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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
"द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नत्रन्यो प्रभिचाकशीति ॥ यत्ना सुपर्णा प्रमृतस्य भागमनिमेषं विदथाभिस्वरन्ति इनो विश्वस्य भुवनस्य गोपाः स मा धीरः पाकमनाविवेश ।। यस्मिन्वृक्षे मध्वदः सुपर्णा निविशन्ते सुवते चाधिविश्वे
तस्येदाहुः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वग्रे तन्त्रोत्रशद्यः पितरं न वेद ॥ On the high probability of a pair of Orioles sharing a bunyan or peepul tree with a pair of Eagles I cannot do better than reproduce Col. D. Radcliff's remarks quoted by Hume in his book, Nests and Eggs, 2nd. ed. - "It is always the case with the larger Falcons that their fellow tenants of a rock or a tree are safe from molestation and in the breeding season actually look to them for protection.” That birds of prey permit smaller birds to nest in close proximity to themselves including even those on which they normally prey is now acknowledged to be almost a universal fact (S. Baker on the Lagger Falcon in F.B.I. 2nd Edn.). The Golden Eagle has been known occasionally to place its nest on a tree there is reason to believe that in the long past he did more often than now, for one of his oldest names is chat or 21167heit (nesting on Bombax malabaricum):
"सु शू पर्वण्यवसानं महाद्रौ कृत्वा नीडं शल्मलौ तं महान्तम् गुरुत्मन्तं गरुडं वैनतैयं पतत्निराजमवसे जोहवीमी ॥"
Suparnadhyaya, 31.1 The Imperial, the Steppe and the Tawny Eagles breed as a rule on trees including the peepul in the plains of North India and everyone of them is a quf in the wider sense of the word. It is, therefore, more than probable, any, almost a certainty, that the author of the above verses had not only seen a pair each of Eagles and Orioles nesting together in a peepul but had also observed how the Eagles kept away all marauders from the tree and the Orioles were happy under the protection thus afforded to them. These facts combined with the grandeur of the tall, leafy tree laden with fruit brought to his vivid imagination the similar situation obtaining before weak and dependent humans and their heavenly protector, and he, therefore, proceeded to illustrate the great spiritual truth with a parable drawn from nature.
With the growth of the civilisation and culture of the city as against the earlier life of farm and village even the learned Brahmanas lost touch with nature and forgot the names and identity of many of the birds so beloved of their early ancestors. This divorce between the city, which now became the principal seat of learning, and the village was completed long before the time of Hero 6 (c. 700 to 1000 B.C.), for he too does not say what exactly were the two particular birds mentioned in these verses. He and his successors, commentators including Hruari, undoubtedly knew that qyuf was an Eagle, but their difficulty was about the second fruit eating qyuf and they, therefore, interpreted the verses in the best way they could. The air was already thick at the time with Upanisadic speculation and philosophy of the 3T4 and
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HIVU: 4. 24, vis 3-8,
sal. 200C - HL, 2004
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