x
2. The Atharvaveda also shows familiarity with birds of prey like the Laggar Falcon or the Red-headed Merlin who hunt in pairs (श्येनौ संपातिनौ, AV 7.70.3). The mutual attachment of a pair of the Brahminy Ducks (चक्रवाक) who keep together during the day and move apart during the night in search of food among water plants but keep in touch with one another by mutual calls is the basis for pronouncing a blessing for mutual love upon a newly married couple in AV 14.2.64. 3. By the time the Samhitas of the Yajurveda came to be composed (c. 1000 B.C.) the Indo-Aryans had become familiar with many more birds and able to teach the Hill Myna and the Parrot (शारि and शुक ) to repeat human speech, and the priests at the horse-sacrifice dedicated them to सरस्वती, the goddess of speech, and to सरस्वान् (VS 24-33). They had also observed the parasitic habit of the Indian Koel laying its eggs in the nests of crows, and allotted it under the name of अन्यवाप to the half months because it assigned the work of brooding on its eggs and bringing up the young to others (VS 24.37). The Yajus Samhitas mention about sixty birds in all in the litany of the horse-sacrifice. 4. The broad V-form of a flight of Demoiselle Cranes was copied by the Pandavas in their war against the Kauravas for the arrangement of a squadron under the name of a (MBh 6.51.1) and this formation has been well-defined in fr ch. 4, sec. 7. 297: "As the flight of cranes across the air assumes a regular formation, so should the state's army (a) be arranged when at war like the stage." Like the Crane, the Barheaded Goose (g) is also a winter visitor in India and a flock takes to wing in V-formation, and the Monkey-force of Ramacandra, assuming the form of Geese in the air (garett) attacked the demon- force of Ravana(Råm. VI. 69.36-37). The return of the geese to the Indian lakes and tanks in winter has been very compassionately mentioned in Vişņu Purăņa, V.10.9: "Like an imperfect f turally suffers from worry and many an obstacle, the Geese (gr) who had deserted the tanks and riddles). The single verse, much later मुह, उप., श्वेता. detached from the other two is differently interpreted in the and the free: the tree as the human body and the birds as the individual and the Supreme spirits. As for the two birds sharing a common tree for their abode in RV 1.164.20 compare the story of two bird-friends, both woodpeckers, one quite strong and the other quite weak. The latter wanted to share the hardwooded tree occupied by the former, but despite the strong one's advice against the ides, tried to peck a hole in the tree and lost its life (Jataka, II. 162). The two birds were the Goldenbacked and the Rufous Woodpeckers; the latter does not dig a hole in a tree but nests into the leafy bowls of tree-ants, and as it feeds on the ants it even shares it with them. The Jataka of the Pali Text Society contains many bird- stories, and the story of three birds in V. 109 clearly shows that the ancient Indian gained knowledge of birds from the indigenous tribes (frres) as well. 2. For these birds TS 5.5.12 has viawife and re: where we must render the word as 'bright' or beautiful, for there is no white Myna or Parrot in India at all. (xi) |
lakes earlier, have come back again to them (and run the risk of being killed by archers for food)." In Raghuvamsa XIII.55 flocks of the geare said to visit India from the Mânasarovara lake, and the Himalayan passes through which these birds and the cranes fly over to India are called इंसद्वार and [फचरंघ respectively. 5. By the time AV 20.135 came to be composed, the prejudice against the pigeon had disappeared, for in verse 12 of the hymn, Indra is said to have helped a wounded pigeon with food and water; and we also note it as a pet bird (गृहकपोत) in मालविकाग्निमित्र 4.17. We have seen above how as early as the age of the Yajus Samhitas, Parrots and Mynas were trained to talk, and we may not be surprised if the practice of keeping numbers of pretty birds had become common with kings and the rich, for we find in Act IV offee that the courtesan w maintained a large variety of birds in her palace including a parrot which could repeat even verses from the Veda. Pet birds were also common in all hermitages. 6. Love of the calls of certain birds explains the comparison of the tones of music with the pleasant voices of birds like the Peacock, Hawk- cuckoo, Sarasa Crane, and the Kokil in time 1.3.46. On the other hand, the silly pride of a physician went so far as to compare the pulse- beats of certain patients with the gait or steps of Geese, Peacock, Dove, Pigeon, Cock, Quail, Partridge etc. in the book are where the author proudly declares that he has indicated the best method of judging ailments for the ignorant physicians: 7. Some popular maxims have also been coined after the ways of birds, e.g. काकतालीय न्याय, खनेकपोत न्याम, अण्डकुक्कुटी न्याय का न्याय etc. The last of these is based upon a wrong belief that the crow has only one eye-ball because the bird, when looking down from a high perch turns its head both right and left. The rotor is clearly reflected in the ng VI. 28, where the g (Goose) is credited with the habit of sucking up only pure milk from a mixture of milk and water. This, however, seems to be poetic extension of the Vedic picture of the Sun as a Swan or Goose (g f, RV 4.40.5) who sucks up pure water (fr, RV. 1.164.7) with his rays from even muddy pools. 8. In the Bh. P. X.15.11-13 fondness of Sri Krspa for sweet notes and songs of birds and the dance of the Peacock, is said to be so great that he learnt to imitate them quite correctly. In the Gità (10.30) he identifies himself with 4, the best of the birds-ar was the one who robbed the सोम or अमृत well-guarded by the मस्तूs in the सुपर्णाव्यान 9. The slow and graceful gait of pretty young women has often been poetically compared to that of a domestic Goose, e.g. in i 8.59; gure. 1.34; ब्रह्मवैवर्तपुराण 11.2.37; किरातार्जुनीय 8.29; मुज्छकटिक 4.28. 3. Comp. the rendering in Sanskrit of the first half of the Ardha Magadhi Nyaya verse quoted in अभिधानराजेन्द्र, the Ardha Magadhi lexicon: "गया अभया बलाका " (the same as "Egg first or the hen first"). |
