Birds in Literature
Cultures all around the world have used bird imagery in their folklore,
poems and literature for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians,
Persians and Hebrews incorporated birds into religious symbolism. Birds are
often representative of transcendent spirituality due to their ability to fly
and sing. From the ancient Greek poet Homer to the 19th-century romantic poet
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the bird encompassed everything humanity failed to
grasp or died trying to understand.
One ancient Greek story involving birds is a tragic one and has undergone
revision through the years. King Tereus seduces, rapes and cuts out the tongue
of his sister-in-law Philomela. She and her sister Procne then collaborate to
kill Tereus's son Itys, chop up his body and serve him as a meal to the
unsuspecting Tereus. Once Tereus discovers the truth, he prepares to kill the
sisters. The gods intervene and turn everyone into birds. Philomela becomes a
swallow, Procne a nightingale, Tereus a hoopoe and Itys a pheasant. The story
may have attempted to explain the sad song of the nightingale and the swallow's
inability to sing at all. Many stories worked on the premise that when people
passed away, their souls were reincarnated into animals they may have resembled
during their lifetime.
Renaissance poets enjoyed using bird imagery, especially in their love
poetry. Lovesick men were compared to nightingales, singing endlessly of their
hopeless love. The object of their adoration was embodied in a rosebush,
beautiful but full of thorns. The nightingale would lean against the rosebush
to feed off the nectar of the flower, whereby the thorns would pierce the
breast of the nightingale and draw blood. Such an image evoked the heartbreak
endured when the woman would deny her admirer's advances. The sharp thorn would
later become Cupid's arrow. Richard Barnfield wrote of the nightingale's sorrow
in "The Ode":
"She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn
And there sung the doleful'st ditty,
That to hear it was great pity.
Fie, fie, fie, now she would cry,
Teru, teru, by and by."
Ancient religions were in awe of birds that appeared to fly so close to the
sun, the source of all life. Early Egyptians, Hindus and Sumerians believed
that birds such as eagles, vultures and hawks were sky-gods. The egg became a
universal symbol for fertility and the miracle of birth. The Egyptians
worshipped Horus and Ra, gods with human bodies and falcon heads. Many of the
Greek gods were associated with birds: Zeus had the majestic eagle, Hera was
the proud peacock, Athena resembled the wise owl and Aphrodite was the
beautiful dove or swan. The image of the eagle representing authoritative power
has endured from Caesar's rule to American democracy.
The Hebrew Bible often compared God's majesty and protection of His people
to that of a mother bird. Isaiah 31:5 says: "Thus the Lord of Hosts, like
a bird hovering over its young, will be a shield over Jerusalem." Early
Christians employed bird imagery to attract converts; they compared Jesus to
the phoenix rising from the ashes or to the eagle that finds its source of
strength from the sun. Jesus was also compared to the pelican, which, according
to ancient belief, would tear its breast open in order to feed its young.
Thomas Aquinas, a medieval theologian, described the comparison: "Bring
the tender tale true of the Pelican;/ Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom
ran/ Blood that but one drop of has the world to win/ All the world forgiveness
of its world of sin."
Romantic poets compared a caged bird to a human being denied his or her
natural right to freedom. Charlotte Bronte's popular heroine Jane Eyre
resembles a caged bird, one whose potential has been trapped by unfortunate
circumstances. Her employer, Mr. Rochester, is the only character who
recognizes this tragedy for what it is: "I see at intervals a glance of a
curious sort of bird through the close-set bars of a cage; a vivid, restless,
resolute captive is there; were it but free it would soar cloud-high."
Thomas Hardy's tragic Tess of the d'Ubervilles features Tess, a woman who meets
tragedy all throughout the novel and is often compared to a timid bird that
cannot break free. Hardy employs images of nests and feathers when he describes
Tess's entrapment and beauty.
The Romantics put particular emphasis on the nightingale, the bird
traditionally known to sing through the night. The poets saw the nightingale as
a natural representation of the poet's condition and inspiration. Romantic
poets such as John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe were
themselves inspired by the idea that the bird sings for its own sake.
naturalism in literature, an approach that proceeds from an
analysis of reality in terms of natural forces, e.g., heredity, environment,
physical drives. The chief literary theorist on naturalism was Émile
Zola, who said in his essay
Le Roman expérimental (1880) that the novelist should be like the
scientist, examining dispassionately various phenomena in life and drawing
indisputable conclusions. The naturalists tended to concern themselves with the
harsh, often sordid, aspects of life. Notable naturalists include the
Goncourt brothers, J. K.
Huysmans,
Maupassant, the English
authors George
Moore and
George
Gissing, and the
American writers Theodore
Dreiser,
Frank
Norris, Stephen
Crane, James T.
Farrell, and James
Jones. In the drama,
naturalism developed in the late 19th cent. By stressing photographic detail in
scene design, costume, and acting technique, it attempted to abolish the
artificial theatricality prominent in 19th-century theater. The movement was
most closely associated with the Théâtre Libre (founded 1887) of André
Antoine, with the Freie
Bühne (founded 1889) of Otto
Brahm,
and with the Moscow Art Theatre (founded 1898) under the direction of
Stanislavsky. Notable
naturalistic dramatists include
Becque, Brieux,
Hauptmann, and
Gorky.
Synopsis
Although they are as commonplace as our backyards, birds
remain wild, unpossessed by humans, living "beside us, but alone", as
Matthew Arnold observes and as Leonard Lutwack explores in this study of the
depiction of birds in literature. The very attributes that make birds so
familiar - their flight and song - retain an air of mystery that sets them
apart from other animals. They appear to exist effortlessly in a state of mixed
animal and spiritual being that humans long to attain. This simultaneous
familiarity and transcendence gives birds a wide range of meaning in the works
that Luwack describes. His examples - both expected and surprising - come in
some measure from Greco-Roman writers but primarily from the poetry and prose
of American and British writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Lutwack divides his material into five sections: birds in poetry and as
metaphor, including the classical nightingale and the swan and the birds of
such poets as Dickinson, Whitman, and Stevens; birds and the,supernatural,
including ancient beliefs in birds as images and disguised gods as well as some
interesting modern revivals of bird-gods - the quetzal in Lawrence, the crow in
Ted Hughes, and the hawk in Jeffers; birds that are trapped, hunted, or killed
in sacrifice, such as Coleridge's albatross, Ibsen's wild duck, Chekhov's
seagull, and Kosinski's painted bird; birds and the erotic, with special
emphasis on Lawrence's juxtaposition of birds and lovers, the association of
white birds with chastity, and the traditional identification of women with
docile birds and men with raptors; and a section on literature and the future
of birds that includes strategies for dealing with theincreasing threat to real
birds posed by humans. Literature has made and must continue to make the
reading public sensitive to nature, Lutwack writes, and literary birds may
prove to be our best link to it.
A unique anthology of avian literature
From the myths of ancient Greece to the fables of Aesop, from Chaucer to
contemporary poetry and fiction, birds are central to literature because they
connect us intimately to the natural world. Whether we watch birds at our
feeders, travel vast distances to identify rare species, or simply pause in a
busy day to listen to the coo of a dove or the trill of a warbler, birds
sustain us.
"Birds in the Hand" is a collection of contemporary fiction and
poetry that explores the complex, often startling ways in which birds shed light
upon our lives. In work from a diverse and celebrated group of contemporary
authors such as Charles Baxter, T.C. Boyle, Jim Harrison, Flannery O'Connor,
Pattiann Rogers, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Ethan Canin, and Jorie Graham,
birds are sources of inspiration, confrontation, and revelation.
These stories and poems take us from New York and Hoboken to the Salton Sea and
the wilds of Montana, from a hardware store to the westernmost Aleutian island,
from a prison to marshes, forests, and seacoasts.
Field guides and natural history books cannot capture the essence of why birds
thrill us. "Birds in the Hand" uses the vitality and nuance of
fiction and poetry to get at the heart of our mysterious sense of birds and the
way they can reflect the brightest and darkest aspects of our own natures.
In his monumental research in ancient sanskrit literature
the author has restored gaps in lexicons and removed doubts in the later
sanskrit works about the identity of a very large number of birds of the Indian
sub-continent. The ancient sages of India were great lovers of nature with keen
powers of observation and an extraordinary sensitivity about aninal behaviour.
The Vedas Puranas, Epics and Samhitas are full of descriptions of birds,
animals and plants but the exact identification of names had got lost or
confounded over the centuries.
The ancient sages of India were great lovers of nature, with
keen powers of observation and an extraordinary sensitivity about animal
behaviour.
Contents: Introduction. 1. Crows and their allies. 2. Tits. 3.
Parrot-bills and Suthoras. 4. Nuthatches. 5. Laughing thrushes and Babblers. 6.
Bulbuls. 7. Tree creepers. 8. Wrens. 9. Dippers. 10. The Thrush family. 11. Fly
Catchers. 12. Shrikes. 13. Minivets. 14. Swallow-shrikes. 15. Drongos. 16.
Warblers. 17. Gold-crests. 18. The Fairy Blue-bird. 19. Orioles. 20. Grackles
or Hill-Mynas. 21. Starlings and Mynas. 22. Weaver-birds and Munias. 23.
Finches and Buntings. 24. Waxwing. 25. Martins and Swallows. 26. Wagtails and
Pipits. 27. Larks. 28. The White Eye. 29. The Ruby-cheek. 30. The Sun-birds.
31. Flower-peckers. 32. Pittas. 33. Broad-bills. 34. Wood-peckers. 35. Barbets.
36. Honey-guide. 37. Cuckoos. 38. Paroquets or Parrots. 39. Rollers. 40. The
Bee-eaters. 41. The Kingfishers. 42. Hornbills. 43. Hoopoes. 44. The Trogons.
45. Swifts. 46. Nightjars. 47. Frogmouths. 48. The Barn Owl. 49. Other Owls.
50. Osprey. 51. Vultures and Lammergeyer. 52. Eagles, Falcons and Allied Birds.
53. Pigeons and Doves. 54. Sand-Grouse. 55. Pea-Fowl, Jungle Fowls, Pheasants
and Quails. 56. Magapodes. 57. Bustard Quails. 58. Rails, Crakes, Moorhens,
Watercocks and Coot. 59. Masked Finfoot. 60. Jacanas. 61. The Painted Snipe.
62. Cranes. 63. Bustards. 64. Stone-Plovers. 65. Coursers and Pratincoles. 66.
Crab-Plovers. 67. Skuas. 68. Gulls. 69. Terns. 70. Skimmer or Scissorbill. 71.
Plovers. 72. Curlew, Godwit, Sandpiper etc. 73. Pelicans. 74. Cormorants and
Darter. 75. Gannet or Booby. 76. Tropic Bird. 77. Erigatebird. 78. Petrels. 79.
Spoonbill. 80. Ibises. 81. Storks. 82. Herons, Egrets and Bitterns. 83.
Flamingos. 84. Swans, Geese, Ducks and Mergansers. 85. Grebes. 86. Divers.
Index. Sanskrit-Pali-Prakrit Index.
"In his monumental research in ancient Sanskrit literature, the author
has restored gaps in lexicons, and removed doubts in the later Sanskrit works
about the identity of a very large number of birds of the Indian sub-continent.
The ancient sages of India were great lovers of nature, with keen powers of
observation and an extraordinary sensitivity about animal behaviour. The Vedas,
Puranas, Epics and Samhitas are full of descriptions of birds, animals and
plants, but the exact identification of names had got lost or confounded over
the centuries.
Acharya V.M. Apte, the great Sanskrit scholar described this contribution of
the author in the following words: "It will be a study--in the fascination
of which will be matched only by its utility. Scholars intellectually
constituted with a purely theoretical bias and studying nature not in the open
but through books, have not a leg to stand on in this field and well will feel
highly indebted to a scholar who introduces the ancient (and also modern,
because surviving still) birds in Vedic and classical Sanskrit literature to us
in such a way as to make us feel that we can actually admire their colourful
plumage and appreciate the effusions of their vocal chords."
This book fills a void in Sanskrit literature, and should prove useful not
only to scholars, but also to researchers who may be inspired by it to delve
deeper into Sanskrit texts and ancient Indian culture." (jacket)
Kathasaritsagara, Sanskrit Literature
Kathasaritsagara literally means `Ocean of Stories` and is
defined as a unique literary work of Sanskrit literature. Kathasaritsagara
comprises stories as told by Somadeva, a Kashmir Shaivite Brhamin. Most of the
literary texts discuss about the moral codes and prevalent ethical life of the
ancient Indian society. Contrarily, the
stories of Kathasaritsagara particularly talk about the earthly pleasures and
desires of the people. Sometimes a particular idea occurs at several places in
the different stories of Kathasaritsagara. The scholars refer to a single
context of this popular work.
Among the magical beliefs and practices mentioned in Kathasaritsagara the
noteworthy ones are magic powers of spells of witches, which are derived from
the eating of human flesh, facilitate a person to fly in the air. It is stated
that magical charm is employed for gaining the love of a woman and further
magic can make a person invisible to others. Interestingly, some stories of
Kathasaritsagara say that a mendicant, performing magical rites on a corpse,
can bring it back to life and can use the animated body in any form as he
wishes. Among other things caused by magic, noted ones are the formation of
illusion; the mendicant is said to have been carried by the corpse and a
Banyan
tree in the graveyard, when duly worshipped, can disclose miracles. It also
states several measures to protect a delivery house or birth-chamber, which
includes windows covered with arka and
shami
plants, a variety of weapons to be kept hanging in the room, blazing of
jewel-lamps, usage of many charms and spells and other invocations by
magicians, etc. Further, charms for appeasing the fire, to change the shape of
human beings, etc are also mentioned. There are means of propitiating the sea
with jewels and spells to drive away Raksasas are also stated in
Kathasaritsagara. A recluse is stated to eat the flesh of children in other
stories of this literary work. It also states that human flesh is offered to
Vetalas.
In some parts of Kathasaritsagara, there are references to tree-worship and the
throbbing of the right eye of a man is believed to be a good sign. Magical
practices also have mentions in certain sections of Kathasaritsagara. A vessel,
a stick and the shoes, belonging to Asura Maya, are stated to have several
magical powers. Like for instance, whatever food is wished in the vessel it
will be obtainable instantly, whatever is written with the stick proves to be
true and whoever wears the shoes acquires the power of flying through the air.
Moreover, in Kathasaritsagara there is reference to spells for breaking walls
as well as chains and there is said to be a special charm that can produce a
dream. Grains of rice that are given by the servants of God are considered to
be never-ending.
A glimpse of the popular beliefs and ideas of the ancient Indian societies can
be obtained from Kathasaritsagara. It presents a popular belief regarding
Yaksinis giving troubles to human beings. An interesting conviction stated in
this literary work mentions that, when a person sneezed, he would die if
someone did not say `God bless you`. An elixir or a medicated substance,
prepared with the meat of a wild goat, was believed to ensure the birth of a
son and it appears that people used to think that fruits of some enchanted
trees if taken surely led to death. Further, there are charms also for
controlling Vetalas, for securing long life, and for producing dreams.
Beef-eating seemed to have been resorted to even by
Brahmins
in times of pain or distress. Some of the wicked portents are a crow sitting on
one`s left hand, a dog running from the left direction to right, a snake
appearing on the right, thumping of the left shoulder and arm, etc. According
to some verses of Kathasaritsagara the terrible cry of a jackal was considered
as worrying and the howling of a jackal on one`s left side was also supposed to
foretell evil. Some other evil omens mentioned in Kathasaritsagara were
lightning flashes striking the banners, blowing of dreadful wind uprooting
trees, vultures circling overhead, etc.
In Kathasaritsagara, there are references to protecting herbs and a man`s
capacity for accepting the language of all beasts and birds. It was believed
that one`s spirits, being elevated or depressed, indicated the approach of good
or evil fortune. There is a reference to a specific jewel that was believed to
act as a talisman against old age, disease and demons. Besides these beliefs,
Kathasaritsagara also gives reference to the custom of sacrificing a human
being before a goddess.
Brihatkathmanjari, Kshemendra
Brihat katha Manjari gives a true account that around 400
AD, the Gupta king Vikramaditya (Chandragupta II) had "unburdened the
sacred earth of the barbarians". The original was divided into eighteen
Lambhakas and it is a reasonable guess that the term applies to the victories
of the hero, each section dealing with his achievement. The work begins with
the Kathapitha, which gives as an introduction to the tale the legend of
Gunadhya.
In Book ii, the adventures of Udayana are described, which are carried in
chapter iii to his winning of Padmavati. In iv the birth of the hero,
Naravahanadatta takes place who would be the emperor of the Vidyadharas. The
next book, Chaturdarika is episodically presented. The Vidyadhara king comes to
visit the future ruler and relates how he himself has reached the wonderful
city of the Vidyadharas and won the four beauteous maidens wherefrom the title
of the book has been derived. He continues with the legend of Suryaprabha. A
remarkable tale of how that hero rose from royal rank to becoming emperor of
the Vidyadharas after a struggle against his foe srutavarman. He was finally
induced to be content with a minor kingdom due to the personal intervention of
Shiva. The tale has proper blending of mythology that involves Vedic and epic
beliefs, Buddhist legends but Kshemendra has condensed it excessively.
The spirit of the book is an account of Kalingadatta, father of Kalingasena,
who gives his daughter a royal ancestry. Udayana is sought in marriage by her
and he would be wedded her, but Yaugandharaya resists the match by giving a
silly excuse. It was Kalingasena`s character as hetaira which motivated the
objections. Udayana is induced to abandon the project but determines to allow
her daughter to wed Naravahanadatta and the book carries the readers to a
formal marriage.
Book VIII is short and is styled Vela after the name of the character and ends
with the vital statement that Madanamansuka has been abducted by the Vidyadhara
Manasa Vega. The prince is deserted but before that he rejoins his beloved and
would be the hero of four episodic books. In the first he is carried off in
sleep and ends by supporting another Vidyadhara maiden, Lalitalochana. He
spends time with her on mount Malaya, but is saddened by longing for Madanamansuka.
Lalitalochana disappears. A hermit, Pichangajata, comforts him by telling him
the tale of Mrgakikadatta, a prince of -Ayodhya. He had married Sasankavati,
daughter of his enemy Karmasena of Ujjain, who gives the book its title.
Another episode follows where Gomukha tells the tale of the emperor
Muktaphalaketu and his beloved Padmavati who gives the book its title.
After long interval action is resumed in Book xiii, Pancha wins five more
brides, Vidyadhara maidens are determined to support him. The book laid stress
on attaining Madanamansuka. With the help of princess Prabhavati, a Vidyadhara,
the prince penetrates to her place of confinement, using a woman`s form lent by
Prabhavati. In Book xiv he marries Ratnaprabha, whose name the book bears. In
Book xv he marries Alarhkaravati, and is on a voyage to a White Island where he
worships Narayana with an elaborate prayer written in the most finished Kavya
style.
The next book gives the prince another wife, Saktiyasas. In Book xvii the lost
thread is recovered. Naravahanadatta must receive from the sage Vamadeva on
mount Malaya the seven jewels that symbolises sovereignty. He reaches the north
by passing under a great tunnel and by his offer of his own head induces
Kalaratri who guards the exit point to permit his passage.
The break between the end of Vela in Book eight and the continuation in Parka
in book nine is deplorable. However the harshness is concealed by making the
intervening books recognize the dilemma of the prince and the endeavour to console
him. Kshemendra loyally followed his incoherence.
The shrike in
Sanskrit literature since 400 BC
SURUCHI PANDE
ELA Foundation,
C-9, Bhosale Park, Sahakarnagar No. 2, Pune, Maharashtra, India,
e-mail:
suruchipande@hotmail.com
(Received
on 24th March 2004; Accepted on 17th December 2004)
Abstract:
The shrike, which is a common Indian bird, was noticed by ancient Indians. This
is a brief
treatise on some
references to the shrike in ancient Indian texts, written in the Sanskrit
language. Original
Sanskrit verses
are deliberately mentioned in this brief communication. The knowledge of
Sanskrit
language, a true
window to the ancient Indian knowledge and culture, can thus give a modern
reader a
delightful and
mesmerizing experience of serious avian observations from ancient India.
Key words:
shrike, India, Sanskrit, ancient literature
There are
numerous references to birds in the Sanskrit literature. Many birds
can be traced
back to 2500 BC. However, it is often difficult to exactly identify the
particular species
mentioned in the ancient literature if no proper description of the
bird is
available. In such cases, one may allot the ancient name to a particular
presentday
bird, basing on
its name, if the name describes a peculiar habit of the bird. In
other cases, one
has to go back from the present name of the bird, analysing step by
step the
derivation of the present name from the earlier versions, in accordance with
the rules of
grammar, until one arrives at the root word in the Sanskrit language. This
is often a
tedious process and sometimes may be unsuccessful, as a particular name
may remain
ambiguous and one has no option but to let it remain so. Only rarely the
task is easy
because the ancient name is retained till the present day. Fortunately, we
have a reliable
present-day Sanskrit derivation of the name for the shrike.
Many Indian
languages have evolved from the parent Sanskrit language. One
of these
languages is Marathi, the regional language of the Maharashtra state. It is in
this language
that a few peculiarly descriptive names for the shrike are mentioned,
viz. Khatik
(the butcher) or Naklya Khatik (the
butcher who mimics). Another name,
which has a
special reference to one of the popular ancient Indian epics, is Gandhari.
The epic is the
.Mahabharata., the longest poem in any language, and Gandhari
is the name of
the blind-folded Kaurava Queen. She chose to wear a mask over
192 S.
Pande
her eyes,
probably to share the same life as her blind husband Dhrutarashtra. The
Southern Grey
Shrike (Lanius meridionalis) is called in Marathi Gandhari,
which is
a befitting name
to this masked pied bird.
The oldest
reference to the shrike in Sanskrit literature is also in the .Mahabharata
. (400 BC . 400
AD), where it is mentioned as Latvaka.
It is interesting to
note that the
Sanskrit name for a staff, with a bulbous club at the top, is Khatvanga.
Latva,
which is another Sanskrit name for the shrike, could originate from Khatvanga,
because . like
the staff . shrikes have relatively large heads for their size, as
compared to
flycatchers and bulbuls. The Sanskrit name for the butcher is Khattika,
probably an
original form of the Marathi name Khatik for
the butcher bird, reflecting
its habit of
impaling and wedging prey on thorns or in forks. The name Latva
is
mentioned in
ancient Sanskrit lexicons, like .Kalpadrukosha. (1660 AD) and .Koshakalpataru
. (1644 AD). In
these lexicons the shrikes are grouped with flycatchers
and bulbuls.
Some shrikes are
well-known vocal mimics. The Long-tailed Shrike (L. schach),
Bay-backed
Shrike (L. vittatus), and Southern Grey Shrike (L.
meridionalis), which
are commonly
found in Maharashtra, all mimic the calls of other birds. Two Sanskrit
names for the
shrike . Latva (a small bird) or Latushaka
. are possibly derived from
the root verb lat
or rat (to cry). Shrikes are
known for their harsh chuckles and
mimicry. Latvaka
has probably two constituents, namely rat
(to cry) and vak (to
speak). This
explanation may not be in accordance with the classical Sanskrit grammar,
but such words
are accepted as sanskritized versions. Another derivation of
Latushaka is
also offered elsewhere: from the word lat (to
cry) and ushas (morning
and evening
light) . thus the bird that vocalizes and hunts from daybreak till late
evening is the Latushaka
or the shrike (DAVE 1985).
There are
numerous references to the shrike in the ancient Indian medicine,
i.e., Ayurveda.
Ancient Indians used this bird for ascribed medicinal properties. The
prominent texts,
namely the .Charakasamhita. and the .Sushrutasamhita. (both 2nd
century AD)
refer to the shrike as Lattushaka. The observations
of ancient Indians
are to be
appreciated here, since they classified shrikes in the class .Pratuda.,
consisting
of pecking
birds. The Sanskrit texts describe the .Pratuda. class as birds that
hit, beat or
pierce the prey with their beaks prior to eating! Modern ornithology has
also confirmed
this habit of shrikes. Shrikes are also mentioned in a medieval text
.Vasantarajashakunam.,
which is devoted to augury . for interpreting omens from
bird and animal
behaviour. Here the shrike is called Ladva. The
text mentions a belief
that if a shrike is seen or heard
in front of a person, this omen grants him his wish.
Hamsa
Goddess Saraswati and the Hamsa
The Hamsa is a familiar leitmotif in
Indian art, literature, sculpture and textiles. It is an aquatic bird that
resembles a goose or a swan. It is reputed to eat pearls and to be able to
separate milk from water and drink only pure milk. This is something we as human
beings wish we could do. Imagine having the facility to discard all the bad
fats in our food automatically!
The Hamsa represents the perfect
harmony between spirituality and life. When the word ‘hamsa’ isconstantly
repeated, it changes to ‘Soaham’ meaning ‘That I am’. Thus the hamsa is often
identified with the Supreme Spirit or Brahman. The flight of the Hamsa also
symbolises the escape of the soul from the cycle of samsara. The bird also has
special connotations in Advaita Vedanta – just as the swan lives on water but
its feathers do not get damp, similarly a person who follows Advaita,
non-dulity, tries to live in harmony in this material world of Maya (illusion),
but is really detached and not impacted by its illusionary nature.
The Hamsa is seen as a symbol of
purity, detachment, divine knowledge, cosmic breath (prana) and the highest
spiritual accomplishment. It is supposed to transcend the limitations of
creation for it can walk on the earth, fly in the sky and swim in the water.
The Hamsa was also used extensively in the art of Gandhara, accompanying images
of the Shakyamuni Buddha. It is considered sacred in Buddhism.
The hamsa is depicted as the
‘vehicle’ or vahana of Saraswati, the goddess of learning. A white swan
is often shown sitting at her feet next to her feet. The sounds of the air that
we inhale is called ‘ham’; the air that is breathed out is called ‘sah’.
So Goddess Saraswati is supposed symbolically to ride the very essence of
being: our breath.
Lake Manasarovar, near Mount Kailash
is seen as the summer abode of the Hamsa. Poetical images describe the
migratory flight of the swans to that lake in the Himalayas.
Chataka and Chakora
Chataka bird
The Chataka is the Pied
Crested Cuckoo bird. The poets describe it as being unable to drink water found
on earth. It can only directly drink rain water as it drops from the skies. It
is a migratory bird that appears only in the rainy season. It has a
shrill voice similar in pitch to the cuckoo. The chataka pleads with the
clouds to bring in rain so that its thirst can be quenched. A bird smaller than
the dove, it is described as having a long tail and is coloured black, yellow
and white. It has a long crest on its head shapedlike a bow with an arrow
stretched tight on it that actually prevents it from drinking from the earth as
this crest comes in the way. References to this bird are made in Kalidasa and
Adi Shankaracharya.
The chakorais a kind of
partridge. It is a legendary bird
Chakor bird
described in Hindu mythology that
thrives only on the moon-light for its food. Moon-light is supposed to its
nectar or Amrita. Adi Sankaracharya also refers to this bird and is
supposed to have drunk to its brim the moonlight of Goddess Shakthi
or Amba’s smile, which is so sweet that it benumbs the beak of the bird. To
counteract this numbness, the bird goes to get a drink of the moonlight
compared to a ‘sour gruel’ when compared to the godly smile. The association of
Chakora and Chandra, the moon god has inspired a number of folk love
stories in India.
The chatakas and chakoras
depend on natural resources—rain water and moonlight. This is symbolic of the
necessity to preserve nature in all its beauty and glory and make it an
essential reason for our being. It is a lesson not to destroy, exploit and
denude creation’s gifts to mankind. The hamsa’s ability to separate milk
and water symbolizes the need to discriminate between good and bad and the
eternal and evanescent.
Feeding birds is part of our daily ritual advised by our scriptures. In fact
I wanted to write about two birds–the krauncha lovers–who inspired a hunter to
write our most famous and revered epic, the Ramayana.
Valmiki was a hunter who reformed after heraing the story of King Rama who
accepted exile to fulfill the promise his father had given to his step mother
that her son would be king. Valmiki was moved by this story, and continued
thinking about it. Walking to the river Tamasa for his daily ablutions, his
eyes fell on a pair of mating Krauncha birds, and he paused a moment to enjoy the
moment and share their happiness. Suddenly, the calm was shattered by an arrow
which found its mark, and the male bird fell down dead! The female bird
lamented over the corpse of her lover in a piteous manner, which tugged at the
heart of the sage.
Catching sight of the hunter who had separated the loving birds, he cursed
“you have separated these birds who were deeply in love. Never in your life
will you be able to rest, but shall wander homeless all your life!”
No sooner had he cursed the man that he regretted his action, for he had
succumbed to emotion and attachment to the birds. When he recollected his
words, he realized that the words he had spoken in anger and pity had taken the
form of a rhyme – a sloka – that perfectly rhymed with the wailing of the
bereaved Krauncha bird!
Valmiki realized that it was the will of God which had made him utter those
words in what was to be the first sloka in Sanskrit literature.
