cuckoo and crow
Date uploaded in London – – 18 FEBRUARY 2024
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tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
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Hindus give utmost respect to all birds and animals and trees and creepers. Koel (Kuyil) குயில் is a Tamil word used in most of the languages in India or its Tamil sound cuckoo is used. It will be interesting to do research on the words Koel and Kokila. They are onomatopoeic words (sound based words).
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The Sanskrit word for Koel is Kokila, which is a popular feminine name used by Indian women (My aunt’s name in Mayuram and another aunt in Nagpur was Kokila). From Kalidasa to Bharatiyar , all famous poets sang about it’s beautiful voice.
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Great Saivite saint Manikka vasagar used Koel bird to pray to god Shiva in Tiruvasagam under the title Kuyil Pathu குயில் பத்து .
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Greatest of the Modern Tamil Poets , Subrahmanya Bharati (bhaarathiyaar) composed a whole poem with the title Kuyil Paattu குயில் பாட்டு . The theme of the song is Love.
Kuyil’s Song (Kuyil Pattu) குயில் பாட்டு is a narrative poem in nine parts, totalling about 750 lines. It may be called a fable, because the principal character is a Kuyil and two of the other characters are a monkey and a bull. It may be called a dream-sequence, for some of the events partake of the tantalising quality of dreams. A fable and a dream poem, it is also a sort of vision seen or imagined by the poet.
The framework of the story is rather simple. It is neither tangled nor complex. The story which is narrated is in keeping with the traditions and beliefs of our race. The transmigration of souls, the relentless pursuit of love down the ages, the overwhelming power of fate which shapes even the course of love, all this is traditional and having this as an effective scaffolding, he has raised an immortal palace of art.
Bharati’s “Kuyil Pattu” discloses the splendour of human love with a keen sustained undercurrent of allegory; the material love with a spiritual glow pervades the entire poem in an exalted diction; simple words, hurled by the poet’s creative spell, speak lofty truths from height of emotional excellence, and candour.
Music, O sweet music;
And when music fails,
And when music fails,
Only cacophony.
Beat the rhythm, beat the rhythm:
And when rhythm fails,
Mere confusion.
Divine the poetic voice;
But when poetry fails,
Only the dross of the earth. (used from Wisdom Library website)
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Andal used Koel like Manikavasagar in her divine poem Nachiyar Tirumozi (நாச்சியார் திருமொழி). It has 143 verses which is part of the 4000 divine hymns of Nalayira Divya Prabandham. Kuyil Pattu or cuckoo’s song forms the fifth decad where Andal requests cuckoo to sing in praise of Krishna.
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Bharatidasan was a great disciple of Bharati. He started a magazine called Kuyil/ Cuckoo . He imitated Bharati in many of his poems; His love for Tamil language is well known; but he was misguided by anti Hindu, anti India and anti god bad elements of Dravidian movement. Following it, he advocated for separate Tamil Nadu from India. Because of his Anti India writings his Kuyil magazine was banned.
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In Subhashitas
Sanskrit has another word for Cuckoo – Pikah.
There is a popular Subhasita in the language
काकः कृष्णः पिकः कृष्णः कः भेदः पिककाकयो ।
वसंत समये प्राप्ते काकः काकः पिकः पिकः ।
It mocks at imitations.
Crow is black, cuckoo is black… what’s the difference between the two. Come spring, a crow is a crow, a cuckoo is a cuckoo
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In appearance, a crow and a cuckoo aren’t very different. A crow is black and so is a cuckoo. How can we tell the difference? It doesn’t matter… Come spring, the difference automatically becomes evident! While a cuckoo sings melodiously, a crow, well…, crows. Lot of people dress like VIPs, pretend like VIPs; dull wits pretend like scholars; once they open their mouths people will find their true nature .
This Subhasita is based on a nature’s wonder. Cuckoo lays its eggs in Crow’s nest and the innocent crow takes care of them. By the time the difference is noted, cuckoos fly away. Cuckoos never build its own nests. It is a kind of cheating. This behaviour is used as similes in literature.
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In Puranas
In Siva Purana
Wisdom Library adds more points from Hindu scriptures: Kokila (कोकिल) refers to “cuckoos”, according to the Śivapurāṇa 2.2.22. Accordingly as Śiva said to Sitā:—“[…] O my beloved, beautiful woman, clouds will not reach the place where I have to make an abode for you. […] O beloved, do you wish to go to the Himālayas, the king of mountains wherein there is spring for ever, which abounds in hedges and groves where the cuckoos (kokila) coo in diverse pleasing ways and which contains many lakes filled with cool water and hundreds of lotuses”. Chandas (prosody, study of Sanskrit metres)
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Kokila in Chandas /Prosody
Kokila (कोकिल) is the name of a catuṣpadi metre (as popularly employed by the Apabhraṃśa bards), as discussed in books such as the Chandonuśāsana, Kavidarpaṇa, Vṛttajātisamuccaya and Svayambhūchandas.—Kokila has 25 mātrās in each of their four lines, divided into groups of 4, 5, 5, 4, 3 (IS) mātrās.
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Cuckoo meat for departed souls
Dharmashastra (religious law)
Kokila (कोकिल) refers to “coeal”. The word is used throughout Dharmaśāstra literature such as the Manusmṛti. (See the Manubhāṣya, verse 8.250)
Kokila (कोकिल) refers to the bird “Cuckoo” (Eudynamys scolopacea enumerated in almost several Smṛtis in context of specifying the expiations for killing them and their flesh being used as a dietary article to give satisfaction to the manes (Pitṛs) in Śrāddha rites. These are elaborated especially in the Manusmṛti, Parāśarasmṛti [chapter VI], Gautamasmṛti [chapter 23], Śātātapasmṛti [II.54-56], Uśānasmṛti [IX.10-IX.12], Yājñavalkyasmṛti [I.172-I.175], Viṣṇusmṛti [51.28-51.29], Uttarāṅgirasasmṛti [X.16].
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—subham—
Tags Koel. Kuyil, Bharati, Andal, Manikkavasagar, Kuyil Pattu, Kuyil Paththu, Cuckoo, Kokila, in Hinduism , குயில் பாட்டு, குயில் பத்து , குயில்
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