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Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
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Egyptian Vulture

"Amma, that is a vulture!!" Excited shouts like these are common with Samhith when we are on the road.... The only thing is, he has an hyperactive imagination, which turns crows into eagles and kites into vultures! However, we have an arrangement. If he sees anything interesting, I am to stop and pay attention, and if I tell him I want to show him something, he does the same. And so we stopped by the roadside to take a closer look at a bird perched on a boulder.





This was somewhere near Mysore, and having seen so many birds along the way, excitement was high, and only increased when we realized that yes, indeed it was a vulture!!!



The Egyptian Vulture is found across Southwestern Europe and Northern Africa to India. At one time, it must have been a common sight, but today, the numbers have greatly reduced, and are further dwindling by the day.



My knowledge of birds in general and vultures in particular is rather sketchy, but a quick read on Wikipedia brought forth a bit of interesting information. Such as, the fact that the bird was considered sacred in Egyptian mythology, and was thus protected, and common on the streets of Egypt during the period  of the Pharaohs, giving it the name 'Pharoah's Chicken!" 



This seems to be an opportunistic bird, feeding mostly on carrion, like other vultures, but also preying on small mammals, birds and reptiles when the opportunity beckons! They also apparently feed on eggs of other birds, ingeniously breaking the larger ones by tossing pebbles on them to break the shell!

Even while we stopped and enjoyed our first sighting of the vulture, the only thing that I could think of, was the Diclofenac poisoning that had endangered these birds. I don't think anything brings out the poignancy of the situation faced by these birds better than this cartoon by Rohan Chakravarty of Green Humour. I have been reading and enjoying Rohan's blog and his cartoons and caricatures for a long time now, and I  think some of you might enjoy it too! 

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Comments

  1. AmritaOctober 15, 2013 at 2:42 PM

    Great photos :) and thanks for the link to Green Humour

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anuradha ShankarOctober 15, 2013 at 6:12 PM

      Thank you Amrita! and glad to have introduced you to Green Humour

      Delete
  2. Prasad NpOctober 16, 2013 at 12:21 PM

    Egyptian vultures are majestic birds, I first clicked them in Tal Chapar...Fortunately with the complete ban on diclofenac they are slowly coming back. But it will be another 50 years before vultures reach even 30% of the original population....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anuradha ShankarOctober 18, 2013 at 3:58 PM

      so true, Prasad. its certainly good that they are increasing in numbers once again,but the process is a slow one and we can only hope that nothing else affects it!

      Delete
  3. P.N. SubramanianOctober 16, 2013 at 5:57 PM

    Yes, as you said vultures in general are near extinction. Special programs have been launched at different place. Sighting of an Egyptian vulture is definitely rare and I congratulate you. Nice pictures from different angles.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UshaOctober 17, 2013 at 1:27 PM

    It is indeed exciting to spot a vulture! I am totally with Samhith on this one :) You should have seen me when I spotted a Shikra on the tree outside my window. But of course it flew away by the time I fished out my camera :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anuradha ShankarOctober 18, 2013 at 4:00 PM

      I can imagine, Usha.. and did u know that the bird interest in the bldg is growing? shekar takes pics of birds too....

      Delete
  5. AayuOctober 18, 2013 at 1:46 AM

    http://tinyurl.com/workid/?id=Aayu

    ReplyDelete

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