Evolution of Poetic Tropes: Birds (3)

Harunaga Isaacson
May 6, 2020

Kāka

Among other names of the crow,1 the most common/important are 1

Dave, who devotes the first chapter
probably dhvāṃkṣa, vāyasa, and balibhuj. All of these may sometimes of his Birds in Sanskrit Literature to
‘Crows and their Allies’, writes (p. 1)
have been used also to refer to ravens, or other related birds. that the crow ‘enjoys the distinction of
having the largest number of names
A common and black bird, the crow’s reputation is generally not good;
and adnouns or epithets in the Sanskrit
he may look especially bad if set next to the (rāja)haṃsa. language’.

suaṇo ṇa dīsaï ccia khalabahule ḍaḍḍhajīaloammi|

jaha kāasaṃkulā taha ṇa haṃsaparivāriā puhavī|| 12 2
Sattasaī W 710.

He is bold enough though:

aho moho varākasya kākasya yad asau rasāt|

narīnarti sarīsarti samīpe śikhihaṃsayoḥ|| 23 3
Sūktimuktāvalī kākapaddhati 1. There are
some variants in other sources for this
verse (for which see Mahāsubhāṣitasaṃ-
Kāka and Kokila Even more common than the contrast between graha 4182; the readings chosen in the
crow and haṃsa is perhaps that between crow and koel (Indian cuckoo). Mahāsubhāṣitasaṃgraha are incidentally
not the best) The most noteworthy ones
The birds are similar in appearance, both black; the crow is the bird in are puraḥ or muhuḥ for rasāt.
which the koel, who is well known as parabhṛta, most commonly lays its
eggs. The sounds the birds make, however, could not be more different.

ā jananād ā maraṇād abhyasyatu vāyasas tapasyatu vā|

ekām api kākalikāṃ kokilakānteva nākalayet|| 34 4
Kalya Lakṣmīnṛsiṃha’s Kavikaumudī
1.17. This is a verse by a late (18th
Better it would be, therefore, for himself too, if the crow would learn to century) poet, which I have chosen
because I find it quite charming; there
hold his tongue! are quite a few older verses with more
or less the same idea.
kāka tvaṃ phalanamram āmravipinaṃ daivāt samāsādayan
kiṃ karṇau badhirīkaroṣi paruṣaiḥ kreṃkārakolāhalaiḥ|
maunaṃ ced avalambase ratabharaprakrāntapuṃskokila-
bhrāntyāpi tvayi saṃcaranti na kathaṃ mugdhākaṭākṣaccha-
ṭāḥ|| 45 5
Sūktimutāvalī kākapaddhati 4, attributed
to Haribhaṭṭa; apparently not findable
in the Jātakamālā of that great early
Eater of O fferings, Ill-Omened Bird The name balibhuj, men- (perhaps contemporary with Kālidāsa)
tioned already above, refers to the fact that food-offerings are made Buddhist poet.

to crows, including offerings of rice-balls intended to nourish the an-

cestors (pitṛs). An aetiology of this practice is given in a story told in
the Uttarakāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa (7.18, see in particular 7.18.23–26),
in which Yama, speaking to the crow, grants, among other boons, that
the men dwelling in Yama’s realm, i.e. the dead, will become satiated
 evolution of poetic tropes: birds (3) 2

when the crow has eaten food. This feeding of crows is thus related to
the bird’s association with death and the dead; and that in turn can be
related to the crow’s being, for the most part (there are exceptions), a
bird of ill-omen. It regularly appears in the context of love-separation,
especially in a trope of the lady whose husband is away on business
feeding, sometimes while speaking to, the crow(s). The following
verse is attributed to Dhoyīka (= Dhoyī), one of the great poets at Lakṣ-
maṇasena’s court.

yat puṣṇāsi pikān akāraṇaripūn adhvanyavāmabhruvāṃ

yac cāchidya baliṃ vilumpasi karāt sarvaṃ sahiṣye tava|
haṃho madvacanād itas tvayi gate śākhāntaraṃ vāyasa
kṣemeṇādya samāgamiṣyati sa cet kāntaś ciraṃ proṣitaḥ|| 56 6
Saduktikarṇāmṛta 769.

One-eyed; Son of Indra Among the crow’s names is also kāṇa,

‘one-eyed’. No doubt one generally sees only one eye of a crow at a
time, and the way that they tilt their heads to look at things might en-
courage the fancy that a single eyeball might roll from one side to the
other. The kākākṣigolakanyāya, ‘maxim/principle of the crow’s eyeball’,
is probably familiar to anyone who has read substantially in Sanskrit
commentary-literature; it is invoked when a word or phrase is taken as
connected simultaneously with what precedes and what follows it.
A story told, in not always completely clear fashion (and with some
textual problems), in the Rāmāyaṇa, the Padmapurāṇa, and Kālidāsa’s
Raghuvaṃśa, seems to be intended as an aetiological myth, explaining
the one-eyedness of the crow. Here is Kālidāsa’s brief version:

rāmo ’pi saha vaidehyā vane vanyena vartayan|

cacāra sānujaḥ śānto vṛddhekṣvākuvrataṃ yuvā|| 6
prabhāvastambhitacchāyam āśritaḥ sa vanaspatim|
kadācid aṅke sītāyāḥ śiśye kiṃcid iva śramāt|| 7
aindriḥ kila nakhais tasyā vidadāra stanau dvijaḥ|
priyopabhogacihneṣu paurobhāgyam ivācaran|| 87 7
Instead of these last two verses, some
sources have the following single one:
tasminn āsthad iṣīkāstraṃ rāmo rāmāvabodhitaḥ| mṛgamāṃsaṃ tataḥ sītāṃ rakṣantīm ātape
bhrāntaś ca mumuce tasmād ekanetravyayena saḥ|| 98 dhṛtam| pakṣatuṇḍanakhāghātair babādhe
vāyaso balāt||
8
Raghuvaṃśa 12.20–23.
Bird of Carrion The crow (an omnivorous bird) is also mentioned
sometimes in descriptions of battlefields as eating from the corpses
of the slain; never alone, as far as I can see, but together with bigger
birds and animals of carrion, such as vultures, jackals, etc. This trope is
already present in the Epics.