Dharma-Pakshīs
Dharma-Pakshī · dharma-pakshī, “the birds of dharma”
The four dharma-pakshīs (dharma-birds) are the sons of the brāhmaṇa Mandapāla. They were born as birds on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. They lived through the Bhārata war because the bird Tārkshī protected their eggs. Śamīka Maharshi raised them, and Indra gave them the blessing of nairindra-jñāna (the highest divine knowledge). In the end they settled on Vindhya mountain, near the Revā river.
They know all four Vedas, the vedāṅgas (the limbs of the Vedas), dharmaśāstra (the teaching on dharma), the Purāṇas and the itihāsa (the histories). Mārkaṇḍeya sends Jaimini to these four birds so that his four great questions on the Mahābhārata can be answered.
Identity and origin
In an earlier life Mandapāla was a muni. He had no children, so he was not allowed to go to the upper worlds. He was reborn as a bird, and in that birth he fathered four sons.
The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa calls these sons “Droṇa muni kumārāḥ”, the sons of the bird Droṇa. Droṇa is Mandapāla himself in bird form. The eldest of the four is Jaritāri. The four were born on the field of Kurukshetra, where the great Bhārata war was being fought.
Protection at Kurukshetra
The four eggs lay on the ground of the battlefield, in the middle of the clash of two armies. The apsarā Vāpu had been reborn as the bird Tārkshī, the daughter of the bird-king Kandara. She watched the terrible battle.
King Bhagadatta’s elephant bell (gaja-ghaṇṭā) was struck loose by an arrow of Arjuna. It fell to the ground and landed right on the four eggs. Tārkshī was full of compassion. She lifted the bell a little, just enough to make a shell over the eggs so that they would not be crushed. She stayed in that place until the fighting was over. In this way the four eggs came through the war whole.
Discovery by Śamīka
When the fighting ended, Śamīka Maharshi came to that place with his disciples. He lifted the fallen bell. Under it he found four hatchlings with no mother and no father. They had no wings yet and could not move.
He was amazed, for he knew these were no ordinary creatures. He told the young brāhmaṇa students with him: “These bird-children are certainly not common beings. That they lived on a field of death, under a falling bell, by divine arrangement, is the mark of an extraordinary destiny.” He gathered the four young birds and took them to his āśrama (hermitage).
Upbringing at Śamīka’s āśrama
Śamīka Maharshi raised the four birds with the young brāhmaṇa boys of his āśrama. He fed them milk and other good food every day. He guarded and cared for them as he did for his students.
In one month the birds were strong enough to fly as high as the chariot of the sun, a sign of their great hidden power. The students watched in wonder as the birds rose to the top of the sky. They flew over cities, rivers, oceans and the whole earth.
The test of Indra
At some time during their upbringing, Indra came to the four birds in disguise. He asked them to offer their own flesh and blood as his food. The birds refused firmly, and they gave reasons from dharma. A son does not have to offer his body. He owes his father the three ṛṇas (debts): to the pitṛs, to the devas and to men. He does not owe his life. They said: “Even the most learned man does not destroy his own body and life for the sake of another’s body. We cannot do this.”
Indra pressed them further. Then the eldest, Jaritāri, stepped forward and offered himself calmly. He spoke about the highest value of satya-vāk-paripālana, keeping one’s word of truth. He said that a brāhmaṇa earns the name of brāhmaṇa only by keeping truth, and that the puṇya (merit) of satya is greater even than the puṇya of yajñas performed with the full dakshiṇā (the priest’s fee).
Indra was moved by this truthfulness and courage. He showed who he was and praised the birds without holding back. He said: “From this day forth, nairindra-jñāna (the highest divine knowledge, the knowledge of Indra himself) shall arise in you, and no obstacle shall ever come to your tapas or your dharma.”
The father’s blessing
Their father Mandapāla, in bird form, learned what had happened. He told his sons that it had come about through daiva-bala (divine force) working through him. He said: “What I have said can never be false. Though you have been born in bird-bodies by my śāpa (a curse), you shall have jñāna all the same.” The sons bowed at his feet, and Mandapāla was pleased.
Teaching at Śamīka’s āśrama
After the meeting with Indra, Śamīka Maharshi himself taught the four birds all the practices of sadācāra (right conduct). When they had received this teaching, and their minds were fully steady, they left Śamīka’s āśrama. They went to live on a mountain peak near the pure, clear water of the sacred region of the Revā river (Narmadā), on Vindhya Parvata.
On Vindhya Parvata
The four dharma-birds settled in a cave on Vindhya Parvata, near the Revā river. Jaimini finds them here when he comes with his four great questions from the Mahābhārata.
When Jaimini reaches the cave, the birds are shining with the jñāna they have gathered. They are reciting the Vedas, and their voices fill the cave with bright sound. They welcome Jaimini warmly. They see that he belongs to the line of Bhṛgu, and they say it is a special grace to receive him.
The birds tell him what they can do: “In all four Vedas, their vedāṅgas, dharmaśāstra, purāṇa, and itihāsa, we shall tell you everything our knowledge reaches. We cannot promise what we have not understood, but what we understand, we shall speak without holding back.”
The answers to Jaimini’s questions
The four birds answer all four of Jaimini’s great questions in full. They explain what each one means for the whole creation.
- Why did Bhagavān Vāsudeva take birth as a man? They answer with the full teaching of the Caturvyūha of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa.
- Why did Draupadī have five husbands? They answer with the story of Indra’s brahmahatyā (the killing of a brāhmaṇa) and the birth of the five Pāṇḍavas.
- Why did Balarāma commit brahmahatyā? They answer with the episode of Sūta Maharshi.
- Why did the sons of the Pāṇḍavas die without children? They answer with the story of the Viśvedeva śāpa.
In each answer they draw on the deepest parts of the śāstras, the Purāṇas and the itihāsa. This shows that Indra’s blessing of nairindra-jñāna has come true in them.
Sources
- Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapters 2–3