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NAGRAJ

April 1, 2007 – 6:31 pm

NAGRAJ

Nagraj, if literally translated, means snake-king or king of snakes. Nagraj is the mascot or flagship comic character of Raj Comics, a renowned Indian comic publishing house. Nagraj was created in late 1980′s by Sanjay Gupta and his first appearance was in “Issue No 14- Nagraj.

In the first comic it is shown that Professor Nagmani created Nagraj as a weapon and a killing machine not to be used for any good purpose but to be sold to any terrorist in the world who bids highest for him. But, later comics suggest that his powers are not due to Prof. Nagmani.

Queen Lalita and King Takshak Raj had been trying for a long time to have a son. By the blessings of “Dev Kaljayi”, the family deity of Nagraj, Queen Lalita was pregnant with Nagraj. Nagraj’s uncle Nagapasha tried to kill Queen Lalita by poisoning her with Dev Kaljayi’s venom. When King Takshak Raj requested the deity to somehow save the Queen she agreed after a lot of persuasion but said that the poison will have to be diverted to the unborn baby. Left with no choice the King agreed.

When Nagraj was born, he appeared to be lifeless and hence he was floated in the river. It is an ancient custom that dead children are floated in the river than being burned. It is still a mystery that how did Nagraj survive after being poisoned with such a high concentration of venom. It is speculated that maybe Dev Kaljayi had a soft heart and decided to spare Nagraj’s life. In his initial years Nagraj stayed at the “Nagamani Dweep”. The place is an island of “Ichchadhari” snakes (snakes that can assume forms they want at different times). Nagraj somehow ends up in the captivity of Prof. Nagamani who experiments on Nagraj and feeds him snake poison to the point that Nagraj’s blood becomes poison. Prof.

Nagamani does all this so that he can lease Nagraj to some international terrorist. Nagamani uses mind control methods on Nagraj. Nagraj is leased for $ 1 million dollar for his first mission, which is to recover an ancient statue. Nagraj is successful in doing that mission but then “Baba Goraknath” frees him from the control of Prof. Nagamani. After this, Nagraj vows to defeat the villains and terrorists of the world.

Nagraj has a number of powers, most of which come from the microscopic snakes residing in his blood. Nagraj has snakes living in his blood than having WBC (White Blood Cells). His breath as well as bite is poisonous enough to immediately kill a man. Just like Spiderman, he can shoot snakes off his wrist which can take shape of rope and other things depending on the situation Nagraj is in. the ropes can be used for swinging just like Spiderman does. Later it was revealed that his venom is more powerful than Potassium Cyanide and strong enough to melt a human body if he is bitten by Nagraj. Nagraj has hypnotic powers as well.

He himself can transform into snake form any time on his own will. His healing powers are enhanced by the micro snakes residing in his body. He has “Jadoogar Shakoora” as his arch enemy along with Nagdant and Prof. Nagmani. Super Commando Dhruv, another fictional character of Raj Comics, is Nagraj’s friend and ally.

Nagraj never had any alter ego at the time of his creation. Later on Raj, who works with Bharti Communications as a Public Relation Officer is shown as the alter ego of Nagraj. Raj pretends to be terrified of snakes and leaves a very simple life. His alter ego bears a striking similarity to that of Clark Kent.

Hindi version