Jawnomicon

Sesha

Also called Sesa, Ananta Sesha, Ananta Shisha, Shesha the Endless, Anantaboga, Ananta Boga, Naga Anantaboga.

Sesha, the Endless, is the thousand-headed cosmic serpent of Hindu myth — the couch on which Vishnu sleeps between worlds, and the coil that ends each age.

At a glance

Tradition
Indian folklore
Region
India (place of origin)
Trait family
The Monstrous Broods

Near this figure

and 5 more
  • Kundrav Body of cosmic immeasurable size
  • Rahab Body of cosmic immeasurable size
  • Ash-hrau Multi-headed body
  • Geryon Multi-headed body
  • Mehen Multi-headed body

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Multi-headed body
    why

    He is described with a thousand heads, and his great scene is the interval between creations — during the night of Brahma, when the cosmos is withdrawn, the serpent coils his vastness on the primordial waters so that Vishnu may sleep upon him, shaded by his raised hoods, until the god wakes at dawn to make the world again.

  • Body of cosmic immeasurable size
    why

    He is described with a thousand heads, and his great scene is the interval between creations — during the night of Brahma, when the cosmos is withdrawn, the serpent coils his vastness on the primordial waters so that Vishnu may sleep upon him, shaded by his raised hoods, until the god wakes at dawn to make the world again.

Behaviour

  • Protective coil shelters a sacred figure
    why

    He is described with a thousand heads, and his great scene is the interval between creations — during the night of Brahma, when the cosmos is withdrawn, the serpent coils his vastness on the primordial waters so that Vishnu may sleep upon him, shaded by his raised hoods, until the god wakes at dawn to make the world again.

Offensive powers

  • Fire-breathing
    why

    The compendia preserve the fiercer half of the office as well: each of the thousand heads is venomous and can spit fire, and at the end of each kalpa — each world-age — the serpent's burning destroys creation so that it can be made anew.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.