Ananta

About Ananta

Ananta is the thousand-hooded cosmic serpent whose coils form the floating couch on which Vishnu reclines in the ocean of milk between cycles of creation. The Bhagavata Purana places him in Patala-loka, balancing the earth on a single hood; when he shifts, earthquakes follow. He is the elder brother of Vasuki (the churning rope of Samudra Manthan) and is said to have walked the earth as Lakshmana beside Rama and as Balarama beside Krishna. Devotees honor him on Ananta Chaturdashi by tying a fourteen-knot red thread, and worship his form at the Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram.