Protective coil shelters a sacred figure

Sesha

He is described with a thousand heads, and his great scene is the interval between creations — during the night of Brahma, when the cosmos is withdrawn, the serpent coils his vastness on the primordial waters so that Vishnu may sleep upon him, shaded by his raised hoods, until the god wakes at dawn to make the world again.

Mucalinda

In most versions he coiled his serpent body around the meditating Buddha, sometimes wrapping him seven times, and spread his hood overhead like a canopy, holding this posture for the full seven days the storm was said to last.