Vultures and the sacred jackass

All week I have been thinking of vultures and donkeys

All week I have been thinking of vultures and donkeys. Vultures, because dying has become a marketable and profitable commodity for the celebrity business. Visit famous people when they are dying and it makes news, enabling the promotion of a cheesy comedy film. Until yesterday, this practice was restricted to politicians who swooped down in their helicopters when they learnt that hordes of journalists were covering areas afflicted by flood, drought, terrorism or war. No one wants to miss a photo opportunity.

Before we assume that the vulture is a terrible thing to be, we must remember that the vulture is the vehicle of Shani, the lord of the planet Saturn, the astrological force who delays all things and thus teaches everyone a lesson in patience. In Greek mythology, both Athena and Apollo are associated with vultures because these gods felt the bird was the noblest of all creatures. Vultures were also sacred in ancient Egypt; emblem of royalty. Known as the Pharaoh's hen, they were considered the only living creature on earth 'that do not hurt the living'.

When a celebrity grins at the camera over a dying man, some people think he is a jackass. Other celebrities take a headmaster-like objection to the word of the word 'jackass'. Jackass, I learnt in school, is a male donkey; the female donkey is called jenny ass. And like the vulture, the jackass has a very strong mythological reference.

In medieval times, court painters from North India had the habit of showing Ravana, king of Lanka, villain of The Ramayan, as having the head of a male donkey over his ten human heads. This practice is unique to miniature art. The donkey-head is supposed to indicate his stubbornness, as Ravan refused to part with Sita even after Ram and his monkey-army killed his sons and brothers and destroyed his kingdom of Lanka. A common punishment involves making a criminal ride through a village on a donkey. Ravana, the artists decided, deserved not even that, hence a donkey atop him!

In Greek mythology, Bacchus, god of wine, travels across the world on his donkey, inviting all merrymakers to join his party. In the Bible, Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday riding a donkey.

In Tantra, the donkey is the vehicle of a goddess called Kalaratri. She looks like the goddess Kali with hair open and dishevelled. She is described as being dark, fierce and naked. She rides the donkey at night. She is one of the Nava-durgas. Sometimes she is associated with Shitala, the goddess of fevers, who is also described as riding a donkey. In her hand she holds a winnow basket containing gram. These grams when scattered transform into pox pustules, which is why Shitala is the goddess of smallpox and other skin rashes.u00a0

What is most interesting about studying vultures and jackasses is how humans have given adjectives to animals. We judge them and associate them with positive and negative traits. This varies with culture. In another culture, in another time, the vulture is a positive animal and so is the male donkey. But for many today, vultures are vile and jackasses are just stupid.

Devdutt Pattanaik is a Mumbai-based mythologist who makes sacred stories, symbols and rituals relevant to modern times.u00a0 Reach him at devdutt@devdutt.comu00a0

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