The dogs, crows, and snakes are among the many animals and birds worshipped in Nepal and South Asia. Religious rituals associated with such objects have generally been confined between mythical world and superstition. The word myth has been one of the most fallaciously defined terms in pro-scientific vocabulary, and indigenous rituals and beliefs have been too hastily linked with superstition. But, in recent times, the writers and activists sensitive to nature issues have recycled the cultures of myth, its rituals and beliefs in the contexts of ecological consciousnesses and environmental awareness. In cultural studies, ecocritics in general have discoursed the relationship between agrarian indigenous cultures and global environmental concerns. Thus, worshipping the mythical reptiles and urban crows connote human respect to the natural world.
But the feelings and attitudes toward natural objects is contested too in South Asia. If the cow is the sacred animal for the Hindus, for the same group of Hindus, a goat becomes sacred only when it is killed on the altar. These are the extremities of religion and my concern is not to take side against animal sacrifice but to read how such ancient religions are the underlying sheets of environmental awareness. My general response comes after seeing Bijay Rai’s photograph “Protective Deities” (Republica, Aug 15) and Don Peter’s response to the picture the following day.
The list of animals sacred to the gods and goddesses are varied. If the lion (of Durga) and the tiger (of Jaggadhatri) are dear to the mother, the mouse (Ganesh) is dear to the son. The cat is the carrier of goddess Shasthi who is worshipped on child birth in the eastern South Asian cultures. The implication of associating the cat with the deity is due to the famed long life of the animal. The owl is sacred nocturnal bird associated with wealth and prosperity. Then there is the peacock dear to Ganesha’s brother Kartik and the bull to the father Shiva. The goddess of learning Saraswati takes on the swan and Vishnu rides on the Garuda, a mythical bird of the eagle class. The same god rests on the body of massive reptile called Naga. The king of the gods, Indra, rides on the elephant and Yama, the god of death, appears on the buffalo. There are many such animals and birds which are dear to the deities. They are considered sacred because they are the vehicles of the gods or to reveal their importance they have been made sacred by associating them with the gods. And reasonably yet, the gods are sacred probably because they pay respect to the natural world.
The plant world is equally worth comprehensible from environmental perspectives. Tulsi (Holy Basil), Ashok (Saraca Indica), Peepal (the Sacred Fig), Bel (Vilva Marum), and Coconut are deities or are sacred plants, trees, and fruits. Beetle nut leaves, peepal leaves, and dub (durva) have pious symbolisms in the complex Hindu worshipping cultures. Then there are river goddesses and pond deities, and a deity as a particular village tree in almost every agrarian imagination. My mother says that almost no animal and plant are left out in the vast ecologically aware religions of South Asia.
Nature is respected not in forms of animals and trees but also in the forms of the abodes of ghosts and spirits. Waving away such practices as superstition merely is devaluing wider symbolisms of a culture. Such symbolisms evolve out of the mythical world, and South Asian cultures conceive that the myths have multiple connotations: They are magical, ritualistic, cognitive, historical, narrative, and ecological. Reading superstition only in such wider cultures of symbolism is ideological parochialism. Modern European cultures have confined such symbolisms to the arts, literatures, and museums and at times try to analyze such losses.
One of the most vibrant reconciliations of nature and culture is Salabhanjiaka image. The image in Nepali and Indian stone sculptures represents the nature and woman in ecological and erotic terms. A maiden in triple bend or tribhunga posture stands below a sala tree grasping a branch and touching the stem with a heel. She arouses nature to be fertile, to be energetic. She is ornamented profusely. Wooden temple struts or tunals of the Malla period depict the dancer standing under a tree. From India, one of the most famous images is from Hoysala temple in Belur. The women are tree goddesses who are Yakshinis (Yakshi is feminine for male Yaksha who are mythical demi-goddesses and gods). The posture has Buddhist associations also because Mayadevi is depicted giving birth to Gautama Buddha in Salabhanjika position.
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