Birth
Month Special Article
The
Animal World of Satyajit Ray, Rabindranath Tagore and Gautam Buddha
Meghna
‘Phoenix’ Ghatak
Since our
beloved Indian Prime Minister talks of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (Self dependent India)
as a means to revive the fallen economy during the COVID-19 epidemic, Pawcept
brings you a native reading list for the quarantine to read on the animal world.
This month began
with the birth anniversary of three important Indian animal lovers – the Oscar
winner Satyajit Ray on May 2nd, the Nobel winner Rabindranath Tagore
on May 7th and the enlightenment winner Gautam Buddha again on May 7th.
While the initial two were Bengali writers of children’s fiction who have been almost
entirely translated into English, Buddha’s biography has also been a source of
inspiration for many children. Talking of children’s fiction, animals have been
an indivisible part of many of these, for it has been found that animals with
mystic powers (such as those found in fables) are a favorite of the children.
It is amazing that the animals featuring in these stories tend to awe inspire
generations of readers. For the adults who have grown up devouring the short
stories of these three, and also those who haven’t had a chance, here are the prominent
stories of these legends featuring animals.
1. Asamanja
babur Kukur (Mr. Asamanja’s Dog) by Satyajit Ray – this one is my favourite
so obviously I began with it. In the
story, a lonely man aptly named Asamanja (confused) buys a strange mongrel pup
while grocery shopping. As the mongrel grows up, Asamanja babu realizes that
the dog laughed at hilarious situational instances such as when he fell down
his chair or a man was toppled by wind. He even gets the dog checked by a vet
but he doesn’t get any answers. As the news reluctantly spread, the dog found
many buyers but Asamanja babu couldn’t be convinced to sell him as he had
formed a unique bond with the dog. The story is simple and unrealistic but
witty and funny and teaches us a very essential lesson – not to abandon them
for any reason whatsoever.
If you understand Bengali, catch the audio freely available on YouTube in
Mirchi Bangla’s May 2018 episode of Sunday Suspense or simply read the English
version from any collected short stories eBook available freely on the
internet.
2. Bisarjan (Sacrifice) by Rabindra Nath Tagore – this is a
less celebrated drama by the Nobel laureate but a gem nonetheless. The drama
begins with an opposition on animal sacrifice in a temple of Goddess Kali in
Tripura. A beggar girl’s pet goat has been brought to the temple for forceful
sacrifice and she debates with Jaisingh, the servant of the temple, as to how
could the goddess who is also a mother, take delight in the murder of an
innocent animal child. Govinda, the king cannot answer as to whose rule it is
to allow the sacrifice – the gods or the men, so he forbids the ritual of
animal sacrifice, much to the displeasure of his court who believe in the
ancient laws laid down in the scriptures. The king is about to be executed for
his revolt in a political game of power similar to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar but Jaisingh sacrifices
himself in front of the goddess to satisfy her blood lust as stated by the
priests. The drama concludes with the ideology that the goddess ‘has burst her
cruel prison of stone and come back to woman’s heart’.
The entire English translation of the play can be found freely available
to read on Tagoreweb.in.
3. The Jataka Tales – while there are major
moral science lessons in the form of fables, the stories in this book basically
comprises of the previous lives of Gautam Buddha. Many fables with animals in
them have found their way in Panchatantra
for they are of similar nature. Hence there are familiar stories such as
that of the Golden Mallard where Buddha
was reborn as a mallard with golden feathers after living as a father of three
daughters. The mallard would give his previous wife and daughters, his golden
feathers one at a time to support themselves when the wife got greedy and took
all his feathers. Bereft of his golden feathers, he leaves the greedy wife to
fend for herself. More such lessons are hidden in the fable stories such as
that of The Timid Hare and the Flight of
the Beasts where species upon species of animals start a stampede at the
false notion of a single hare regarding the end of the world. Buddha in this
story was born as a lion and he digs deeper into the grapevine communication
and finds out the exact truth, saving the beasts from utter chaos.
Again, the entire English translation is freely available online to read
this lockdown at www.pitt.edu, a selection edited by D.L Ashliman, University
of Pittsburg, under the hyperlink of Jataka Tales.
Now that we are trying to be ‘Atmanirbhar’ (Self- dependent), let’s
remember other poets who were born in the month of May and have penned wondrous
tales in native Indian languages. Don’t forget to search for the literature of
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Kazi Nasrul Islam, SumitraNandan Pant, Aatreya,
Suddhananda Bharati, Anna Sujatha Mathai and many more who have almost
completely been translated into either Hindi or English. Can we not emerge out
of all the lock downs much more literate and wise in our own native stories to
dig for inspiration?
It is too good to know about Atmanirbhar Bharat.
ReplyDeleteGreat Information!! ✌
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing animal world article. you will book a taxi for Jaipur sightseeing tour.
ReplyDelete