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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
In poetry, 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. With regard to ...
or cycle of ballads in Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
about the divine bird Garuda
Garuda (; ; Vedic Sanskrit: , ) is a Hindu deity who is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. This divine creature is mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain faiths. Garuda is also the half-brother of the D ...
, 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 (–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the e ...
.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 (; ; Vedic Sanskrit: , ) is a Hindu deity who is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. This divine creature is mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain faiths. Garuda is also the half-brother of the D ...
and the snakes." It relates the birth of Garuda and his elder brother Aruṇa; Kadru and Vinata's wager about the color of the tail of the divine white horse Uchchaihshravas; Garuda's efforts to obtain freedom for himself and his mother; and his theft of the divine soma from Indra
Indra (; ) is the Hindu god of weather, considered the king of the Deva (Hinduism), Devas and Svarga in Hinduism. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes
Indra is the m ...
, 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'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succe ...
''.
The ''Suparṇākhyānas date of composition is uncertain; its unnamed author attempted to imitate the style of the Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...
, but scholars agree that it is a significantly later composition, possibly from the time of the early Upanishads
The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...
. On metrical grounds, it has been placed closest to the Katha Upanishad
The ''Katha Upanishad'' (, ), is an ancient Hindu text and one of the '' mukhya'' (primary) Upanishads, embedded in the last eight short sections of the ' school of the Krishna Yajurveda.Paul Deussen. ''Sixty Upanishads of the Veda''. Volume 1 ...
. 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 i ...
*Vedic mythology
The historical Vedic religion, also called Vedism or Brahmanism, and sometimes ancient Hinduism or Vedic Hinduism, constituted the religious ideas and practices prevalent amongst some of the Indo-Aryan peoples of the northwest Indian subcontin ...
*Nāga
In various Asian religious traditions, the Nāgas () 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