Jungle book and anthropomorphic animal characters from our past

Jungle book and anthropomorphic animal characters from our past
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Highlights

This year 2016 Disney experimented once again their cartoon wonder The Jungle Book which was released in the month of April

This year 2016 Disney experimented once again their cartoon wonder The Jungle Book which was released in the month of April worldwide. The response was immense as it captured the audiences worldwide. Today’s world is a different world many terms associated with it like globalised world, electronic world ,4g and the like. In short a busy world with a busy schedule sitting, eating, sleeping and above all fighting with the fast pace of advanced technologies. In this era of highly advanced generation people got attracted and attached to the same characters which were shown nearly about 50 years ago in 1967 Jungle book movie.

The characters are the same except that the Mowgli character is played by real human character Neel Sethi. The success of this movie shows positive signs that today’s human mind is still attracted, attached to nature and animals .The bond between nature and humans, affection with animals is attracting them even in this digitalized age .So this might be a point to think that the freshness in today’s generation to be inclined towards nature still exists and just need to be awakened with such movies.

The magic to be observed is that the famous characters of this Disney wonder Jungle Book namely Sher Khan, Kaa ,Baloo,Baghera who are the centre of attraction are all Indian animals. Sher khan the main villain and the enemy of Mowgli is Indian man-eating Royal Bengal Tiger .Bagheera is Indian black panther. Baloo mowgli’s best friend is an Indian vegetarian Bear and Baloo is a Hindi word for bear. Akela and Raksha Mowgli’s adoptive canine parents are Indian wolves. The conspiring Kaa is an Indian rock python. The plot where the whole episode runs is an Indian Jungle which is said to be in seoni in Madhya Pradesh. Now comes the question of the hero of the jungle book –Mowgli .Mowgli was an orphan boy created along with other character by Rudyard Kipling. This movies makes us wonder of what might have made Rudyard Kipling think such an exceptional story of a human kid raised and protected by animals of deep forest.

Knowing a bit about Rudyard Kipling throws light on the fact that he was born in Bombay Presidency of British India in 1865.He stayed in India till the age of 6 and then was sent to England .After about ten years in England, he came back to India and worked here for about nearly a decade. So the time he spent in India might have influenced his thoughts. It may not be wrong conception that Rudyard Kipling’s fables of talking animals might have roots in our country. This is so because India is the only country in the whole world which has made animal characters talk, act and more above think like humans since the inception of human civilization.

These are not just statements but some strong history backs it. It is not so that the anthropomorphic character of cartoons in which many animals communicate with humans has started just a few decades ago. India the land of fables is an extraordinary example for the concept that the roots of the concept of animals communicating with humans are as old as the human civilization itself.

Panchtantra stories – sage Vishnu sarma narrating to princes

Panchatantra an ancient Indian collection of animal fables is the most widely known stories in the world .These are believed to be composed around 3rd century BCE in Sanskrit and is attributed to Vishnu Sharma the sage who is said to have narrated these stories to the princes. This is the most frequently translated literary product of India in which the stories highlight the simple pattern of early home life with characters such as animals like elephant,quail,crow,jackal,mongoose,and the like, a poor farmer a rich prince ,plot which contains trees and a very green environment ,forest etc. Panchtantra travelled to all Southeast Asian countries, including Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian and the Panchatantra also migrated westwards, during the Sassanian reign of Khosru . Around 570 CE his notable physician Borzuy translated the work from Sanskrit into the Middle Persian language.

Not only fables but Vedas and Epics stand for this anthropomorphic character of animals and birds. Our Upanishads show the spirit of small birds as a legend.It is called Taittiriya upanishad named after the Taittiriya birds or patridges.The purpose of the legend which goes as saint Vaisampayana when got angry with one of disciple Yajnavalkya asked him to vomit entire knowledge acquired from him. This knowledge was consumed by his other disciples who took the form as patridges.The purport of the story was to instil to the students the spirit of small birds so that they are as careful ,as vigilant and as active as those small birds.

Gajendra moksha-Lord Vishnu saving elephant from clutches of crocodile.

India is the land which gave importance to all beings which coexisted and shared the land with them. Indian legends speak of communication between animals and God also. Todays favourite pet of nearly all homes –dog is no exception and holds its place in Indian legends. In Hindu mythology, Sarama is a mythological being referred to as the dog of the gods. She first appears in one of Hinduism's earliest texts, the Rig Veda, in which she helps the god-king Indra to recover divine cows stolen by the Panis, a class of demons. Elephant has also its place in Indian mythology.The famous hym in praise of lord Vishnu the Gajendra stuti is the prayer made by Gajendra the elephant when it was saved from the clutches of crocodile by lord Vishnu himself.

Damayanthi talking with Royal swan about Nala

In Mahabharata shakuntala the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of Emperor Bharata was found as a baby surrounded by birds in a deep forest. Rishi Kanva found her protected by birds(shakunta in sanskrit) and hence named her Shakuntala. The epic has many other stories with animals and birds communicating with humans. The famous Raja Ravi Verma painting of Damyanthi the beautiful daughter of king Bhima talking with royal swan about Nala depicts once such story.. Nala was the son of King Nisadh of Ayodhya who wanted to marry Damayanthi but as damyanthi did not know about him he sent his swan to her. The swan flew to Damayanti's palace and finding her alone in the garden, sang praises of Nala.

Jatayu-vulture in Ramayana

In Ramayana Jatayu –vulture is shown as a great hero who fought for the purpose of Dharma till his last breath. According to this epic once while Lord Rama and Lakshmana were away, Sita was alone at their hut. This is when Ravana tricked her and then kidnapped her. When Ravana was flying away with Sita, Jatayu attacked him and tried to stop him. However Ravana was too strong for Jatayu and cut off Jatayu’s both wings. Helpless and wounded on the verge of death jatayu informed Lord Rama abour Ravana kidnapping Sita.

Buddhism is no exception and the jataka tales show this feature in which animal characters play central role. Therefore, these stories are interesting, entertaining and knowledgeable not only for children but also for people of all ages.

The animals on which these stories are based represent the dutiful, true friend, innocent, clever characters found in human society.

Through these animal characters which are created by Indians or by other stories created by other countries in later periods in the world the aim was to bring happiness not only to human kind but also to all living beings in the world. Irrespective of the origin of who created the concept of anthropomorphic character of animals importance is to be given to the fact that the whole world is trying to spread knowledge to share this beautiful earth with all beings.

By K Lavanya

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