“Manja Saara” – the Golden colured snake
May 22nd, 2006 by Karthick
Last week, I was in kerala for a colleague’s wedding. It was my first visit to the coconut paradise. I was gob-smacked by the scenic beauty of the state. After the marriage in Palghat, I and Sabaree (my colleague) headed to Ottapalam. Ottapalam is a small town with great views of the nature. After visiting Sabaree’s relatives there, we headed down to Guruvayur. On our way, I asked, our driver-cum-guide, Mr.Velayudham (aka) Aiyaapan
to stop the car to attend nature’s call number one. I was running towards the bush and there Sabaree spotted the yellow snake. 
It is called by the name “manja saara” in tamil. It was around 6ft in length and golden in colour. forgetting the urgency to pee, I clicked the scene with my Konica Minolta film SLR. I was 3-4 ft from her. It was truly the biggest snake I have ever seen in my entire life.
This incident reminds me a couple of things people always say when they speak about snakes.
“paambu padam edukkum”. In my case, I took the picture of the snake.
“paamba partha onnukku vandhudum”. whereas, “naan onnukku adikkum pothu paamba paarthen”.
The highlight was when Velayudham asked me to pee somewhere inside the bush as the snake was sitting comfortably outside. I never wanted to gamble and forgot my venture of peeing in the woods.
I guess you were lucky to come across a manja ‘chera’, as we malayalees pronounce it? ‘Lucky’ as in it was a ‘chera’, not a cobra or anything serious like that.
I have had a few encounters with cheras before, and was bitten at least thrice – there’s a saying in Kerala, ‘athazham mudangan chera kadichalum mathi’, which translate to something like ‘even a chera could starve you off a dinner’ – well, not sure if there’s a scientific explanation or ancient wisdom behind this, but elders would advice to skip a dinner if you were bitten by a chera. Of course, the other point in the saying is that a chera’s bite is the most harmless of any of the crawling types. I guess the part about skipping your dinner is probably to be absolutely sure that its a chera (as it looks quite like a cobra, especially if you didn’t get a good look), it probably is a good idea to stay alert and see if the person is falling asleep (sign of poisoning) any earlier than usual.
Ah well, my two cents!
Btw i think that saying is about neerkoli or water snake in english. Athazham mudakkan neerkoli mathi ie “a water snake bite is enough for you to starve off a dinner”. I dont think its about chera. Chera is supposed to be absolutely harmless to humans and its supposed to be a farmer’s friend as the snake feasts on the rats in his fields.
off the topic, that saying is also used in another context. Its a warning for us not to rub the wrong way even to a person who you think is not that important. Even he can do things which could bring some small troubles. As they say , you can even shout at the minister but not to his assistant.
Btw the actual saying about manja chera is
manja chera malarnnu kadichal malayathil marunnilla ie if the manja chera bites u by making its head upside down, there is no medicine for cure. But the saying is scietifically proven wrong.
are you guys sure that this big creature is harmless? I won’t buy that. And I have heard that chera or saara does not move the normal way as other snakes do. It moves in a straight line. The other day I had an argument with a fellow who contradicted to this thing. Do you have any idea about it?
The big creature is harmless in the sense, its not poisonous. if it bites u, u wont die. But if you go and harm the snake it might bite u and u would end up with a wound. Also about the big size, i told u it eats rats. so it should be that big. But not big enough to eat a human like a python or an anaconda.
No real idea about the movements. I think all snakes crawl the same way. i havent seen a snake crawl in a straight line (i have seen quite many), just imagine how they can do it unless they are fitted with wheels.
i mean i have seen quite many snakes but not one which crawls in straight line.
oh ok. I don’t know much about snakes as you keralites do. Anyway, this is a good information for me to share with my friends. May be, I need to check out with a biologist for the movements. If I know the saara’s biological name, I can google it up and find out. Let me see how far this goes.
Well, thanks for that Umesh! You brushed up my memory about neerkolis and the other saying about manjachera etc. Good one. In fact, it was neerkolis to be blamed for the bites, not cheras. I guess cheras were always too quick on the ground to let me get near them to mess with them, and to get bitten.
Meanwhile, the only snake that I know that crawls unlike rest of the snakes in a Sidewinder – but then, your chances of finding a side winder in Kerala is as remote as a wild Kangaroo in Kerala, because Sidewinders are native to Americas.
Karthick, while in Kerala, watch out for the likes of vembala, kari vembala etc (king cobras and other kinds of cobras), analy (pit viper?) or vattakoora (rattlesnake?) etc and stay well clear if you see one – most of them can kill you for fun (well, not really, but its almost always too late to notice them, and you have already p*ssed them off by stepping on their tail etc)
Ashok,
By any chance do you work part-time in a snake park? LoL
I am amazed to see you speaking a lot on snakes.
I would love to, but never had a chance. Now, I do have tiny bit of experience dealing with some extremely ‘slippery’ characters in not that distant past – well, Umesh would know!
Well i’m extremely scared of any kind of snakes. I used to run away on sight of a chera also refuse to get into my pond if neerkolis are around. Forget vembalas, moorkhans and vattakooras. You wont see Umesh near them. Don’t you know that I’m a fear factor champion?
Btw Mr Ashok M, by any chance are you my friend/teacher akkoshottan?
not entirely impossible…
haha. Ok I kinda guessed.
Hey Karthi,
Could you upload or email me the pic that you took? I mean the pic of that snake man.
Thanks in advance,
CHOLAN.R
Karthick.. Good story. I have linked up this page to a post I have done about snakes. URL at: http://alaivani.com/Blog/tabid/56/EntryID/152/Default.aspx
Enjoy! Thanks.
Well the snake u saw was a normal rat snake….hahahhaa i was kind of confused when u said manja saara…….anyways man …….snakes are gr8 and beautiful creatures anyways…..
What is the English name for a vattakoora?