Ways of Worship

The traditional religion of the nagas is labelled as "animism". The spirits which the Nagas revere are divided into two distinct classes: (i) the Supreme God, who is usually beneficent but somewhat remote Creator interfering little in the affairs of the earthlings; and (ii) the spirits of earth, the true earth-spirits of the occultists, often harmful, beneficent only when propitiated.

When we come to the earth-spirits, we find certain definite spirits as having definite functions, namely, (a) one who is held to be the most important spirit, (b) the goddess of crops and wealth, (c) one who presides over all wild animals, (d) the monarch of the underworld, etc.

Since it is not appropriate nor possible for the earth-spirits to communicate face to face with the earthlings, they let them know what they wish them to do, or not to do, and what is good, or what is not good, through various signs, namely, (a) divination through bamboo slits, (b) chicken omen, (c) bird omen, (d) insect omen, (e) war-charmstone, (f) pot omen, (g) egg omen, (h)dreams, etc.

Before the advent of Christianity, Naga mythology never evolved the idea of a heaven or hell. The ghosts of the departed were thought of as constant presence, needing propitiation, and able in some way to share the pleasures and the pains of the living. They required food and drink and light; and in return for these, they could confer benefits to the living.

Shamanism is also widely practized.