Also called: Naag · snake · serpent

Where on the hand: Palm surface, on any mount — and the mount decides its direction.

What it looks like: A long, distinctly wavy or undulating line — the wave form is the whole of it — sometimes with a small triangular hood-widening at one end and a taper at the other.

The most contested sign in the corpus: three incompatible readings coexist, from great warrior to wretchedness. A practitioner should treat the serpent as conditional — its power is real, its direction is decided by the rest of the hand and by the mount it sits on.

Read with care: The sources directly contradict one another on whether the serpent is auspicious or inauspicious. Bṛhat Saṃhitā 70 lists it among the animal shapes indicating poverty and misery; Dale reads it as marking a great warrior. Present it as contested, never as a verdict.

the person will become a great warrior or heroMrs. J. B. Dale, Indian Palmistry

a very unfortunate sign; natives possess bad qualities, vices, wretchednessthe 32/40-sign catalogue