Unlike spring which is dominated by the koel's lilting notes, the advent of the monsoons in the Indian Subcontinent is accompanied by a wide variety of bird and animal calls – it is, after all, mating season for many species. Just like springtide, it is regarded as a highly romantic time of the year – people are often forced indoors by the torrential downpour, and the dark and cool ambience is also conducive to enjoyable indoor activities. And, just like spring again, the rainy season is also portrayed in literature as an insufferable ordeal for separated lovers – men whose work forces them to travel or stay away from home at this time, and their lonely wives pining away at home. Arguably, the most famous Sanskrit quote in this vein is the second half of the third verse from Kalidasa's Meghaduta: "मेघालोके भवति सुखिनोऽप्यन्यथावृत्ति चेतः| कण्ठाश्लेषप्रणयिनि जने किं पुनर्दूरसंस्थे||" ("At the view of a Cloud the condition of a happy one becomes changed to a strong emotion; how much more that of a banished man longing to embrace the neck?" – Colonel H. A. Ouvry).
The following verses use onomatopoeia quite ingeniously to breathe new life into tired clichés about the monsoon blues.
(1) The bird most intimately associated with the monsoons is undoubtedly the male Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), which is said to break into its trademark courtship dance at the very sight of rain-bearing clouds. The Sanskrit word for the cry of a peacock is kekA (केका), which gives this bird such names as kekin (केकिन्), kekika (केकिक), and kekAvala (केकावल). Interestingly, two obscure words for "peacock" – mArjAraka (मार्जारक), which loosely translates to "cat-thing", and mArjArakaNTha (मार्जारकण्ठ), "cat-throated", – derive from the supposed similarity between a cat's caterwaul or yowl and a peacock's piercing call. Moreover, SaDja (षड्ज), the first of the seven primary notes recognized in Indic classical music, is said to be identical to the natural note of a peacock's vocalizations (I am illiterate in music theory, so please excuse any nonsense I might have spewed unwittingly). But what does the kekA sound like to a lovesick poet?
Prakrit text in the Devanagari script:
The following verses use onomatopoeia quite ingeniously to breathe new life into tired clichés about the monsoon blues.
(1) The bird most intimately associated with the monsoons is undoubtedly the male Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), which is said to break into its trademark courtship dance at the very sight of rain-bearing clouds. The Sanskrit word for the cry of a peacock is kekA (केका), which gives this bird such names as kekin (केकिन्), kekika (केकिक), and kekAvala (केकावल). Interestingly, two obscure words for "peacock" – mArjAraka (मार्जारक), which loosely translates to "cat-thing", and mArjArakaNTha (मार्जारकण्ठ), "cat-throated", – derive from the supposed similarity between a cat's caterwaul or yowl and a peacock's piercing call. Moreover, SaDja (षड्ज), the first of the seven primary notes recognized in Indic classical music, is said to be identical to the natural note of a peacock's vocalizations (I am illiterate in music theory, so please excuse any nonsense I might have spewed unwittingly). But what does the kekA sound like to a lovesick poet?
Prakrit text in the Devanagari script:
उच्चं उच्चावियकन्धरेण भणियं व पाउसे सिहिणा|
के के इमे पउत्था मोत्तूण घरेसु घरिणीओ||
के के इमे पउत्था मोत्तूण घरेसु घरिणीओ||
uccaM uccAviyakandhareNa bhaNiyaM va pAuse sihiNA|
ke ke ime pa-utthA mottUNa gharesu ghariNIo||
ke ke ime pa-utthA mottUNa gharesu ghariNIo||
– Anonymous
Loose translation: In the monsoon season, the peacock cranes its neck, and yells, as it were, "Who? Who are these (men) that are away from home, leaving their wives behind?"
Source: Vajjalaggam Verse 650: Verse 5 of pausavajjA (पाउसवज्जा) / prAvRtvajjA (प्रावृट्व्रज्या), "the chapter on the monsoon season".
Sanskrit translations:
अत्यूर्ध्वीकृतकन्धरेण भणितमिव प्रावृट्काले शिखिना| के क इमे प्रोषिता मुक्त्वा गृहेषु गृहिणीः|| – Commentator Ratnadeva (रत्नदेव). Vishwanath Pathak replaces the first part with उच्चैरुच्चीकृतकन्धरेण.
Notes: के is "who" (masculine plural), and is sometimes reduplicated for emphasis. The poet hears the peacock's mating call as a harsh reminder of his separation from his ladylove, or as an accusation of being a bad husband.
Source: Vajjalaggam Verse 650: Verse 5 of pausavajjA (पाउसवज्जा) / prAvRtvajjA (प्रावृट्व्रज्या), "the chapter on the monsoon season".
Sanskrit translations:
अत्यूर्ध्वीकृतकन्धरेण भणितमिव प्रावृट्काले शिखिना| के क इमे प्रोषिता मुक्त्वा गृहेषु गृहिणीः|| – Commentator Ratnadeva (रत्नदेव). Vishwanath Pathak replaces the first part with उच्चैरुच्चीकृतकन्धरेण.
Notes: के is "who" (masculine plural), and is sometimes reduplicated for emphasis. The poet hears the peacock's mating call as a harsh reminder of his separation from his ladylove, or as an accusation of being a bad husband.
(2) Another bird that gets extremely vocal during the rainy season is the white-breasted waterfowl (Amaurornis phoenicurus), called dAtyUha (दात्यूह) in Sanskrit and DAhuka (डाहुक) in many Northern and Eastern languages.
[P.S. Monier-Williams translates दात्यूह as "gallinule" (see this, this, and this); Sanskrit lexicographers have applied this name to several bird species, but Shabdakalpadruma claims that the Bengali equivalent of दात्यूह is ডাউক (डाउक), hence I have concluded that the primary meaning of दात्यूह (or, at least, the intended meaning in the following verse which was popular, and perhaps composed, in Bengal) is "white-breasted waterfowl".]
Devanagari text:
[P.S. Monier-Williams translates दात्यूह as "gallinule" (see this, this, and this); Sanskrit lexicographers have applied this name to several bird species, but Shabdakalpadruma claims that the Bengali equivalent of दात्यूह is ডাউক (डाउक), hence I have concluded that the primary meaning of दात्यूह (or, at least, the intended meaning in the following verse which was popular, and perhaps composed, in Bengal) is "white-breasted waterfowl".]
Devanagari text:
प्रावृट्काले गृहं त्यक्त्वा सुखी को वा भवेत् क्व वा|
इतीरयति दात्यूहः को वा को वा क्व वा क्व वा||
इतीरयति दात्यूहः को वा को वा क्व वा क्व वा||
prAvRTkAle gRhaM tyaktvA sukhI ko vA bhavet kva vA|
itIrayati dAtyuhaH ko vA ko vA kva vA kva vA||
– Anonymous
Loose translation: "In the monsoon season, who would be happy leaving their home? And where (would you find such a person)?" – this is what the white-breasted waterfowl proclaims as it cries ko vA ko vA kva vA kva vA ("Who? Who? Where? Where?").
Source: Udbhata Sagara Part II Verse 89.
Notes: The bird's question is, of course, rhetorical. You can find out for yourself what the dAtyUha's calls sound like, here. The 19th century Shabdakalpadruma, in its entry for dAtyUha, quotes the following variant of the above verse: प्रावृट्काले सुखी भूत्वा को वा कुत्र न गच्छति| इति वदति ...||
Source: Udbhata Sagara Part II Verse 89.
Notes: The bird's question is, of course, rhetorical. You can find out for yourself what the dAtyUha's calls sound like, here. The 19th century Shabdakalpadruma, in its entry for dAtyUha, quotes the following variant of the above verse: प्रावृट्काले सुखी भूत्वा को वा कुत्र न गच्छति| इति वदति ...||
