The Peacock as the Bird of Paradise: A Comparative Study

Abstract

era of the Indus Valley Civilization. Funerary urns of the “Late Harappan” Cemetery H culture reveal mythological ideas associated with peacocks: their role was to conduct souls to the other world. The peacock’s ability to kill and eat serpents and yet be immune to their poison gave rise to its link with immortality and rebirth. The pre-Aryan mythology of the peacock was passed down to the archaic worldview of early Indo-Aryans. The spread of soteriological religions that gave the highest value to the cessation of any rebirth relegated the image of the peacock as a psychopomp to India’s cultural margins. In Indian Classical poetry, the connection between peacocks and the rainy season comes to the fore, the peacock’s “dance” being associated with the renewal of life, fertility and the seasonal awakening of sexual desire. In Viṣṇuism, the peacock is a constant witness to Kṛiṣhṇa’s love games and it is present both in Gokula, the heavenly paradise, and in Vṛndāvana, the earthly one. In the middle of the 1st millennium BC, peacocks traveled to Greece via Persia and later to Rome. The mythology of the peacock that took shape in ancient Greece and Rome shared basic motifs with Indian archaic mythology. The peacock became a sacred bird linked with metemphsychosis ideas and the soul’s immortality. In the Roman Empire, a peacock was the bird of the Empress, while the eagle was a symbol of the Emperor. After the Empress’ death a peacock was thought to carry her up to heaven. Christianity turned the image of the peacock into an important symbol linked with the immortality of the soul, resurrection, the mystery of communion and bliss in paradise. The article seeks to identify factors that might have contributed to forming similar peacock mythologies in distant world regions where direct borrowing can be ruled out. K E Y W O R D S : peacock, psychopomp, paradise, Indian mythology, comparative mythology F O R C I T A T I O N : Vasilkov Ya. The Peacock as the Bird of Paradise: A Comparative Study. Etnografia. 2023. 2 (20): 74–92. (In English). doi 10.31250/2618-8600-2023-2(20)-74-92 75 Vasilkov Ya. The Peacock as the Bird of Paradise: A Comparative Study Я. В. Васильков Музей антропологии и этнографии им. Петра Великого (Кунсткамера) РАН Санкт-Петербург, Российская Федерация ORCID: 0000-0001-5508-5900 E-mail: yavass011@gmail.com Павлин как райская птица: сравнительное исследование А Н Н О Т А Ц И Я . В Индии павлин был одомашнен и экспортировался в Шумер еще в эпоху цивилизации долины Инда. Погребальные урны позднехараппской «культуры могильника эйч» раскрывают мифологические представления, связанные с павлинами: они изображены уносящими в иной мир души умерших. Способность павлина убивать и поедать змей, будучи невосприимчивым к их яду, породила символическую связь павлина с бессмертием и возрождением. Доарийская мифология павлина перешла в архаическое мировоззрение ранних индоариев. Распространение сотериологических религий, утверждавших в качестве высшей ценности прекращение всяких рождений, отодвинуло образ павлина как психопомпа на периферию индийской культуры. В индийской классической поэзии на первый план выходит связь между павлинами и сезоном дождей и «танец» павлина ассоциируется с обновлением жизни, плодородием и «сезонным» пробуждением сексуального влечения. В вишнуизме павлин является постоянным свидетелем любовных игр Кришны и присутствует как в Гокуле, небесном раю, так и во Вриндаване, земном. В середине I тысячелетия до н. э. павлины попали в Грецию через Персию, а затем в Рим. Мифология павлина, сформировавшаяся в Древней Греции и Риме, имела общие мотивы с представлениями индийской архаики. Павлин стал священной птицей, связанной с идеями метемпсихоза и бессмертия души. В Римской империи павлин был птицей императрицы, а орел — символом императора. Считалось, что после смерти императрицы павлин возносит ее на небо. Христианство превратило образ павлина в важный символ, связанный с бессмертием души, воскресением, таинством причастия и блаженством в раю. В статье предпринята попытка выявить факторы, которые могли способствовать формированию аналогичных мифологий павлина в отдаленных регионах мира, где прямое заимствование можно считать исключенным. К Л Ю Ч Е В Ы Е С Л О В А : павлин, психопомп, рай, индийская мифология, сравнительная мифология Д Л Я Ц И Т И Р О В А Н И Я : Vasilkov Ya. The Peacock as the Bird of Paradise: A Comparative Study. Этнография. 2023. 2 (20): 74–92. doi 10.31250/2618-8600-2023-2(20)-74-92 76 ЭТНОГРАФИЯ / ETNOGRAFIA. 2023. No 2 (20) On February 1, 1963, the Government of India declared the peacock a national bird of the country. There was a precedent in early Indian history: the peacock was a symbol of the Maurya dynasty that established the first pan-Indian empire. The name of the dynasty itself — Maurya — derived from the Prakrit and Sanskrit word mora meaning “peacock.” The Indian peacock, Pavo cristatus (crested), originally inhabited forests, but it was in constant danger from predators (tigers, wild dogs, etc.), which is why peafowls now tend to live in the vicinity of villages where they can feed on grain, beans and young shoots in cultivated fields. Peasants usually tolerated the damage to the fields and even protected these birds from violence on the part of foreigners: Alexander the Great forbade his men to kill peacocks (Karttunen 1997: 207), and much later, “many troubles between villagers and English soldiers out shooting arose from the ignorance of the latter of the veneration in which peacocks are held” (Kipling 1904: 41). The peacock has enjoyed the status of a sacred bird over millennia of Indian history, but it has changed over time, becoming sometimes higher, sometimes lower. We shall try in this article to trace the evolution of the peacock’s significance and to describe changes in mythological associations connected with the bird. The earliest images of peacocks are found in the rock paintings of the Bhimbetka complex (Madhya Pradesh state, Central India). They demonstrate that in the Neolithic era and later periods, people used peacock feathers for decoration, arrow making, etc. The image of a man pulling a feather from a peacock’s tail (fig. 1) is particularly noteworthy. Elsewhere we see a hunter with his bow aiming at a peacock sitting on the branch of a tree (Mathpal 1984: 20). There are no images of peacocks on seals from the Indus civilization. Still, there are several small terracotta figurines and almost incredibly, we can derive some information about peacocks in the Indus civilization from a written source. It is a Sumerian mythological epic, “Enki and the World Order,” written in 1800–1600 BC, but reflecting the reality of a much earlier period, around the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE, when Mesopotamia was engaged in intensive trade with the Indus civilization (Meluhha). In this text, the god Enki first addresses the countries of Mesopotamia, Sumer and Ur, then gives them his blessing and decrees their fate. Afterwards, he addresses the land of Meluhha, i. e., India, and decrees its fate, saying: “Black land, may your trees be great trees, may your forests be forests of highland mes trees! Chairs made from them will grace royal palaces! <...> May your bulls be great bulls, may they be bulls of the mountains! <...> May your birds all be peacocks [haya]! May their cries grace royal palaces!” (Enki and the World Order 1999; Maekawa and Mori 2011: 262; Parpola 2015: 217). Various kinds of wood from the foothills of the Himalayas, wooden furniture and Indian humped bulls (zebu) were among the main imports from Meluhha to Sumer; peacocks, as we shall discover, were also an important trade item. We may 77 Vasilkov Ya. The Peacock as the Bird of Paradise: A Comparative Study also conclude that in the 3rd mill. BCE, the peacock adorned royal palaces and gardens in Sumer and probably in India. The earliest information on mythological ideas connected with the peacock comes from paintings on mortuary urns from the “Late Harappan“ Cemetery H Culture (1900–1300 BC). Here we find images of peacocks; in one case, they are depicted as flying among the stars (Vats 1940, plate LXII 2, 3, 6). Small human figures are lying inside their bodies in a horizontal position (fig. 2). Specialists agree that the peacocks represented here are psychopomps, i. e., conductors of souls to the other world (Vats 1975: 207; Kadgaonkar 1993: 96; Mallory, Adams 1997: 102; Parpola 2015: 119). How did the peacock becоme linked with ideas of the heavenly world, new birth, or immortality? The peacock’s unique characteristic is that it can fight and eat snakes, and is believed to be immune to their poison. Ancient inhabitants of India were strongly impressed by this ability. On a ceramic vessel of the chalcolithic Navdatoli culture in Central India (Sankalia 1971: 183, fig. 7) a peacock is depicted holding a snake in its beak (fig. 3). The ability of peacocks to kill snakes was one reason why they were kept in royal gardens and parks over five millennia of Indian history. This idea of the peacock as accompanying the souls of the dead survived among Dravidian-speaking tribes in India (Maria Gonds and Khonds) until Fig. 1. Images of peacocks in Bhimbetka rock paintings. Public domain 78 ЭТНОГРАФИЯ / ETNOGRAFIA. 2023. No 2 (20) the modern period (Grigson 1938: 273; Thankappan Nair 1974: 160, 169; Parpola 2015: 186). The concept of the peacock as a psychopomp was borrowed from the Dravidians by the archaic culture of the Indo-Aryans. However in the Rigveda, which was created by the social group of priests, the peacock is mentioned only twice, as a measure of beauty: the horses of the god Indra are mayūraroman “whose hair is (like) a peacock’s” (RV 3. 45.1) and mayūra-śepya “those with peacock tails” (RV 8.1.25). The Vedic Aryans also took from the non-Aryan population the knowledge that peafowls can provide protection against snake venom. In a charm from the Atharvaveda (AV 7. 58.7) and in a h