(Kashmir Rechords Archival Desk)
A 40-year-old newspaper clipping reveals an astonishing claim: an infant Indira Gandhi was once spared by a mysterious, multi-headed snake in Kashmir.
Yes—incredible, unbelievable, yet printed boldly on November 14, 1984, by Jammu & Kashmir’s leading English daily, Daily Excelsior.
A boxed news item on a prominent page carried the sensational testimony of an eyewitness who swore he saw it all unfold—in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru, Kamla Nehru and their Kashmiri Pandit family priest.
At a time when the Nehru family often visited their ancestral homeland, Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamla Nehru travelled to the celebrated Achhabal Gardens in South Kashmir around 1918, carrying with them their new-born daughter — Indira Priyadarshini, only a few months old.
The infant was placed gently on a small wooden cot, covered lightly with a muslin cloth, as the young couple and their family priest walked a few steps away, admiring the Mughal-era terraced lawns.
What happened next defies belief — yet was printed as fact in the Daily Excelsior on November 14, 1984.
The Multi-Headed Serpent
According to the eyewitness, a multi-headed snake suddenly approached the sleeping child.
Kamla Nehru saw it first — and screamed.
Jawaharlal rushed forward, horrified.
But the priest remained calm.
He told them the serpent was a divine sign, insisting that neither panic nor force be used.
In an astonishing moment, the priest asked the Nehrus to prostrate before the snake.
And so they did — Jawaharlal Nehru, Kamla Nehru and the priest himself bowed to the serpent.
Without harming the child, the snake slowly slithered back into the grass, vanishing as mysteriously as it had appeared.
The Eyewitness Steps Forward
The dramatic tale was narrated decades later by Amarnath Sadhu, a 77-year-old Kashmiri Pandit whose contractor father had taken him to the gardens that very day.
Then a shy ten-year-old boy, Sadhu recalled watching the Nehru family from a distance — and witnessing the stunning scene unfold.
He told the newspaper, Daily Excelsior in 1984:
“Since that day, I consider Mrs Gandhi as Bharat Mata.”
Sadhu retired as an Accountant in the Education Department — but carried the memory of that incident all his life.
Why This Story Matters?
Despite extensive research by acclaimed authors like Pupul Jayakar and Katherine Frank, this serpent incident never entered the official narrative.
Not a single reference exists in the holdings of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, PM Museum, or other major archives.
Yet this 1984 newspaper account — now resurrected by Kashmir Rechords — suggests that the early life of India’s future Prime Minister may have held mysteries and near-mythical moments lost to time.
History remembers Indira Gandhi as the Iron Lady — but this resurfaced tale hints that destiny may have been watching over her from the very beginning, under a muslin cloth in a Kashmir garden.
