You Can Also Talk About Donkey During Navarathri

Yesterday as I was entering the lane of Electricity Board and saw two donkeys fighting with each other on the road.A rare sight in the city!
I thought of the year 1969 when my daughter was born in our village.Soon on birth she developed some red rashes throughout the body and as per medical books, it will automatically vanish. But my neighbour mami insisted that the child should be given a spoonful of donkey's blood, which I resisted.The arguments continued for three days.The baby became alright by then.
Donkeys are often referred to in books of all religions, the Hindu, Islam and Christianity.
Devi Kalarathri's( a form of Durga) donkey as her vaahana.Donkeys appear in hitopadesh and panchatantra stories also.
Kalarathri is the seventh of the nine Durgas
There is yet another form of Durga named'Shitala mounted on the Donkey vahana.
"Shitala is represented as a young maiden crowned with a winnowing-fan, riding a donkey, holding a short broom (either to spread or dust off germs) and a pot full of pulses (the viruses) or cold water (a healing tool). Among Hindus residing in interior villages and tribal communities, she is represented with slab-stones or carved heads. Sometimes, she is said to be carrying a bunch of neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves, a medicinal herb used throughout India since ancient times that is believed by some to be an effective remedy to most skin diseases to this day."
Shitala Devi (Fighter of fever and other maladies)


Note the broom on the right hand which may signify the need to keep your place clean to avoid all diseases and a pot of medicine on the other hand.
Near Kumbakonam in Valangaiman there is a temple for Sheetala Devi. The main prarthana in the temple is strange. If someone falls seriously ill,they make a vow to the goddess.As soon as the patient is cured and becomes normal, he/she is treated as a dead person and taken to the temple in the form of corpse mounted on bamboo poles covered with green coconut sheaths.( known as 'paadai' in Tamil 'With conches and chest beats taken to the temple and placed before the sannihi.on a particular day, i don't remember when, hundreds of such alive corpses arrive.The people believe that for the patient it is a rebirth due to SHeetala's Grace and may not suffer any disease afterwards.
The donkey is the symbol of the Egyptian Sun god Ra and the Greek God Dionysus.Donkeys find a place on many occasions in the Bible.
Leading, saddling ,mounting/dismounting denote a change in focus
Some believers came to see the Cross shaped marking present on the donkey's back as
a symbol of the animal's bearing Jesus into Jerusalem.
Donkeys are generally portrayed as stupid and stubborn.
G. K. Chesterton's poem on donkey is popular in the West.Shakespeare popularized the word'ass' representing stupidity.Later there is a positivity of 'sincerity'as portrayed in later works as a symbol of patience and perseverance.
In modern management Text books the donkey is portrayed as a paragon of crisis management, transforming threats into opportunities.The story is about a donkey which is thrown into the well and covered by heaps of mud,uses the same mud as the stepping stone and comes out of the well.
There are many phrases and proverbs about donkey.
"to talk the hind legs off a donkey'-refers to a person talking excessively and persuasively.
Buridon's Ass -A donkey is placed exactly between water and food would die of hunger and thirst because of its indecision as to whether to take food or water.( I think many human beings also can be termed 'buridon's Ass' if they lose the opportunities when there are too many choices.
The famous Italian phrase'women,donkeys and goats have heads' to denote the stubborn nature of women.
Donkey also comes to politics.A " Donkey Vote" is a vote that simply writes down preferences in the order of candidates-1 at the top, then 2 and so on and is most often seen in countries with preferential voting such as Australia.
The donkey is a common symbol of The Democratic Party of the US.In 1828 the symbol was introduced when Mr.Jackson was contesting.His opponents called him a 'jackass' as an insult. But he embraced the symbol to present himself as strong willed and determined.
In South India there is a belief that seeing donkey is a bad omen, but listening to its
cries is auspicious.In our village, when the bray of the donkey is heard people would go inside and lock themselves so the braying donkey may not be seen.
Many condemn the donkey's voice.If any performer has a husky voice he is often criticized as 'like the donkey singing Kamboji ragam;( kazhuthai kambothi.
I read in a book "On careful observation of a donkey while braying( notwithstanding bad omen)it is proved that the donkey's unique voice is due to the fact that it makes noise while exhaling and inhaling while every one else including human beings make noise while exhaling only and that makes a donkey enormously unique!"
Only ENT specialists have to give clarification on this point.
Tail piece
"Human snoring ,on account of which many marriages have failed is like another form of donkey's bray,.Google Guru reports
"Snoring usually occurs on inhalation but can also occur during exhalation. Snoring can occur during exclusive nasal breathing, exclusive oral breathing, or during combined oro nasal breathing. Snoring can occur during apneas, hypopneas, UARS (upper airway resistance syndrome), or non-apneic sleep."

Vathsala Jayaraman-M 170

 

Thank you joylokhi.
jayasala 42

 

Thank you Thyagarajan Sir.
There is a popular saying 'vannaanukku vannaththi mele aasai. Vannaaththikku kazhuthai mele asai.kazhuthaikku yaar mele aasai?

On many occasions I have thought about this proverb?
Amma used to say" We should not degrade kazhuthai'
She used to naarrate the story of Bhartruhari for example.Here it is.

There was a king ruling the city of Ujjaini, situated in the middle of present day India. BhartruHari was a wise and loving ruler, but his mind was always on Love and Romance, he had around 100 beautiful women for his wives as stories say, obviously there wasn't much time left for him to look after the Kingdom, his younger step-brother Vikramaditya (who is famously known, Indian calendar system which is still used was found during his era) was looking after the whole of kingdom, and was unhappy with his brother for not taking responsibilities.

Bhartruhari was so much immersed in romance and sex, that he wrote 100 stanzas on 'the art of romance and sex', now famously called 'Shrungara Shataka'. All the stanzas are on sensuality and sexual pleasure.

King Bhartruhari was obsessed with his youngest wife Pingala, she was beautiful and charming. Once king's brother complained to the king about the affair of queen with king's charioteer and advised him to banish her for the sake of the kingdom. King was too obsessed with her to heed to his brother, in fact when the queen heard of this from her sources, she manipulated the king and banished his brother from the kingdom

One day a yogi came to his court and presented the king with an apple, which he said would bless one with 'youth and longevity' on eating (stories say that the ascetic got the apple as a boon from the gods and that the apple was from the Kalpavruksha- 'wish fulfilling tree').

The king wanted queen Pingala to have the apple, so that she would always look young for him.

Queen Pingala gave the apple to the charioteer. She wanted him to be young and strong.

The charioteer was in love with a prostitute, he gave her the apple to eat.

The prostitute thought 'it would be better if someone deserving ate this', she always liked the king, he was noble and pious, his long living also meant the peace and stability of her kingdom, so she took the apple to the king and give it to him.

King Bhartuhari was surprised to see the apple with her, and enquired how she got it. She told him how she got it from the charioteer, king sent men to bring the charioteer, he told the king that he got it from the queen, and confessed of his affair with the queen.

Bhartruhari realized the fleeting nature of the pleasure from worldly objects, he wrote a poem about the incident which changed him in his Niti Shataka. (100 stanzas on Moral conduct)

"(She) whom on I contemplate, is not passionate for me, she loves another;
that whom she loves, loves another;
One whom he loves, loves another.
Refuse (disdain to) that woman, that man, Cupid, me."

Deep Vairagya (dispassion) arose in him, he gave up the desire for his wife, realizing his mistake he brought his brother back and crowned him, renouncing the world he lived rest of his life as an ascetic. Bhartruhari wrote Niti-Shataka and Vairagya Shataka during his later years.

Amma used to compare the prostitute to donkey , who was treated with contempt by one all for her profession.But she had good intention that only if the king lives long, people could live happily.Actually hers was the most worthy selfless intention.
How is it? No wonder I thought of kazhuthai during navarathri.

Jayasala 42




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