.

Powers and Abilities

Nagraj has dominion over shapeshifting snakes he can shoot out of his wrists. His blood is the most venomous poison in the universe.