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The ''Suparṇākhyāna'', also known as the ''Suparṇādhyāya'' (meaning "Chapter of the Bird"), is a short
“Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London.”
Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, vol. 2, no. 4, 1923, pp. 807–810. Considered to be among the "earliest traces of epic poetry in India," the text only survives "in very bad condition," and remains "little studied." The subject of the poem is "the legend of Kadrū, the snake-mother, and Vinatā, the bird-mother, and enmity between
The ''Suparṇākhyāna'', also known as the ''Suparṇādhyāya'' (meaning "Chapter of the Bird"), is a short epic poem
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
or cycle of ballads in Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
about the divine bird Garuda
Garuda (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ; Vedic Sanskrit: गरुळ Garuḷa) is a Hindu demigod and divine creature mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. He is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. Garuda is a ...
, believed to date from the late Vedic period
The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (ca. 1300–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, betw ...
.Barnett, L. D“Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London.”
Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, vol. 2, no. 4, 1923, pp. 807–810. Considered to be among the "earliest traces of epic poetry in India," the text only survives "in very bad condition," and remains "little studied." The subject of the poem is "the legend of Kadrū, the snake-mother, and Vinatā, the bird-mother, and enmity between
Garuda
Garuda (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ; Vedic Sanskrit: गरुळ Garuḷa) is a Hindu demigod and divine creature mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. He is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. Garuda is a ...
and the snakes." It relates the birth of Garuda and his elder brother Aruṇa
Aruna ( sa, अरुण ) is the charioteer of Surya (Sun god) in Hinduism. He is the elder brother of Garuda. Aruna and Garuda are the sons of Vedic sage Kashyapa and his wife Vinata, daughter of Prajapati Daksha. His children were Sampati an ...
; Kadru and Vinata's wager about the color of the tail of the divine white horse Uchchaihshravas
In Hinduism, Uchchaihshravas ( sa, उच्चैःश्रवस्, Uccaiḥśravas or sa, उच्चैःश्रवा, Uccaiḥśravā, label=none, "long-ears" or "neighing aloud") is a seven-headed flying horse, created during the ...
; Garuda's efforts to obtain freedom for himself and his mother; and his theft of the divine soma
Soma may refer to:
Businesses and brands
* SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects
* Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems
* SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...
from Indra
Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...
, whose thunderbolt is unable to stop Garuda, but merely causes him to drop a feather. It was the basis for the later, expanded version of the story, which appears in the ''Āstīka Parva'', within the '' Ādi Parva'' of the ''Mahābhārata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
''.
The ''Suparṇākhyānas date of composition is uncertain; its unnamed author attempted to imitate the style of the Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
, but scholars agree that it is a significantly later composition, possibly from the time of the early Upanishads
The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...
. On metrical grounds, it has been placed closest to the Katha Upanishad
The ''Katha Upanishad'' (Sanskrit: कठोपनिषद् or कठ उपनिषद्) (') is one of the ''mukhya'' (primary) Upanishads, embedded in the last eight short sections of the ' school of the Krishna Yajurveda.Paul Deussen. ...
. A date of c. 500 BCE has been proposed, but is unproven, and is not agreed upon by all scholars.
See also
*Indian epic poetry
Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called ''Kavya'' (or ''Kāvya''; Sanskrit: काव्य, IAST: ''kāvyá''). The ''Ramayana'' and the ''Mahabharata'', which were originally composed in ...
*Vedic mythology
The historical Vedic religion (also known as Vedicism, Vedism or ancient Hinduism and subsequently Brahmanism (also spelled as Brahminism)), constituted the religious ideas and practices among some Indo-Aryan peoples of northwest Indian Subco ...
*Nāga
The Nagas (IAST: ''nāga''; Devanāgarī: नाग) are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. ...
References
{{Reflist Epic poems in Sanskrit Vedic period Hindu mythology Ancient Indian poems