(IN) Sacred Animals of India

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:

 

 

Sacred Animals of India

by Nanditha Krishna

C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre

(c/o C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation,

1 Eldams Road, Alwarpet,

Chennai 600 018, India), 2008.

Order c/o <www.ecoheritage.cpreec.org>.

244 pages, paperback, illustrated. $21.00 U.S.

 

 

" Sacred Animals of India was to have been

ready in time for the Asia for Animals conference

held in January 2007 at Chennai, " prefaces

author Nanditha Krishna. " However, when I began

researching the subject, I discovered a wealth

of material that was impossible to ignore. So I

decided not to rush, and to cover the subject in

greater depth. "

A prominent cultural anthropologist,

Nanditha Krishna had actually been researching

Sacred Animals of India, if not in a specific,

focused way, for most of her life. She is

author of many previous books on related

subjects, is a nationally distributed newspaper

columnist, is a longtime member of the board of

directors of the Central Zoo Authority in India,

and has served on the board of World Wildlife

Fund-India. Her husband is Blue Cross of India

chief executive Chinny Krishna. All of this

background informs Sacred Animals of India.

" The ancient religions of India--

Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, apart from

several sub-sects--have never differentiated

between the soul of a human being and the soul of

an animal, " Nanditha Krishna opens. Many and

perhaps most of the prominent people in Indian

history and mythology are believed to have had

multiple animal incarnations. Stories of their

animal past are often incorporated into their

biographies. The Buddha, for instance, is

believed to have been a white elephant before his

birth as the human prince Siddhartha, and to

have been a golden peacock and to have had 18

lives as a monkey before becoming the elephant.

" In Indian tradition there are several

types of roles assumed by animals, " Nanditha

Krishna explains. " First, there are those who

are gods themselves: the elephant god Ganesha

and the monkey god Hanuman are the better known

ones, although animals like the tiger and the

blackbuck are equally sacred in their local

milieu. The qualities of the animals are assumed

by the animal deity, and an elaborate mythology

built around them.

" Then there are the vahanas or vehicles

of the gods, " who " may be equals, inferiors,

or companions. Some like the bull and eagle

started off as equal companions of Shiva and

Vishnu, respectively, although they were

relegated to minor roles as the cults of Shiva

and Vishnu grew. Many were probably totemic

figures who acquired a lower position as they

were absorbed by the wider Hindu pantheon. The

totemic tradition was more widespread than is

generally perceived, " Naditha Krishna notes,

pointing out the animal origins of many common

Indian names.

" The third role played by animals is as

friend and companion, " Nanditha Krishna

continues, observing that many Indian

mythological figures had animals in roles filled

in other cultures by human associates--and many

also had at least one dog.

" Some animals were regarded as demons.

This is best illustrated by Mahisha the buffalo

demon, ruler of ancient Mysore, who was

defeated in a terrible battle by Durga, " a myth

embodying the conflict between herders and

agrarians. The herders lost. Their god became a

demon, " but Mah-isha lives on, " Nanditha

Krishna mentions, as the buffalo god of several

tribal minorities.

Being regarded as a sacred animal helps

to protect some species, but not always.

" In many Indian societies, especially in the

rural parts of the country, " Nanditha Krishna

explains, " animals are sacrificed to deities.

Each slaughtered animal receives divine honors, "

but this is of little value in preventing animal

suffering.

On the other hand, some reformers have

succeeded in persuading practitioners of animal

sacrifice that slaughter is not an essential part

of veneration. Most of the animals who are

today protected by Hindu, Buddhist, and/or Jain

tradition were once commonly sacrificed,

including cows in early Vedic times.

Abolishing animal sacrifice and

meat-eating were among the earliest themes in

recorded Indian history.

" A unique aspect of Indian culture is its

abhorrence for killing very early in its

development, " Nanditha Krishna writes.

" Although the Aryas, " who were among the

earliest literate Indians, arriving around 1,500

B.C., " were not vegetarians, the concept of

non-killing enters Indian thought process very

early. The earliest literature, the Rig Veda,

condemns all forms of killing, even for food,

even to the extent of preferring vegans to

drinkers of milk. "

Indian cultural evolution has centered on

conflicts between meat-eaters and vegetarians

ever since. Examples include the development and

divisions of castes, which are differentiated by

diet as well as ancestry and traditional

occupations; the anti-sacrificial movements that

became Buddhism and Jainism; and resistance to

meat-eating foreign influences, including

invasions by Muslims and governance by Britain.

Sacred Animals of India could conceivably

be expanded into an encyclopedic history of

animals in Indian culture, especially by delving

further into regional nuances which Nanditha

Krishna mentions mostly in passing. As it

stands, Sacred Animals of India is a succinct

introduction, briefly outlining the beliefs

associated with 52 species, noting major

variations of belief and associated

controversies, but not lingering long on any one

topic.

In the beginning

The opening chapter, to a non-Indian,

can be a bit like landing in India as a

first-time visitor. Few of the polysyllabic

names will be familiar. Allusions to characters

and legends known to almost every Indian, but

little known elsewhere, come with dizzying

frequency. The alphabetical organization of the

book doesn't help, since several species of

relatively minor significance are introduced

ahead of those whose chapters help to put the

rest in context.

In view of the competing beliefs of

adherents to different branches of Hinduism,

organizing Sacred Animals of India alphabetically

may have been unavoidable to avoid offense, but

non-Indian readers will probably find it easier

to read if they begin with the mid-text chapters

on cows and Lord Krishna, Ganesha and elephants,

and Hanuman and monkeys, including the story of

Rama.

" The true hero of the Ramayana is

Hanuman, " Nanditha Krishna writes, " who is

flawless, with superhuman skill which he uses

for the triumph of truth and goodness and the

destruction of evil represented by demons. So

popular is Hanuman that he and his exploits have

been held up as role models through centuries, "

and is even credited as " the ninth author of

grammar. "

Once these relatively universal stories

are understood, the rest sort themselves out.

Indian mythology is not really unfathomable

chaos, contrary to initial impression. The

mythical and historical roles of animal species

ubiquitous to the subcontinent are among the

links that hold the otherwise bewildering

variations of Hindu identity together.

Explanations of Hinduism typically begin

with a shared belief in reincarnation, but could

as easily begin with a structure that for

thousands of years has enabled the mainstream to

assimilate minority beliefs by grafting their

teachings into shared mythology. Roles have been

found for each totemic species in the stories of

Krishna, Ganesha, Hanuman, and Rama,

reflective of the roles and status of the people

who venerate the totems.

Along the way, Hinduism has shared or

absorbed huge portions of the mythology of other

cultures. Nanditha Krishna frequently notes

parallels with Zoroastrian traditions native to

Persia, and some similarities to Egyptian

beliefs emerging in early pharonic times. The

Biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood

appears in Vedic literature as the story of Manu,

and in a variant, the story of Satyavrata. The

role of the dove in the Biblical version belongs

to the blood pheasant (so-named for coloration)

among the Lepcha people of Sikkim.

The apparent migration of mythology from

the Middle East through Central Asia to India is

consistent with the evidence that India was

peopled by successive invasions from the west,

as well as with the importance in more recent

times of two-way trade between India and the

Middle East.

There are hints, which Nanditha Krishna

does not explore, that some of the myths

underlying Hinduism were carried farther to the

east and then north, in very early times, by

ancestors of the people who eventually inhabited

the Americas. The role of the tortoise who swims

with a mountain on his back during the " churning

of the oceans, " a creation story, closely

parallels the Native American belief that the

earth is carried on the back of a giant sea

turtle. The stories of Garuda, the great

raptor, and Naga, the snake, resemble Navajo

and Hopi myths, and have similar variations in

interpretation among tribes of conflicting totems.

The major point of interest in cultural

teachings about animals from an animal advocacy

perspective is the potential use of popular

stories as a foundation for advancing the general

idea that animals should be kindly treated, and

where possible, advancing specific prohibitions

of cruelty.

 

Relevance today

 

Nanditha Krisha notes many examples where

the treatment of supposedly sacred animals is at

odds with their divine status. " India had a rich

tradition of respecting all life forms, " her

preface concludes. " This respect has been

destroyed: we have lost our ancient traditions

without replacing them with anything similar or

better. Unless we protect our wildlife from

hunting and extinction, and our domestic animals

from cruelty, we are not fit to call ourselves

educated, or even a people who inherited a great

legacy of ahimsa or non-violence. "

A less pessimistic view would be that as

India modernizes and becomes better-educated,

teachings about animal divinity are evolving in a

manner gradually replacing empty ritual with more

meaningful measures to prevent cruelty and

protect habitat.

For example, the ancient concepts of the

roles of temples, gaushalas (cow shelters), and

sacred groves provide the cultural basis for

establishing charity animal hospitals, shelters,

and protected nature areas. Temples meanwhile

mostly long ago ceased functioning as

quasi-shelters, hospitals, and hospices, many

gaushalas have become commercial dairies barely

pretending to shelter any cattle in need, and

ancient sacred groves guarded by custom rather

than law may now be just a few trees shading

outdoor markets.

In ancient times, the wisest and

best-educated Indians might have recognized the

ecological value of protecting snakes and the

economic value of protecting cattle, but even

when these ideas were accepted by the public,

they tended to take self-contradictory forms.

Two examples still commonly seen are

" worshipping " snakes by giving them milk, often

by lethal force, and leaving surplus bull calves

to starve or dehydrate as temple " offerings, "

rather than kill any bovine.

Re-educating Indians to practice

authentic kindness toward animals, sacred or

otherwise, requires breaking traditions that

were always at odds with their intent, on the

one hand, and introducing more appropriate

practices on the other.

The present is a time of transition, in

which many old beliefs and practices are visibly

eroding, while their replacements have yet to

take hold firmly enough to discourage such

excesses as animal sacrifice made possible on an

unprecedented scale by the advent of trucks to

deliver more animals to the altars, from farther

away.

Nanditha Krishna mentions in passing the

good-humored aspect of Ganesha, and the comic

notion that his steed is a mouse, or in some

regional variants of his story, a rat.

Discussing humor in religion can be a

particularly sensitive issue because of the

seriousness with which devotees often take their

beliefs, to the point that even mentioning that

major religious figures used comic metaphors and

made puns tends to be disputed. Depicting

religious figures in cartoons--most recently but

not exclusively Mohammed--has provoked deadly

riots.

Yet humor of the ironic, slapstick, and

self-effacing varieties figures prominently in

the stories of many species considered sacred in

India, including in some traditions which appear

to emphasize the importance of kindness over

ritual, even if these traditions originally had

another meaning.

For instance, Nanditha Krishna writes,

" In the town of Deshnoke, in Rajasthan, the

Karni Mata temple is devoted to the worship of

rats. The 600-year-old temple is dedicated to

Karni Mata, a famous mystic of her times,

believed to be an incarnation of goddess DurgaŠIt

is believed that the rats will reincarnate as

sadhus or holy men in their next birth. "

Eccentric as the Karni Mata temple practices are,

they remind visitors that no animal is unworthy

of kindness, and that no human, however

exalted, is above kinship to the humblest and

most reviled of animals.

--Merritt Clifton

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

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