Written by London swaminathan
Post No.1060; dated 23rd May 2014.
This article is the second part of “Ode to Skylark: Shelley, Kalidasa and Rig Vedic Poet Grtsamada” that was posted yesterday.
I have made the following points in my article posted yesterday:
1.Grtsamada’s poems/hymns on Kapinjala in the Rig Veda (2-42,2-43) are the oldest Ode to a bird, at least 3500 years before Shelley’s ‘Ode to a Skylark’.
2.Kapinjala bird is not francolin partridge but Jacobin cuckoo which is identified with Cataka bird, that which longs for and drinks rain drops. Bhartruhari, Adi Shankara, Kalidasa, Sangam Tamil poets and others used it in their poems.
3.The hymn says it was sung in praise of Indra in the form of a Kapinjala bird. Since Vedic hymns have hidden meaning or allegorical or symbolic, it is possible that Supreme God (Indra) is compared with a bird.
4. Birds’ omens have been followed by our fore fathers from Vedic days. Kapinjala i.e. Cataka was used for this purpose according to Grtsamada and Kalidasa.
Two Interesting Stories
The Soul is identified with a bird in the Upanishads. Tamil Veda Tirukkural also confirms it (Tirukkural 338).
There are two interesting stories about the Kapinjala bird and one of them is in the Sixth book of Devi Bhagavatham. When Indra killed Three headed Viswarupa, three groups of birds came from his three heads Kapinjala (who drinks water), Kalavingka (sparrows) and Tittiri (partridges). Birds are always used as symbols in Hindu mythology. Here, the Kapinjala stands for the soul that drinks the rays of spiritual sun. Three heads were drinking Soma ,Sura and Anna representing Devas, Asuras and Human beings respectively. So Kapinjala was associated with Indra in the Rig Veda.
Buddha also identified himself with Kapinjala bird in one of the stories. This Jataka story has two versions one as Kapinjala and another as Partridge (Tittiri Jataka). The Tibetan version which is followed in Bhutan goes like this: once upon a time an elephant came to take rest under a banyan tree. After some time a monkey came to the tree. The elephant objected to monkey being there. Elephant argued that the tree belonged to it because it came first.
The monkey asked the elephant whether it had seen any fruits on the tree. When the elephant said it did not see any fruits, the monkey said when it came for the first time it ate the fruits of the tree and so the tree belongs to it. After some time a rabbit hopped and said it belonged to him because when it came the tree did not even have shoots and it was only a sapling. Then both the elephant and the monkey bowed to the rabbit saying it was their friend and a senior. Before they finished their conversation, a Kapinjala bird on top of the tree shouted that it belonged to it because the tree actually grew out of the seed that it spat a long time ago. Then all the three animals bowed to the bird accepting it as their Big Brother. All the four became friends and helped one another to get the fruits of the tree. The story finishes saying that the bird Kapinjala was Bhodisatva in its previous birth.
It is a known fact that the Buddhists around Fourth Century BCE wrote about 547 Jataka tales using all the ancient Hindu tales. All the Hindu characters or Hindu Kings or the Hindu fables were ‘’Bhuddaized’’ by them just to spread their religion. Even the Ramayana and Mahabharata stories were used by them by altering the stories. Agastya was turned into Akitti! Some of the stories were distorted so that no one could recognize them. So Bhodisatva here replaces the Supreme God of Hinduism. Ultimately Kapinjala means Supreme God or the Soul or the most intelligent spiritual aspirant.
Hindus always use Nature, particularly animals and birds, to teach higher values. We can see the swan in Chandogya Upanishad, numerous birds and animals in Adi Shankara’s poems and animate and inanimate things in the Dattatreya episode of Bhagavata. We have Taittiriya Upanishad in the name of Tittiri (Parrot or partridge) and the Buddha’s original Jataka was Tittiri Jataka which the Tibetans changed to Kapinjala.
Please read my earlier posts:
The connection between William Wordsworth and Dattatreya (posted 10 November 2011)
13 saints in nature (posted on 7 November 2013)
The Mysterious Vedic Homa Bird: Does it Exist? (posted on 10 December 2011)
Can Birds Predict your Future?
Hindu Eagle Mystery Deepens (Posted on 16-2-2013)
A Tamil bird in Sumerian Double headed Eagle in Sumeria
Double Headed Eagle: Sumerian- Indian Connection
Karikal Choza and Eagle Shaped Fire Altar
Bird Migration in Kalidasa and Tamil Lterature
Friends of Birds
Four Birds in One Sloka
Can Parrots recite Vedas?
Gods and Birds