Wildbuzz: Parliament of owls

A real owl found in the premises of India’s Parliament is likely to trigger a witty recourse to the popular collective noun for these birds! The collective noun owes its coinage to owls enjoying a legacy of association in art and mythology as embodiments of wisdom, prophecy and mysticism. Owls are associated with Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and reason. Though in some of our native cultures, owls suffer negative associations and are dreaded as bad omens.

The origins or written record of the collective noun, “parliament of owls”, is speculatively traced to mediaeval English princess Dame Juliana Berners. She was regarded as a high-born lady and one passionately indulgent in the aristocratic field sports of hunting and fishing. In an era when libraries were locked out to women, it is speculated that Berners was the author of the well-regarded treatises in field sports such as, The Book of Hawking, Hunting and Blasing of Arms and Treatise of Fishing With An Angle.

Coming to this week’s rescue of an injured Barn owl from Parliament House by the Wildlife SOS Rapid Rescue Team, we turn back to more such rescues this year from VVIP offices/residences of New Delhi. A red-wattled lapwing chick suffering an eye infection was rescued from the lawns of finance minister Nirmala Sitharman’s bungalow, a dehydrated black kite from the Prime Minister’s office, an injured common myna from the PM’s residence and a very ill monkey that took refuge and was lying prostrate under a table in an office of Parliament House.

Over the years, alert Wildlife SOS teams have conducted rescue operations from Rashtrapati Bhavan, home minister’s residence, Vidhan Sabha and Delhi secretariat. These rescues were possible only because the security and allied staff at the VVIP establishments chose to seek professional rescue assistance instead of either ignoring or disposing off the stricken creature in cavalier fashion. The empathetic, responsible VVIP response serves as a role model for common citizens: seek assistance when similarly at a loss with distressed wild creatures.

The four harmonious brothers

Many a household is being torn asunder by fratricidal litigation and conflicts over inherited properties. Brothers, especially those idle and unwilling to work, clash over a big and easy source of money embedded in disputed properties built over decades by their forefathers.

Families are breaking up and no elder is respected as the wise head whose word is law. We also see communal disharmony spreading through society like a visible virus severing the bonds of cooperation and mutual benefit.

While touring Thiksey monastery near Leh, I came across a wall mural that captivated me with a depiction of animal cooperation. To reach the fruits on a tall tree, an elephant lent its back to a ladder made of a monkey, hare and parakeet. The four were through a cooperative mode able to enjoy the fruits in a lush forest full of foods and water. They used their diverse and different talents/strengths to procure fruits for all. Had the four not maintained harmony and cooperation, and instead clashed with each other, the jungle’s serenity and abundance would have been torn asunder.

The mural is an aesthetic depiction of the parable of the four harmonious/holy friends/brothers. It traces its origins to the Budhha narrating the parable to the Tittira Jataka as recollections from his earlier lives. The parable finds depiction in paintings and murals on Buddhist stupas/monasteries and on utensils of common use in India, Tibet, Bhutan etc.

Rich in its application of thought to the human condition and imaginative in the employment of animal figures, the parable has been diversely interpreted. A popular one is that the pecking order need not be determined by size and power but by experience and age. So, as the parable goes, the four animals had met under a huge banyan tree near ancient Benaras. It turned out that the bird had seen the tree first and in its youngest form because it had dropped the seed from which the banyan had taken root. The bird, despite being the “weakest or smallest” among the four, assumed top position in the hierarchy upon the consent of the other three due to its age and experience.

A further refinement of hierarchy — as messaged by the parable — is applied in the Buddhist monastic order since pure age may not always be the best indicator of a human’s morals and intelligence. Hence, the parable is interpreted to mean that years spent as a monk and not absolute age should determine the hierarchy whose building blocks are communal harmony and teamwork benefitting all.