Animal Einsteins: Amazing Intelligence of Creatures in Nature

By London Swaminathan

People show great interest in animal stories and anecdotes. Newspapers also publish incredible stories about animals and birds now and then; but they are not new. Even poets of Tamil and Sanskrit literature have recorded what they saw in real life. The poets used some of them as similes and others in their poems. From Vedic days Hindus have been observing nature and used them to teach lessons to people; There are several Subhasitas (golden sayings) in Sanskrit using animals.

I have collected lot of such stories from literature and newspapers; bird omens are also believed in many cultures. Some birds like Bhulinga, Kulinga and Homa are yet to be identified and they may have become extinct. Hindus are unique in carrying gods on idols of animals and birds. It shows their continuous interest in living beings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pustaka Digital Media
• Release date: Sep 3, 2022
• ISBN: 6580553508999

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Animal Einsteins: Amazing Intelligence of Creatures in Nature

Author:

London Swaminathan

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Table of Contents

FOREWORD

1. Animal Einsteins in Sanskrit and Tamil literature

2. Animal Einsteins- Part 2

3. Dogs at Sringeri and Kanchi Mutts

4. The Mysterious Vedic Homa Bird: Does It Exist?

5. Strange Bird in Mahabharata: Bhulinga Bird!

6. Strange Bird Stories in Mahabharata!

7. Hindu Eagle Mystery deepens

8. Eagle/Garuda in India, Rome and Sri Lanka

9. Four Birds in One Sloka: Adi Sankara and Nature

10. What can a Parrot Teach You?

11. Murder mystery is solved by A Parrot!

12. Story of a Persian Parrot! When your Ego dies, You are Free!

13. Two Stories: Guru and Parrot; Guru and Birds

14. IF MY BROTHER CALLS, I WILL FLY BACK HOME

15. ORIGIN OF ANIMAL FABLES AND SIGNATURES IN KRITIS/SONGS

16. Sibi Story in Old Tamil Literature!

17. Animals in Buddha’s Dhammapada (Post No 2851)

18. Animals in the Bhagavad Gita!

19. Amazing Animal Lesson in Atharvana Veda (Post No.10,393)

20. Animals in Manu Smrti!

21. CAMEL MYSTERY IN SANSKRIT AND TAMIL LITERATURE- Part 1 (Post No.5291)

22. CAMELS IN PANINI, MANU AND MAHABHARATA (Post No.5294)

23. Thirteen Saints in Nature!

24. The Connection between William Wordsworth and Dattatreya

25. Alexander’s Horse and Dog

26. Businessman- born as Cow, Dog and Snake before got liberated!

27. Twenty Qualities for Success: Chanakya’s Strange Advice

28. Ode to Sky Lark: Shelley, Kalidasa and Vedic Poet Grtsamada

Published Works

Over 7000 articles in English and Tamil and 30 Tamil and English Books

Previous Books in English:

1. Famous Trees of India

2. Is Brahmastra a Nuclear Weapon?

3. Amazing Time Travel by Hindu Saints

4. Did Indians build Pyramids?

5. Interesting Anecdotes from the World of Music

6. ALL ABOUT DRAVIDAS, TAMIL SANGAMS,

KUMARIK KANDAM AND TOLKAPPIAM

7. STORIES OF TAMIL DEVADASIS & DANCE DRAMAS IN RIG VEDA

8. KALIDASA’S SIMILES IN SANGAM TAMIL LITERATURE: NEW CLUE TO FIX HIS AGE

9. BIRDS AND GODS- OMENS, VAHANAS AND STRANGE STORIES FROM HINDU SCRIPTURES

FOREWORD

People show great interest in animal stories and anecdotes. Newspapers also publish incredible stories about animals and birds now and then; but they are not new. Even poets of Tamil and Sanskrit literature have recorded what they saw in real life. The poets used some of them as similes and others in their poems. From Vedic days Hindus have been observing naure and used them to teach lessons to people; There are several Subhasitas (golden sayings) in Sanskrit using animals. I have collected lot of such stories from literature and newspapers; bird omens are also believed in many cultures. Some birds like Bhulinga, Kulinga and Homa are yet to be identified and they may have become extinct. Hindus are unique in carrying gods on idols of animals and birds. It shows their continuous interest in living beings. This book is a sequel to my first book Birds and Gods- Omens, Vahanas and Strange Stories. These were published in my two blogs over ten years. I welcome your comments for which I have given my contact details.

London swaminathan

August 2022, London

1. Animal Einsteins in Sanskrit and Tamil literature

Kalidasa sang about a snake which protected a frog using its hood as umbrella. Adi Shankara also saw such an amazing thing at Sringeri in Karnataka, and then he established the first Shankara Mutt there (Please read my article Mysterious messengers who showed Ajanta, Angkorwat, Sringeri——- for more details).

Animals are very intelligent. They have feelings like us. They help each other. They are happier than human beings. They don’t worry about tomorrow. Rain or shine, snow or storm they survive. Some do amazing feats like flying for thousands of miles without a compass or a map or a GPS system. They even worship gods!! Animals do dream like us. Animals communicate among themselves and warn of impending dangers to its colleagues. They show mercy. They don’t kill a pregnant animal. They feed any little ones even if it does not belong to its own kind. We have stories of wolf fed babies. Animals do use tools. The wonder of wonders is all these are in ancient Sanskrit and Tamil literature. Only now the western biologists are publishing all these facts in article after article in New Scientist, Nature, National Geographic and Scientific American magazines.

Can parrots recite Vedas?

Yes, say Sangam Tamil poets and Adi Shankara.

There is a very interesting story in the life of Adi Shankara. He won every argument with famous scholars, but one great scholar was left out. He was Mandana mihra living at Mahismathi on the banks of river Narmadha. When he went to the village where he lived, he saw some village women filling the water pots in the river. He asked them the way to Mandana’s house. They surprised him by two things. One they replied in Sanskrit verses. Two, they told Shankara the house where the parrots were reciting Vedas and discussing related subjects was Mandana’s. When he went in to the village, he easily identified the house because of the parrots.

Sangam Tamil poet Uruththirankannan also says that the parrots in Brahmins houses recite Vedas. They repeat it because the Brahmins do the recitation every day-Perumpanaatruppadai: lines 300/301.

When the three great Tamil kings laid a siege around King Pari’s 300 towns, Kapilar trained the parrots to bring the grains into Pari’s territory. Poets Avvaiyar and Nakkirar were all praise for Kapilar for this help (Akam303 and Akam 78).

Tamil Verse 143 of Kannakaran Korranar of Narrinai gives the information about parrots calling a girl in affectionate terms even after she left home.

New Scientist magazine has published an article about intelligent animals. Under the title of Animal Einsteins it has published a s news story about parrots. Alex the parrot owned by psychologist Irene Pepperberg until his death in 2007, was a prodigy. The parrot had a vocabulary of about 150 words. He could also count to 6. But Indian parrots mentioned in the above two references did more than this!!

Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus who were raised by wolves. It happened 2750 years ago. But even before this, Shakuntala, the heroine of the most famous drama of India -Shakuntalam was fed by birds. She was the mother of the great king Bharata whose name is given to India that is Bharat. She was abandoned at birth. Birds looked after her. They encircled her protectively so that she remained unharmed until the sage Kanva finds her and names her Shakunta(bird)la.

Kalidasa sang