| Nagraj | |
|---|---|
NAGRAJ Raj Comics |
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| Publication information | |
| First appearance | Issue No 14 "Nagraj" (1986) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Mr. Raj, Public Relation Officer Of Bharti Communications. |
| Team affiliations | P.O.E.M.,Sheetnags, Neernags, Snakes of Nagdweep |
| Notable aliases | Snakeman, Greenman, Green Death, Venomous Gunpowder, Nag-Samrat |
| Abilities | Ageless, Superhuman Strength, Super Regenerative healing factor, Sixth Sense, Infrared sensing, Expert Martial artist, Unique Hypnotism, Snake-bite, Snake-spit, Venomous breath, Skin shedding, Snakes in his body, Shape shifting, Psychic powers, Explosive snakes, etc. |
Nagraj ("Snake-King") (नागराज in Devanagari script) is an Indian comic book character from Raj Comics, who can arguable be considered the longest-running Indian action comic Superhero. Created in the late 1980s by Sanjay Gupta, Nagraj has changed a lot in his 25 years in print, both in terms of looks as well as in stories. Despite the fact that comic culture had once almost vanished in India, his fan base continued to increase and is expected to greatly increase once his first animated movie is released.
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The debut issue of Nagraj was written by renowned writer Parshuram Sharma and illustrated by Pratap Mulick. Mulick successfully illustrated the character for around 50 issues, ending in 1995. Since 1995, the illustration work of Nagraj has been taken over by artist and writer Anupam Sinha.
The name Nagraj is derived from the word "Nagaraja"(Hindi:नागराजा ) which is itself made up of two words "Nāga"(Hindi:नाग) and "Raja"(Hindi:राजा) where the word "nāga" means snake and "raja" means king. Nagraj is believed to have been inspired by the mythological Ichchhadhari Nag (shape shifting snakes), known historical as Vishmanushya (venomous human). His stories create a rich blend of mythology, fantasy, magic, and science fiction. Many of Nagraj's fans believe that, over time, Nagraj's comics have developed a Snake Mythology of its own, which is unique to the popular Indian beliefs about snakes that are prevalent among the masses.
Nagraj was originally conceived as an enemy of international terrorism. Interestingly, in his debut issue, Nagraj was unleashed as an international terror weapon by the evil scientist Professor Nagmani. Nagraj, in this first mission, was tasked with stealing a golden statue of a Goddess from a temple that was protected by tribal devotees, snakes, and by a mysterious 300 year old Sadhu named Baba Gorakhnath. Nagraj succeeded in his task, but upon confrontation with Gorakhnath and his mystic Black Mongoose shikangi, was defeated. Gorakhnath read his mind and discovered that Professor Nagmani had implanted a mind control device in the form of a capsule in Nagraj's head, in order to keep him under his control. Gorakhnath operated and removed the capsule from Nagraj's head, setting Nagraj free of Professor Nagmani's control. Nagraj then became Baba Goraknath's disciple and vowed to eliminate crime and terror from the Earth. Since then, Nagraj has thrice toured the world and defeated many villains and terrorists.
Presently, Nagraj lives as Raj in a fictional Metropolitan City Mahanagar as an employee of a TV Channel that is secretly owned by himself.
In ancient times, when gods still visited Earth without any restrictions, there existed a kingdom known as Takshaknagar, ruled by King Takshakraj and Queen Lalita. The ruling couple had no worries except for one: the fact that they had no children. The absence of a prince or princess made Nagpasha the only potential heir to the throne. Nagpasha was the younger identical brother of the King Takshakraj. Knowing that he was the only potential heir to the throne, Nagpasha started living a lavish worry-free life.
As time passed, Queen Lalita started getting depressed about not having a child of her own. The king realized the cause of her depression and got upset as well. The couple used to pray to their family deity Deva Kaljayi for his blessings. Deva Kaljayi also knew of their grievances, so one day he blessed them to have a great child. His blessings came true as the queen soon became pregnant and the whole kingdom rejoiced, except for Nagpasha. The birth of this child meant the loss of the throne for him, so he decided to kill the child before he was born.
One day when the queen was going to pray to Deva Kaljayi, Nagpasha replaced the curtained plate of her offerings to the god with one containing a dead mongoose. The Snake God got angry and knocked her unconscious with his venomous breath. The king sought forgiveness from the Devta and pleaded with him to cure his wife, to which the Devta refused. Then the desperate king tried to commit suicide. Not able to withstand a devotee's death, Deva Kaljayi showed him a way to save the queen's life. He gave a crystal to the king and told him to treat it with the queen's medicine. The crystal would divert all the poison from the queen's body to the child's body. However, due to the ill effects of the poison. the queen would lose her fertility.
The kingdom was highly grieved, as was the king. Nagpasha was overjoyed that he was now the sole hair to the throne. When the child was born, everyone believed him dead because his whole body was blue and showed no signs of life. As per Hindu rituals, the newborn baby was thrown into the river. (Don't get confused about why he was not cremated. In Hindu mythology, it is believed that Yogi of high caliber can leave their body in form of soul and as a soul can perform tasks like switching between bodies or travel between different worlds. It is a Hindu ritual that when a child is stillborn, or dies in his infancy, his body is placed in the river so that if some soul wishes to use the body it can take it over. For the same reason, when adults die their bodies are destroyed by fire, because adults do have a social life and their body is likely to be misused.)
Nagpasha rejoiced and went, intoxicated, to Deva Kaljayi, the deity that also protected the grand royal treasure in form of a giant two-headed snake, and asked him to hand over the royal treasures, telling him that now he was the sole heir to the throne, so the treasure rightfully belonged to him. Deva Kaljayi refused and told him that the "real successor" to the throne was alive and when the time comes the treasure will be handed over to him. Enraged, Nagpasha raised his sword against the deity only to be thrown away by a mere flick of the giant snake's tail. Nagpasha fell upon two bowls, one containing the highly toxic venom (halahal,the greatest form of venom as believed by Hindus) which destroyed his face and mixed with his blood, and the other containing Amrit, which made him immortal. Simultaneous effects of both made Nagpasha an immortal, venomous man. At that time, Nagpasha could not tolerate the changes in his body and fainted.
When the king was informed of the happenings by Deva Kaljayi, he realized that his son was not dead and he also realized the potential dangers to his son's life. So he ordered his faithful astrologer Vedacharya, who had great knowledge of Tilism to enclose the treasure in a Tilism which could be broken only by his son. Vedacharya made the tilism with the cooperation of Deva Kaljayi to ensure that no one, except for the king's son, will be able to break the tilism, not even immortal Nagpasha. When Nagpasha came to his senses, he realized that he had lost the treasure. Enraged, he murdered the king and the queen.
The child, floating away on the river in his state of suspended animation, got stuck somewhere in bushes. He laid there for a long time.
Meanwhile, the snake deity Deva Kaljayi appeared in the dreams of King Maniraj and his wife Queen Manika, rulers of ageless Ichchhadhaari naags, living secretly on an invisible island in the Indian Ocean called Nagdweep. He told them the location of the baby and asked them to cure him. They did so and discovered that the baby was far more venomous than the greatest snake on Nagdweep, which was Mahatma Kaaldoot, indicating that he had divine venom of the god. Initially, the raj vaid was unsure whether he would be able to cure the child, but since Deva Kaljayi himself asked the king for his treatment, he was assured that the treatment will work. According to the rules, no one was permitted to bring an outsider to the island, so the king decided to keep his presence a secret.
Many years passed and the treatment started showing results and, although still in the suspended animation, the color of the baby had gradually changed to green. The King gave the news to the queen and they decided to adopt the child, since they had no child of their own. Their decision was heard by Vishandhar, an evil Tantrik who wanted to become the ruler of the island, but was afraid of Mahatma Kaaldoot. He attacked the secret area where the baby was kept and escaped with him, but fearing the wrath of the god, he decided not to kill the baby and instead placed him back into the same bushes in the river where he was found. His plan failed as the queen soon got pregnant and gave birth to a daughter who was named Visarpi.
Vishandhar never knew that the baby that he left astray was cured enough to regain his senses. First, his face and later, his whole body, turned normal color and he started crying. A priest of the nearby temple located him and gifted him to Professor Nagmani, who was wandering in the nearby forest searching for snakes. For unknown reasons, the priest narrated a fake story that the child belonged to a woman, who was a devotee of the Snake God, that had been raped. He also said that the child was blessed by an ichchhadhari naag, so he asked Nagmani to bring up the child and allows him to avenge his mother.
Nagmani realized that the priest was lying, but he took the child. The blood tests of the child showed that the child had minute, microscopic snakes in his blood, filling in for White blood cells. The child had extraordinary healing powers and was extremely venomous. He raised the baby, who become known as Nagraj.
Nagraj was presented to the world as a creation of Professor Nagmani. He was meant to be an ultimate killing machine, and his original plan was to hire out Nagraj to the highest bidder among villains and terrorist groups of the world.
Professor Nagmani used him for his other experimental projects and leased him for international terrorism. Nagmani always claimed that Nagraj's powers were evolved by feeding him bits of snake poison until his blood itself became poison. He claimed that his venom was a result of snake bites from 1,000 different species of snakes (This echoes the Indian legends of Poison-Men or Women, specifically raised to kill by their kiss) and his other powers evolved when he was treated with ashes of a dead ichchhadhaari snake. In reality, Nagraj was much more poisonous than any species of snakes because his venom was celestial.
Based largely on the Hindu myth of the shape shifting snake, Nagraj derives most of his powers from microscopic snakes that live in his bloodstream, in lieu of white blood cells. He has a number of powers, such as superhuman strength, poisonous breath, vish-foonkaar and bite, instant healing powers, and snakes that come out of his wrists. The snakes can come out individually or form into ropes, parachutes, and many others, depending on his imagination. His venom is believed to be far stronger than Potassium Cyanide, resulting in the melting of any living being's body if he bites them or vice-versa.
For his first mission, he was sold for a sum of $1 million and was to recover an ancient statue. Nagraj succeeds, but then is foiled by the Sage Baba Gorakhnath, who frees him from the mind control of Professor Nagamani. Waking up to a newer world amid the calmness of Gorakhnath, Nagraj takes a vow to eliminate terrorism from the world and works toward achieving this goal.
In his initial issues, Nagraj's powers were too limited, and at times he was even knocked out by powerful human opponents. His strength was also quite human in nature, as he would marvel at his opponent's strength, such as when someone picked up a car. Over the years, Nagraj became powerful enough to not only pick up falling cars single-handedly, but also to achieve feats such as throwing things into outer space effortlessly.
It is notable, and perhaps ironic, that Nagraj has now been transformed into a mythical/magical creature facing fantastical creatures as his enemies, with elements of sorcery/magic and even time and space travel. Many cite this as a reason for the continuous, meteoric rise in popularity of Nagraj comics. However, purists still claim that they prefer the more realistic, more practical stories that Nagraj began with.
Following are Nagraj's vital statistics:[1]
Nagraj is arguably the most powerful superhero in the Raj Comics Universe and is among the most powerful Icchadhari Naagas of his time. Time and again, he has even shown the potential of challenging the Supreme Snake-Gods like Sheshnaag, Vasuki, Takshak, Kaaljayi, and has defeated the likes of Kaaldoot, Trifana, Mahavyaal and Sheetnaag Kumar, who are ranked among the mightiest snakes in their species.
Nagraj, in his initial issues was a wanderer, used to bring havoc to the villains of mankind. Since an alter ego was not needed, Nagraj did not have one, but did conceal his identity under an overcoat and, sometimes, a hat as well. The attire he used to hide his real identity has been hailed by some of his fans as his alter ego, because often, no one knew that the person standing in front of them was Nagraj. Nagraj has adopted the same alter ego in his latest World Terrorism Series. Not having any fear of being identified in case of an emergency, Nagraj instantly takes off his hat and overcoat, even when in public.
His past alter ego was Raj, who is the fumbling, bumbling public relations officer of Bharti Communications, a fictional company in the storyline, that he owns. In his secret identity Raj, he pretends to be terrified of snakes. He wears spectacles, a typical business suit, and is very timid and simple. This is very similar to the character of Superman, and his alter ego Clark Kent, even his outfit, straightening of hair, and use of glasses to conceal himself. While early alter ego was based on Phantom, this alter ego was based on Superman.
As per Nagraj's comic "Nagraj Ke Baad," his alter ego has changed again due to the circumstance that he was forced to reveal his true identity. Now, according to the current storyline, he works as the manager of his new security agency "Snake Eyes." His new name is Nagraj Patel. The company is owned by M.S.A.U. Dangi or Saudangi which resides in his body and is a shape-shifting (icchadhari) snake woman.
Innumerable enemies of Nagraj have appeared in Nagraj's comics; many died, but some lived on to appear again. Here is the list of Nagraj's major enemies that are still alive and who can be expected to make a comeback in future issues :
Nagraj, along with his deeds, has earned a large amount of friends, many of whom appeared just once, but some that appeared more often, and still fewer that became permanent figures in Nagraj's stories. Here is a list of some very well-known characters in his comics :
Nagraj was adapted into a live-action television show in India. However, the show never made it to the television screen. The reason was pretty clear and was due to the poor quality of the special effects. Raj Comics was not satisfied with the quality of the show. The production of more episodes was placed on indefinite hiatus. The three episodes that were made are available on CDs, which were distributed freely as an attachment to digest-sized comic editions. (Khalnayak Nagraj, Samraat, and Saudangi)
Nagraj has also been featured in an animated television series. An episodic series was being produced, based on Nagraj and his arch enemy Jadugar Shakoora, and a teaser was put uploaded on Youtube.[2] However, for the past one year there has been no news about the series. It is assumed that production has stopped because the production company Rtoonz's website has since disappeared.
In November 2007, an agreement was signed between Motion Picture Corporation and Raj Comics for the production of Nagraj's animated movie. They have decided to produce a high quality 2D Movie.[3]
Over two decades, Nagraj has appeared in various comic titles published by Raj Comics.
Raj Comics is publishing a landmark new series featuring Nagraj named Nagayana. It was first intended to be a four part mini-series, but later, the series was extended to include more issues. Raj Comics has also decided to publish it world wide. It's a story based on a hypothetical future world casting Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva 25 years into the future. Largely based on Hindu epic Ramayana, the story narrowly follows the same storyline as of the epic, but with Raj Comics characters filling in the places of original characters. The reason for the extension of the mini-series was in order to tell various sub-plots and the series was finally declared to be an eight part series. The last part is Iti Kaand, which is an 128 page issue released on 10 March 2009. The new series is as follows:
| Issue No. | Comic Title | Publication Status | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Varan Kaand | Published | |
| 2 | Grahan Kaand | Published | |
| 3 | Haran Kaand | Published | |
| 4 | Sharan Kaand | Published | |
| 5 | Dahan Kaand | Published | |
| 6 | Rann Kaand | Published | |
| 7 | Samar Kaand | Published | |
| 8 | Iti Kaand | Published | |
A new series named "Aatanqharta Nagraj" or "Nagraj-World Terrorism Series" is being published parallel to the "Nagayana" series. In this series, Nagraj is traveling around the world to fight and eliminate terrorism. It is not yet decided how many parts this series will have. The names of the currently published parts are:
Ongoing as a part of the same series is "Germany Series" which is a 2 part story. Starting with an issue named "Order of the Beble," the series will begin.
'Nagraj ke Baad'(After Nagraj) is a three part series (Nagraj ke baad, Fuel, and Venom) starting with a comic of the same name. It deals with a time when Nagraj is killed by his enemies and now the world is facing serious threats from the villains.
It is a two part series which deals with something going dangerously wrong in Swarn Nagri, the home of Deva-Jaati, an allied force of Super Commando Dhruva, and the makers of Fighter Toads.
It includes three superheroes, namely Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva, and Fighter Toads.
Its starting comic was Gehri Chaal (Deep Play) and 2nd comic was Level Zero.
The story involves the escape of Green Mamba from the prison of swarn nagri and his apparent control over the city, while everyone in the city is unconscious and he begins planning something dangerous.
These days Raj Comics have published three parallel series of Nagraj, where each Nagraj is involved in a different universe. Currently we have the following three parallel Nagraj series:
Raj Comics hosts a discussion forum, with a section specially devoted to Nagraj.