Hindu Stories About Monkeys, Donkeys And Elephants

By London Swaminathan

Animal stories are very interesting and inspiring; they have been used by the Hindus for thousands of years to teach some morals. Mahabharata, Ramayana and later Hitopadesa and Pancha tantra have lot of fables.

Vishnu Sarman of Panchatantra used those stories to teach political science to the dullest boys of a king and succeeded. Thus the stories spread to different parts of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pustaka Digital Media
• Release date: Oct 15, 2022
• ISBN: 6580553509148

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Hindu Stories About Monkeys, Donkeys And Elephants

Author :

London Swaminathan

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Table of Contents

Foreword

1. Blind Men and the Elephant: Known Story, Unknown Facts!

2. Forty Five Words for Elephant!

3. Two Animal Anecdotes: Gratitude and Ingratitude

4. Circus Elephant: Gratitude Anecdotes

5. Kari’ for Elephant is Not a Tamil Word? - 1

6. KARI for Elephant is Not a Tamil Word? Part - 2

7. KARI for Elephant is Not a Tamil Word?-Part 3

8. KARI for Elephant is Not a Tamil Word - 4

9. KARI for Elephant is Not a Tamil Word- 5  (in Sangam Literature)

10. KARI for Elephant is Not a Tamil Word? - 6

11. KARI for Elephant is Not a Tamil Word? – Part - 7

12. KARI for Elephant is Not a Tamil Word? -Part - 8 (

13. Gajendra Moksha in Africa !!

14. Two Little Animals that Inspired Indians

15. Revenge of the Monkeys: 2 monkeys ‘kill over 200 puppies!

16. MONKEY WEDDING 100 YEARS AGO!

17. Never Vote for Bad People!

18. Tiger and Bear Story told by Sita in Ramayana

19. Great Men Think Alike: about Dolls

20. Salt Doll Stories explain Brahman

21. Monkey Temple of Benares and Durga Puja: A Foreigner’s Account

22. WHY DID VALMIKI NAME ‘MONKEY CANTO’ AS ‘BEAUTY CANTO’?

23. Donkeys in Tamil and Sanskrit Literature

24. Singer and Washerwoman

25. Mother in Law becomes a Donkey! Tamil Folk Tale

26. Interesting Information about Indian Washerman  (Dhoby )

27. Ganga Jal (Ganges water) for a Donkey! Eknath Story

28. Rama – Embodiment of Dharma (Frog Story)

Foreword

Animal stories are very interesting and inspiring; they have been used by the Hindus for thousands of years to teach some morals. Mahabharata, Ramayana and later Hitopadesa and Pancha tantra have lot of fables.

Vishnu Sarman of Panchatantra used those stories to teach political science to the dullest boys of a king and succeeded. Thus the stories spread to different parts of the world.

Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine collected the fables from various sources including Hindus and published them in their own languages (Greek and French). Buddhists also collected them from different parts of India and ‘Buddhacised’ all stories saying that Bodhisatva was once born as this and that. The sculptures depicting the fables spread to Indonesia and Cambodia. Sculptures portraying Panchatantra stories also found in temples .

Children read it from a different angle and adults read them from a different angle. Novels like Gorge Orwell’s Animal Farm served a different purpose. They were satirical or allegorical. I have collected some Tamil stories and translated them into English. Poets like Tiru Valluvar used such animal fables in their poems as similes and alleagories. Those who have read the fables of India would understand better those poems.

The articles in the book were published in my blogs over the past 11 years. I have included the order number and the original date of publication in the articles. There may be some repetitions. Apart from these stories, I have also used many other anecdotes or stories in my previous books. Hope you would enjoy reading them. Your comments are most welcome.

London Swaminathan

October 2022

1. Blind Men and the Elephant: Known Story, Unknown Facts!

It is a popular story known to most of the Asians because Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sufi poets sang about it. But not many people knew that is a story from Tirumantiram sung by the Tamil Siddha Tirumular. Even an English poem is written by an English poet about this anecdote.

A king sends six blind men to examine an elephant. Each one touches and feels only one part of the elephant’s body and jumps to a conclusion which is partly right and not the whole truth. One who felt

The leg thought it was a pillar

The belly thought it was a wall

The ear thought it was a fan/ winnowing pan

The tusk thought it was a snake or tree branch

The tail thought it was a rope

The tusk thought it was a solid pipe

The story changes slightly in each version. Tirumular was a North Indian who came to Tamil Nadu, probably from Kashmir, learnt Tamil and composed 3000 verses. It is included in the Saivite canon as Tenth Tirumurai. His poems are full of symbolism. Tirumantiram has lot of secrets about Yoga and Mantra Sastra. In one of his verses he also sang about six blind men feeling an elephant. He compared it to six sects outside the pale of Saivism.

According to him the blind man who felt the back thought it was a hill, tail a broom stick, tusk a tree stem, ear a winnowing pan trunk a pestle and leg a mortar. They quarrelled among themselves about what they thought it was. Six sects are fighting like this.

English poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) composed the following poem about this story:

It was six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined,

who went to see the elephant (Though all of them were blind),

that each by observation, might satisfy his mind.

The first approached the elephant, and, happening to fall,

against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:

‘God bless me! but the elephant, is nothing but a wall!’

The second feeling of the tusk, cried: ‘Ho! what have we here,

so very round and smooth and sharp? To me tis mighty clear,

this wonder of an elephant, is very like a spear!’

The third approached the animal, and, happening to take,

the squirming trunk within his hands, ‘I see,’ quoth he,

the elephant is very like a snake!’

The fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee:

‘What most this wondrous beast is like, is mighty plain,’ quoth he;

‘Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree.’

The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said; ‘E’en the blindest man

can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can,

This marvel of an elephant, is very like a fan!’

The sixth no sooner had begun, about the beast to grope,

than, seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope,

‘I see,’ quothe he, ‘the elephant is very like a rope!’

And so these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long,

each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!

So, oft in theologic